Sumanapal Bhikkhu
Abstract:
Ambedkar’s first
recorded contact with Buddhism occurred in 1908, when he was sixteen. At that
time he had just passed the matriculation examination of Bombay University
in that year. On a function a copy of the life of Buddha was presented to him.
Being an auld reader Ambedkar took no time in perusing the book. Rom 1908 to
1917 Ambedkar was fully engrossed in his studies and during that period he went
to America and England. At
that time he was not giving any special thought to Buddhism. In 1927 a very
significant incident occurred which can be described as a milestone in
Ambedkar’s progress towards Buddhism. It was the year of the chowder tank
campaign. Chowder tank was a water body and caste Hindus used to draw water
from it for household purposes. But untouchables were not allowed anywhere near
the tank. When the tank was thrown open to the untouchables, the Caste Hindus
prevented the untouchables from using their moral and legal rights by
hostility. The debate was referred to the court and the right of the
untouchables to draw water from the tank was finally established in 1937 by the
Bombay High Court. On the night of 25 December of that year. Ambedkar has
followers publicly and ceremoniously learned the notorious Manusmriti one of
the must celebrated of all such scriptures that preached the gospel of
inequality. In October 1935, Ambedkar delivered a powerful speech in which he
declared, ‘Though I have been learning a Hindu, I will not die a Hindu’. Then
after many years of vacillation on 24 May 1956 Ambedkar and his wife took three
Refugees and Fine Precepts from the Burmese monk U. Chandramani.
Ambedkar’s first
recorded contact with Buddhism occurred in 1908, when he was sixteen. At that
time he had just passed the matriculation examination of Bombay University.
It was an extraordinary achievement for an untouchable boy and the Maharashtra
celebrated the occasion with a public meeting in his honor. The well known
social reformer S.K. Bole acted as the Chowdhar tank campaign. The local high
school teacher Krishraji Arjun Keluskar had recently published the life of
Buddha in Marathi and a copy of the book was presented to the young Ambedkar. Ambedkar
was an avid reader and took no time in perusing the book undoubtedly the story
of the Buddha’s great renunciation, his search for truth, his ultimate
attainment of enlightenment, and his compassionate activity on behalf of his
fellow men all left a deep impression on his young mind. Keluskar, for his
part, took a great interest in the young Ambedkar and it was through his good
offices that three year later the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda granted Ambedkar the scholarship that
enabled him to continue his education.
From 1908 to
1917 Ambedkar was fully engrossed in his studies and during that period he went
to American and England. At that time he was not giving any special thought to
the Buddha’s teaching. Then in 1927 a very significant incident occurred which
can be described as a milestone in his progress towards Buddhism. It was the
year of the Chowdhar tank Campaign, which in the beginning was a complete success.
A resolution was moved in the Bombay Legislative Council by S.K. Bole to the
effect that the untouchable classes be allowed to use the water of all places
including wells, and dharmasalas which were built and maintained by Government
or created by statute, as well as public schools, court, offices and
dispensaries. After being adopted by the council, the resolution was accepted,
with some reluctance by the Bombay Government. Heads of Departments were
directed to give effect to resolutions so far as it related to public places
and institutions belonging to and maintained by the Government and the
collectors were requested to advise the local public bodies in their
jurisdiction to consider the desirability of accepting the recommendation made
in the resolution so far as it related to them.
One of the
public bodies thus advised was the Mahad Municipality and the Chowdhar tank was
one of the amenities administered by the Mahad Municipality. Caste Hindus used
to draw water from the tank for household purposes but untouchables were not
allowed anywhere near the tank. When the tank was thrown open to the
untouchables by the Mahad
Municipality in
compliance with the Bole resolution, the Caste Hindus prevented the
untouchables from using their moral and legal right of using the water of the
pond by hostility. The statement continued for three years. Then in March the
Depressed classes of the Kolaba district in which Mahad was situated held a
conference to deal with the situation. 10000 untouchable representatives from
all over the Bombay Presidency attended the conference which took place on the
outskirts of Mahad where Ambedkar delivered a string speech. On the second day
of the conference a procession was brought out through the streets of Mahad to
the Chowdhar tank. There Ambedkar, who led the procession, took the water of
the tank, drank it and others did the same.
