Tuesday, April 1, 2025 | 5:00PM-6:20PM PT | Zoom Webinar Registration | RSVP

EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by Prof. Santosh Raut (Harvard Divinity School) with Faculty Moderator Prof. Jessica Zu (REL 342: Buddhist Modernism)
 

Buddhism returned to India dramatically in October 1956 with the great mass conversion of Bhimrao Ambedkar and 500,000 followers, mostly from the so-called Untouchable communities. Despite having suffered from extreme structural violence, Ambedkar was never attracted to the path of violence but to the peaceful transformation of society. He concluded this was only possible by following the teachings of the Buddha-Dhamma. Now, there are an estimated 50-plus million Buddhists in India, the great majority of whom were inspired by Dr. Ambedkar. The new conversion movement has changed India's religious and social landscape more than anything else since the Buddha and Ashoka, and it will continue doing so. It is a peaceful, egalitarian, and grassroots movement that has already had a considerable influence on Indian society and politics. His vision for the future of the downtrodden and the people of India combines the possibilities of democracy with the promises of egalitarian Buddhist Philosophy. The Buddha’s vision of transforming self and society is the core of Ambedkar's thought. There is a lot of emphasis given to his political, economic, social, and educational vision of Dr. Ambedkar, but less attention has been given to Ambedkar’s Buddhist vision of transforming the self and the world. This talk will explore how he writes about and expounds his vision of the Buddha-Dhamma as an instrument to reconstruct society and the transformation of an individual.

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Photo Dharma from Penang, Malaysia - 015 Dr Ambedkar and his Followers become Buddhists in 1956

15 Dr Ambedkar and his Followers become Buddhists in 1956, at the Nava Jetavana, Shravasti Photograph of murals in the Nava Jetavana temple, Jetavana Park, Shravasti, Uttar Pradesh, taken by Anandajoti.