NAVAYANA BUDDHISM
Source: The Hindu
1. Context
On October 5, Mission Jai Bhim and The Buddhist Society of India organised a public meeting in Delhi to commemorate Buddhist Conversion Day.
2. Key Points
- Every year Dussehra is also celebrated as Ashoka Vijaya Dashami to commemorate Buddhist Conversion day.
- On October 14, 1956, B. R. Ambedkar along with more than half a million followers adopted Buddhism in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
3. Navayana Buddhism
- On October 13, 1935, Ambedkar, as president of the Yeola Conversion Conference near Nasik, announced his decision to reject Hinduism, as a path to contest the Hindu Caste order.
- He asked the assembled members from the depressed castes to abandon struggles such as the temple entry agitations and advised them to leave Hinduism entirely and embrace another religion.
- However, the decision to adopt Buddhism was not announced then.
- For the next two decades, Ambedkar was engaged in social and political deliberation to draft policies and find avenues for the emancipation of socially marginalised communities.
- The decision to embrace Buddhism arrived after a detailed contemplation of various religions to understand the suitability of each to liberate socially marginalised communities.
- He concluded that Buddhism is an appropriate choice as it had challenged the Brahmanical caste-based social hierarchies in the past; it focused on modern ethical values and a scientific temperament and preached peace and compassion for social coexistence.
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In the post-event deliberation, Ambedkar called his version of Buddhism Navayana (followers are called neo-Buddhists), differentiating it from the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions of Buddhism.
He then recited the three jewels (Trisharan) five precepts (Panchsheel), pronounced the self-crafted 22 vows for the assembled people and renounced Hinduism.
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4. Nagpur's Deekshabhoomi
- Ambedkar embraced Buddhism in a grand ceremony at Nagpur's Deekshabhoomi, where more than five lakh followers had assembled to follow his decision.
- Under the presence of monk Chandramani, Ambedkar and his wife took the Buddhist vows.
- Every year in October, lakhs of people assemble at Nagpur's Deekshabhoomi to pay homage to Ambedkar and celebrate the historic day.
- The event is marked as the renaissance of Buddhism in India.
5. Demographic status
- The Buddhist population is a mere 0.70 per cent of which 87 per cent are neo-Buddhists.
- Further, a large majority of it (around 80 per cent) resides in Maharashtra (5.8 per cent of the total population).
- The rest are traditional Buddhists and are scattered mainly in northeastern States like Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Tripura, etc.
- There has been a decline in the growth rate of Buddhists in India in recent years.
For Prelims & Mains
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For Prelims: Navayana Buddhism, Ambedkar, Deekshabhoomi, Mahayana and Vajrayana, Yeola Conversion Conference, Renaissance of Buddhism in India.
For Mains:
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