But their
victory was short lived. A rumor was circulated that untouchables were planning
to enter the Vireshvar temple. At this the caste Hindus were infuriated and a
mob attacked the delegates with bamboo sticks. A riot ensued, in which twenty
untouchables were seriously injured and many others were assaulted. The police
arrested nine of the troublemakers and later five of them were sentenced to
rigorous imprisonment for four months.
But the caste
Hindus seemed to have learnt no lessons from the incident. They believed that
the action of Ambedkar and other untouchables has polluted the tank and
rendered its water unsuitable for use. A purification of the water of the tank
was arranged and that was deeply offensive to the untouchables. Ambedkar
decided tot continue the struggle and establish their right to draw water from
the tank. In the meantime a group of caste Hindus filed a suit claiming that
the Chowdhar tank was a private property and got an injunction issued which
restrained Ambedkar and his principal tenants from approaching the tank and drawing
water from it. Ambedkar and his colleagues decided to postpone the struggle
until the court had settled the question of whether or not the Chowdhar tank
was a private property.
The right of the
untouchables to draw water from the tank was finally established in 1937 by the
Bombay High Court but by that time the Mahad Campaign had been ever shadowed by
other events. On the night of 25 December of that year, Ambedkar and his
followers publicly and ceremonially burned the notorious Manusmriti one of the
most celebrated of all such scriptures that preached the gospel of social
inequality.
While the
burning of the Manusmiriti indicated how far Ambedkar had traveled had traveled
from Hinduism. Other incidents occurring in connection with the Chowdhar tank
Campaign showed how near he was beginning to draw towards Buddhism. Addressing
the opening session of the first Mahad Conference, Ambedkar told his poorly
clad and illiterate audience, “No lasting progress can be achieved unless we
put ourselves through & threefold process of purification. We must improve the
general tone of our behaving, retune or utterance, and revitalize our thoughts”.
The threefold purification which Ambedkar spoke was, of course, the
purification of the three principles of body, speech and mind which between
them make up the individual human being what is especially noteworthy about
Ambedkar’s insistence on the need for a threefold purification, corresponding
to a threefold division of the individual human being, are found throughout Buddhist
literature, they appear to be unknown to the Vedic and post Vedic literature of
Hinduism. This suggests that even before the time of the Chowder Tank campaign
Ambedkar had not only familaries himself with the Buddhist scriptures but had
started thinking in specifically Buddhist terms. It also suggests that he saw
progress not as simply material but as having a moral and spiritual basis. As
the Buddhist scriptures make clear, the threefold purification is effected by
abstention from the ten modes of ‘unskillful’ (i.e. ethically disastrous)
action. Body is purified by abstention from killing, stealing and sexual
misconduct; speech by abstention from falsehood, abuse, idle chatter and back
biting; and mind by abstention from covetousness, hatred and wrong views. These
ten constitute what are traditionally known as the ‘ten percepts’ (dasa sila),
in their negative rather than their positive from, and it is not surprising
that when, towards the end of his life. Ambedkar complied ‘The Buddha and his
Dhamma; he should have included in that work a number oh passages from the Pali
scriptures dealing with the threefold purification and the ten precepts. In the
light of these facts one cannot help thinking that when Ambedkar told the first
Mahad conference that no lasting progress could be achieved unless they put
themselves through a threefold process of purification he was, in effect,
telling them that no lasting progress could be achieved without Buddhism.
The two
remaining incidents occurred in connection with the second Mahad Conference.
Two prominent non-Brahmin leaders of Maharashtra
offered to support Ambedkar in his campaign on condition that no Brahmin should
be allowed to participate in the campaign. Ambedkar flatly rejected the two
leaders’ offer. Ambedkar believed in seeing people not simply as members of
this or that community but as individuals. In these eyes what counted was not
birth worth, and in accordance with the latter that men should really be
judged. This is of course a basic Buddhist principle, and the fact that
Ambedkar should have stated it so unequivocally shows how close he was, even at
that time to Buddhism.
