A Google Doodle temporarily changing the logo on Google’s world homepage celebrates the birthday today of the Indian social reformer and Buddhist advocate Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956).

The Thammasat University Libraries own a number of books by this author. Known as Babasaheb, he promoted the Modern Buddhist Movement, also called the Dalit Buddhist movement or Navayana, in India. In 1935, while serving as his country’s first law minister, Dr. Ambedkar criticized Hinduism for its caste structure. Dr. Ambedkar himself was born into a poor Mahar (dalit) caste, who were considered untouchables. Even so, he managed to earn higher degrees from Columbia University and the London School of Economics. In 1918 he was named professor of political economy at Mumbai’s Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics. There, although popular with students, he encountered discrimination because of the caste he was born into. Other professors in the faculty refused to use the same drinking-water jug, intended for all, that he used.

Choosing a religion.

In deciding which religion to convert to, he was much influenced by Lokanatha (1897-1966) an Italian Buddhist missionary who was born Salvatore Cioffi in Cervinara, Italy. Lokanatha had been ordained a Buddhist monk in Burma in 1925 and during the early 1930s he and Dr. Ambedkar exchanged many letters and met for discussions. In 1937, Lokanatha published Buddhism Will Make You Free, a pamphlet intended for the lower classes in India. Ultimately, in 1956 Dr. Ambedkar would convert to Buddhism with his followers. Unfortunately, by then he was already ailing with diabetes, and would die less than two months later. His absence is considered to have weakened the Buddhist movement in India. Even so, convinced by his books and articles stating that Buddhism was the way for untouchables to be more equal in society, 600,000 of his followers also converted to Buddhism. Among the vows they all took on that occasion:

   I shall endeavour to follow the noble eightfold path and practice compassion and loving-kindness in every day life.

   I renounce Hinduism, which disfavors humanity and impedes the advancement and development of humanity because it is based on inequality, and adopt Buddhism as my religion.

   I firmly believe the Dhamma of the Buddha is the only true religion.

   I consider that I have taken a new birth.

   I solemnly declare and affirm that I shall hereafter lead my life according to the teachings of Buddha’s Dhamma.

Estimates of the number of Buddhists in India today vary between 7 to 10 million. In a country of over one billion people, this is a small percentage.

Dr. Ambedkar’s other achievements.

Also advocating the rights of women, workers, and other groups who were discriminated against, Dr. Ambedkar was one of the main planners of the Constitution of India. In 1946 he wrote:

No words can adequately express the great and many evils of polygamy and concubinage, and especially as a source of misery to a Muslim woman. Take the caste system. Everybody infers that Islam must be free from slavery and caste. […] [While slavery existed], much of its support was derived from Islam and Islamic countries. While the prescriptions by the Prophet regarding the just and humane treatment of slaves contained in the Koran are praiseworthy, there is nothing whatever in Islam that lends support to the abolition of this curse. But if slavery has gone, caste among Musalmans [Muslims] has remained.

As part of his efforts to promote discriminated-against castes, Dr. Ambedkar managed to get a number of Indian civil service, school, and university jobs reserved for people belonging to certain castes. Previously, such people would never have been hired for such employment in India because of their social origins. The Constitution was ratified in 1949.

Thailand and B. R. Ambedkar

Thailand is appreciative of Dr. Ambedkar’s achievements. In 2010,  His Excellency Mr. Tomwit Jarnson, Consul-General of Thailand in Mumbai, was chief guest at a Buddhist ceremony commemorating his death anniversary. The Consul-General received Venerable Ariyawangso Bhikku, abbot of the Buddhapojhirichai forest temple and a group of followers. The Venerable Ariyawangso led a candle-lit procession to Dr. Ambedkar’s cremation site. Over one hundred thousand Indian Buddhists joined him. Venerable Ariyawangso Bhikku has inspired the establishment of a Buddhist United Dhamma Organization to promote Buddhism in the Indian sub-continent.

Honors today.

In India, the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur and the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar honor the social reformer. A 2012 poll by History TV18 and CNN IBN resulted in Dr. Ambedkar being named as one of the greatest Indians. He remains popular and influential. The economist Narendra Jadhav, author of Untouchables : My Family’s Triumphant Journey out of the Caste System in Modern India, lauded Dr. Ambedkar as the highest educated Indian economist of all times. The Nobel Prizewinning economist Amartya Sen declared that Dr. Ambedkar is

father of my economics… He was a highly controversial figure in his home country, though it was not the reality. His contribution in the field of economics is marvelous and will be remembered forever.

Onscreen and in other media.

A film made in 2000, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, is in the TU Libraries collection and is available for viewing. There have also been films, plays, TV miniseries, and other adaptations of the life of this social reformer. A graphic novel, Bhimayana: Incidents in the Life of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar appeared in 2011, with a reprinted version in 2013, Ambedkar: Incidents in the Life of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. While neither of these books is in the TU Libraries collection, they are available through interlibrary loan.

(images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)