Conversion Day: A new body for a new life
I’m time’s ghost wandering amongst us as us
In every moment momentless and momentous
Sixty-nine years ago, on 14 October, Babasaheb Ambedkar led over half-a-million Dalits, who had gathered in Nagpur, to renounce Hinduism and embrace Buddhism. Beyond the strategic value of an atheistic faith like Buddhism, Ambedkar saw in this religion a true theory of change: A change that made humanity itself plastic, not in another transcendental realm, but in the materiality of this world itself. This conversion was not a culmination of any process of change, but a beginning. In order to effect a social revolution, in order to achieve the annihilation of caste, people would have to forsake old, deadening identities and embrace the essential malleability of their own humanity.
The allness of the world is me, its smallness is me
I am the one, the swarm is me
The revolutionary task remains to be fulfilled. On 14 October 1956, Ambedkar knew he wasn’t long for this world. He knew that the weight of emancipation was (perhaps unfairly) concentrated within his singular genius. Though the decision to convert was an old one (as Ashok Gopal tells us in his magisterial biography of Ambedkar), it gained urgency because he wanted his followers to think for themselves and fight for their own emancipation, without the support of a master like Ambedkar.
I’m in every resistance, at every protest I’m the song
Every throng gathers in me, I’m gathered at every throng
Conversion to Buddhism was this birth into a new life, where no transcendental authorities like Vedas and Shastras and deities could come to one’s rescue. He gave us the perilous responsibility of realizing our own humanity and freedom. As he wrote in Annihilation of Caste, ‘A new life cannot enter a body that is dead. New life can enter only in a new body.’
I am the trance, I am transcendence
I am speech, I am silence
On this day, Navayana presents four books that can help you experience the stakes of this momentous decision to convert.
A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B.R. Ambedkar by Ashok Gopal
This book for the first time takes us behind the scenes of the conversion ceremony that took place on 14 October 1956. Gopal tells us of the many people who organized the event, the finer details of its culmination and Ambedkar’s thoughts, feelings and actions during that time.
Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India by Douglas Ober
Ober tells us the story of how Buddhism, an almost forgotten religion in India, gained popularity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He places Ambedkar’s embrace of Buddhism within the wider context of the religion’s modern revival.
Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anticaste Intellectuals by Gail Omvedt
Ambedkar’s decision to convert was not a nihilistic resignation to prevalent conditions but a show of faith in a coming utopia. Gail Omvedt’s magnum opus, Seeking Begumpura, shows us the historical precedents of this faith in a utopia. This primer is a study of leading anti-caste intellectuals from the fifteenth century to the end of colonial rule.
I Could Not Be Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS by Bhanwar Meghwanshi
Meghwanshi’s journey from being an RSS karsevak, who participated in riots, to becoming an Ambedkarite fighting for the equality of all, shows us the true meaning of conversion. His honest and affable account shows us the seductions of the Hindu right and the commitment required to lead a life of principles.
(The lines of poetry featured here are from a song attributed to Kabir, “Avadhuta yugan yugan ham yogi”, translated by Anand in The Notbook of Kabir. The featured image, taken from Vijay Surwade’s collection, is of women gathered at Deekshabhoomi on 14 October 1956).