But Ambedkar’s
closeness to Buddhism was not just in respect of certain principle; it was a
also closeness of personal sympathy. In other words, the closeness was not only
intellectually but also emotional. To days after his burning of Manusmiriti,
Ambedkar and his entourage went on an expedition to a place in the neighborhood
oh Mahad in order to see the excavation of some rivers that were believed to
date from the time of the Buddha. Deeply moved by the sight of his encourage
how the Buddha’s disciples had lined lives of poverty and chastity and devoted
themselves to the service of the community.
The six years
that followed the Chowdhar tank campaign were years of vacillation. Sometimes
it seemed that Ambedkar had traveled a long way from Hinduism, whether or not
in the direction of some other religion and sometimes it seemed that he had
not. Actually he was waiting for a change of heart on the part of the caste
Hindus. But in the end he was forced to recognize that there was going to be no
change of heart on the part of the caste Hindus, and that a casteless Hinduism
of which he had sometimes spoken so enthusiastically was only a dream. Indeed,
it was a contradiction in terms. Hinduism and the caste system were inseparable
and as a result no emancipation of the untouchables was possible within
Hinduism.
So Ambedkar
became increasingly convinced that renunciation of Hinduism was the way forward
for him and his people. The explosion took place at Yeola on 13 October 1935,
and it rocked Hindu India in a way that even the burning of the ‘Manusmriti’
had not done Ambedkar delivered a powerful speech in which he described the
hardships suffered by the expressed classes in all spheres of life and spoke
bitterly of the failure of their attempts to secure their basic human rights as
members of the Hindu community. As for himself, he believed that was his
misfortune that he had been born an untouchable Hindu. That was beyond the power to prevent, but it
was certainly within his power to refuse to live under ignoble and humiliating
conditions. ‘I therefore solemnly assure you’, he declared, and ‘that though I
have been born a Hindu, I will not die a Hindu.’
But despite the
fact that Ambedkar had now started traveling away from Hinduism and despite the
fact he had concluded his address to the Mahar Conference by quoting the words
of the Buddha he had apparently still not made up his mind which religion to
embrace. On 1-3 September 1939 World War II broke out in Europe and soon
involved India, and on 15
August 1947 a truncated India
achieved independence. During the eight years spanned by these events Ambedkar
reached the Zenith of his political career, first as Labour Minister of the
Viceroy’s Executive Council, then as a member of the Constituent Assembly, and
finally as Minister for Law in the first Government of free India. In 1948
Ambedkar brought out a new edition of P. Lakshmi Nasaru’s he Essence of
Buddhism’ originally published in 1907. In the preface he wrote that he praised
the author for his unflagging faith in the Buddha and recommended the book as
‘the best book on Buddhism that has appeared so far.’ He also revealed that he
was working on a life of the Buddha, in which he intended do deal with some of
the criticisms that been leveled against the teachings of the Buddha, by his
adversaries – past and present.
The life of the
Buddha must have been the work that was eventually published under the title of
the Buddha and his Dhamma, and the fact that Ambedkar engaged on it while still
a member of the Cabinet showed that he was more preoccupied with Buddhism than
ever. By February 1956, the last chapters of The Buddha and His Dhamma had been
written and on 15 March Ambedkar was able write – or dictate – the preface.
From this time onwards he and his followers traveled along the road to
conversion with increasing rapidity, and incidents that show in which direction
they were moving occurred more and more frequently.
24 May was the
anniversary of the Buddha’s attainment of enlightenment and, according to the
Sinhalese Buddhist calendar, the 2500 anniversary of his Parinirvana or final
passing away. On that day Ambedkar addressed a meeting in Nare
Park, Bombay, and declared that he would embrace
Buddhism in October. On 23 September Ambedkar issued a press note announcing
that his conversion to Buddhism would take place on 14 October in Nagpur. On the morning of
11 October he flew from Delhi to Nagpur accompanied by his
wife and P.N Tattu, his private secretary. On the evening of 13 October he gave
two press conferences, among other things telling the newsmen that his Buddhism
would adhere to the tenets of the faith as preached by the Buddha himself,
without involving the people in the differences which had arisen with regard to
the Hinayana and Mahayana. His Buddhism would be a sort of neo Buddhism or
Navayana. At 9:15 the following morning he ascended the dais that had been
erected at one end of the Diksha Bhumi or Initiation Ground as the spot came to
be called; fifteen minutes later he and his wife took the three Refuges and
Five Precepts from U. Chandramani the Burmese Bhikkhu from Kushinara, Fifteen
or twenty minutes later after that Ambedkar himself administered the some three
Refugees and Five Percepts – together with the twenty two supporting vows of
his own devising – to the 3,80,000mens, women and children who had assembled
there in response to his called. They had reached the end of their long journey.
