Remembering Ambedkar on Ambedkar Jayanti

The article, Ambedkar and the Quest for India's Spiritual Heritage, by Harish S Wankhede, argues that BR Ambedkar's engagement with Buddhism was not merely a spiritual choice — it was a deliberate act of political and historical reclamation. By converting to Buddhism, Ambedkar sought to position Dalits not as subordinates within the Hindu fold, but as the rightful heirs of a pre-Brahmanical civilisation rooted in equality and dignity.

Ambedkar imagined the Buddhist era as a "Golden Age" of egalitarianism that predated Brahmanical dominance. His Navayana Buddhism drew from diverse socio-religious traditions to offer Dalits an alternative cultural and intellectual identity — one that didn't seek to reform Hinduism from within, but to bypass it entirely. His 1956 mass conversion at Nagpur, accompanied by 22 vows, was framed as a formal declaration of independence from Hindu orthodoxy.

Ambedkar was not alone in this project. Several regional movements shared his vision:

The Ravidassia Movement (Punjab) institutionalised Guru Ravidass's teachings to create a sovereign spiritual counter-space called Begampura, free from caste hierarchies.
The Adi-Dravida Movement (South India) claimed "original inhabitant" status for Dalits, rejecting the Hindu social order as an external Aryan imposition.
The Matua Mahasangha (Bengal) and Adi-Dravida assertion (Tamil Nadu) similarly excavated India's past to establish alternative civilisational identities.

All these movements built collective rituals, community organisations, and spiritual lineages that asserted autonomy from Brahmanical mediation. Despite their cultural richness, these movements have failed to unite into a single transformative political force. Meanwhile, Hindutva nationalism has strategically appropriated the symbols and cultural legacy of Dalit religious traditions to build an emotive equivalence — effectively co-opting the language of resistance to serve majoritarian ends.

The author argues that Dalit spiritual-religious traditions carry immense ideological potential, by denouncing the hegemonic leadership of conventional social elites, centring the voices of marginalised groups as key articulators of culture and nationalism, and reclaiming their intellectual heritage rooted in pre-caste civilisation. ...these traditions can become a powerful organic resistance against the Brahmanical Hindutva project.

Ambedkar and the Quest for India's Spiritual Heritage, by Harish S Wankhede, Deccan Herald, 14 April 2026.

Ambedkar's true legacy lies not in religious conversion alone, but in constructing a historically grounded Dalit identity that can challenge majoritarian nationalism — a task that remains urgent and unfinished.

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