Ambedkars Neo Buddhism A Critical Reflection

Introduction Built upon the struggle of 19th century and early 20th century leaders like Rammohan Roy, Mahadev Govind Ranade, Swami Vivekananda Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Jotiba Phule, against social discrimination and oppression, Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar introduce the possibility of new India free of untouchability along with India's struggle for freedom. Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar have different outlook and method to eradicate untouchability. Gandhi tries it within the framework of Hindu caste system whereas Dr. Ambedkar tries it by renouncing Hinduism. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born on 14 April 1891 in a family of the Mahar community in Maharashtra. His father's family originally lived in Ambabad. At one end of the village lived the people of the upper caste Brahmin community of the so-called society. The people of the Brahmin community used to build tile huts or concrete houses to live as much as they could. There was countryside on the outskirts of the village. This village was inhabited by the people of the lower caste Mahar community of the so-called society. Mahars were called untouchables. They used to build houses on a piece of land. The Mahars did not have the right to build tile houses or concrete houses even if they could afford it. It is in this village that they are born, live and die untouchable according to the rules of time. Maharashtra has the highest number of Mahars among the untouchables. Apart from the Mahar community in Maharashtra, people from the Maria, Pancham, Khote, Chamar etc. communities live there. But their identity is the same. They are untouchable. Ramji Shakpal is one of the most influential people in the Mahar community of Maharashtra. He served in the army under British rule. His wife was Vimabai. Among their fourteen children, Bhimrao Ramji was the youngest. Bhimrao Ramji lost his mother when he was only 6 years old. Father Ramji Shakpal despite many social and economic obstacles, Bhimrao have tried to give Ramji formal education. He started his schooling at Satara High School in Mumbai in 1900. Despite his deep focus on schooling, he could not forget that he was untouchable. While studying at Satara High School, he came in contact with an exceptional teacher who, being a Brahmin himself did not discriminate between the untouchables. "Religion is for man and not for religion,

1: Introduction 2. The Resurgence of Buddhism 3. Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar 4. Neo-Buddhism as a S ocial Philosophy 5. The Scripture of the Neo-Buddhists 6. The Ethico-Ritualistic Dimension ofNeo-Buddhism 7. Neo-Buddhism and Some Western Thinkers 8. Impact of Neo-Buddhism in India and Abroad 9. Conclusion Annexure I Annexure IIAnnexure III Bibliography Index

This book examines the interface between Buddhism and the caste system in India. It discusses how Buddhism in different stages, from its early period to contemporary forms—Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Tantrayāna and Navayāna—dealt with the question of caste. It also traces the intersections between the problem of caste with those of class and gender. The volume reflects on the interaction between Hinduism and Buddhism: it looks at critiques of caste in the classical Buddhist tradition while simultaneously drawing attention to the radical challenge posed by Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s Navayāna Buddhism or neo-Buddhism. The essays in the book further compare approaches to varṇa and caste developed by modern thinkers such as M. K. Gandhi and S. Radhakrishnan with Ambedkar’s criticisms and his departures from mainstream appraisals. With its interdisciplinary methodology, combining insights from literature, philosophy, political science and sociology, the volume explores contemporary critiques of caste from the perspective of Buddhism and its historical context. By analyzing religion through the lens of caste and gender, it also forays into the complex relationship between religion and politics, while offering a rigorous study of the textual tradition of Buddhism in India. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of Indian philosophy, Buddhist studies, Indology, literature (especially Sanskrit and Pāli), exclusion and discrimination studies, history, political studies, women studies, sociology, and South Asian studies.

The Buddha and His Dhamma was B.R. Ambedkar's last work. Published posthumously, it presented a radical reorientation of Buddhist thought and literature, aptly called navayana. It deals with Ambedkar's conceptualization of Buddhism and the possibilities it offered for liberation and upliftment of the Dalits. It presents his reflections on the life of the Buddha, his teachings, and the spread of Buddhism by interweaving anecdotes with detailed analyses of the religion's basic tenets. The author also includes important elements of the Buddhist canon and tradition to make the teachings more accessible. In the first critical and annotated edition of this work, the editors address the on-going debate on Ambedkar's interpretation of the Buddha's dhamma by focusing on the accuracy of his citations and providing missing sources. They also discuss Ambedkar's modification of source materials. The introduction contextualizes the scholarly work related to the text.

The Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy tells the story of philosophy in India through a series of exceptional individual acts of philosophical virtuosity. It brings together forty leading international scholars to record the diverse figures, movements, and approaches that constitute philosophy in the geographical region of the Indian subcontinent, a region sometimes nowadays designated South Asia. The volume aims to be ecumenical, drawing from different locales, languages, and literary cultures, inclusive of dissenters, heretics and sceptics, of philosophical ideas in thinkers not themselves primarily philosophers, and reflecting India's north-western borders with the Persianate and Arabic worlds, its north-eastern boundaries with Tibet, Nepal, Ladakh and China, as well as the southern and eastern shores that afford maritime links with the lands of Theravda Buddhism. Indian Philosophy has been written in many languages, including Pali, Prakrit, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Persian, Kannada, Punjabi, Hindi, Tibetan, Arabic and Assamese. From the time of the British colonial occupation, it has also been written in English. It spans philosophy of law, logic, politics, environment and society, but is most strongly associated with wide-ranging discussions in the philosophy of mind and language, epistemology and metaphysics (how we know and what is there to be known), ethics, metaethics and aesthetics, and metaphilosophy. The reach of Indian ideas has been vast, both historically and geographically, and it has been and continues to be a major influence in world philosophy. In the breadth as well as the depth of its philosophical investigation, in the sheer bulk of surviving texts and in the diffusion of its ideas, the philosophical heritage of India easily stands comparison with that of China, Greece, the Latin west, or the Islamic world.

Engaged Buddhism is the contemporary movement of nonviolent social and political activism found throughout the Buddhist world. Its ethical theory sees the world in terms of cause and effect, a view that discourages its practitioners from becoming adversaries, blaming or condemning the other. Its leaders make some of the most important contributions in the Buddhist world to thinking about issues in political theory, human rights, nonviolence, and social justice. Being Benevolence provides for the first time a rich overview of the main ideas and arguments of prominent Engaged Buddhist thinkers and activists on a variety of questions: What kind of political system should modern Asian states have? What are the pros and cons of Western "liberalism"? Can Buddhism support the idea of human rights? Can there ever be a nonviolent nation-state? It identifies the roots of Engaged Buddhist social ethics in such traditional Buddhist concepts and practices as interdependence, compassion, and meditation, and shows how these are applied to particular social and political issues. It illuminates the movement’s metaphysical views on the individual and society and goes on to examine how Engaged Buddhists respond to fundamental questions in political theory concerning the proper balance between the individual and society. The second half of the volume focuses on applied social-political issues: human rights, nonviolence, and social justice.

Study covers all the Neo-Buddhist elite residing in the region of Marathwada, India.