They had now not only renounced Hinduism but embraced Buddhism. No longer were
they untouchables. They were human beings. They were Buddhists. After centuries
of separation, they had reestablished contact their spiritual roots and could
start producing flowers.
We find that
Ambedkar’s thoughts on Buddhism are contained in his article on ‘The Buddha and
the Future of His Religion’ and in certain sections of ‘The Buddha and His
Dhamma’. The later was until a year after Ambedkar’s death and the article ‘The
Buddha and the Future of his Religion’ appeared in the April. May issue of the
Mahabodhi. In the first section of the article, Ambedkar boldly declares that
what distinguishes the Buddha from the Jesus, Mohammed and Krishna
is his self abnegation. By the Buddha’s self abnegation Ambedkar means his
refusal to claim for himself the kind of Bible Jesus insists that he is the son
of God and that those who wish to enter the kingdom of God
will fail to do so if they do not recognize him as such. Mohammed went a step
further. Like Jesus he claimed that he was a messenger of God on earth but he
further insisted that he was the last messenger. On this footing he declared
that those who wanted salvation must not only accept that he was a messenger of
God but also accept that he was the last messenger. Krishna
went a step beyond both Jesus and Mohammed refusing to be satisfied with being
merely that the son or messenger of God, of even with being the last messenger
of God, he claimed that he was God himself.
Having described
the claims made by Jesus, Mohammed, and Krishna, Ambedkar proceeds to emphasize
the every different attitude assumed by the Buddha who has says, never
arrogated to himself any such status as they did. He was born a son of man and
was content to remain a common man and preached his gospel as a common man.
Beside being
distinguished from the three other founders of religions by his self abnegation
the Buddha is distinguished from them by the fact that he did not claim
infallibility for his teachings. The passage of the Mahaparinibbana Sutta or
‘Book of Great Decease’ to which Ambedkar refers to is probably the well known
one, where the Buddha, on the eve of his departure from the world, tells his
faithful attendant, ‘When I am gone, Ananda, let the Order, if it should so
wish, abolish all the lesser or minor precepts. For Ambedkar, the fact that the
Buddha had given liberty to his followers was nothing less than a direct
expression of his teaching and a triumphant affirmation of Buddhism as a
religion based not on authority but on reason and experience.
In the second
section of the article Ambedkar compares Buddhism and Hinduism. Ambedkar says bluntly,
‘Hindus is a religion which is not founded on morality’. This is not to say
that in Hinduism there is no morality at all but that wherever morality
Hinduism has is not an integral part of it, but a separate force which is
sustained by social necessities and not by the injunctions of the Hindu
religion. On the other hand, he said, ‘The religion of the Buddha is morality.
It is true that in Buddhism there is no God. In place of God there is morality.
What God is to other religions morality is to Buddhism.’ This means in Buddhism
actions are to be performed or not performed, not according to whether they
are, or are not, commanded by God, but according to whether they are, or are
not, right or wrong or, in Buddhist terms, skilful or unskillful. God’s commands
are the infallible scriptures and in the caste of Buddhism it is the Vedas that
are the infallible scriptures. The Buddha rejected the Vedas because they
enjoin the performance of rituals involving animal sacrifice and because animal
sacrifice controversies the principle of non violence or reverence for life.
Shortly after
sharing his thoughts on ‘The Buddha and the future of His Religion’ with the
readers of the Mahabodhi and trough them with the Buddhists of the world,
Ambedkar left for Ceylon. In May 1954 and again in December 1954 he visited Burma. Then
after six years after the appearance of the article the day dawned when
thinking about Buddhism was transformed into the reality of Buddhism itself.
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