Depicting Buddha as Hindu by RSS, specially to the international
community, and pretending to respect Him, is a stategy to
hoodwink the mases, as was done about Ambedkar. The process
started long time back by declaring Buddha as an avatara of god
in some times around eighth century and finalised till 12th
century. Manohar Joshi, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra,
writing in the Introduction of Dr. Ambedkar’s W&S vol. 16, (1998)
does mention Buddha as tenth incarnation of God, knowingly that
the Buddhists all over the world do not believe in God, let alone
its incarnations. At the same time, an average Brahmin takes a
great pride that Buddhism was driven away from this land by Adi-
Sankara. They ignore that a non-existent religion can not die.

Declaring the Buddha as ninth avatara of Vishnu, by the
Brahmanic Puranas, was meant to cause confusion in the minds of
people with the result that Buddhism came to be treated as a
“heretical” and “aesthetic” branch of Brahmanism. The modern
scholars like Kane, Radhakrishnan, Swami Vivekanand and Tilak,
have pushed this confusion further back to the time of origin of
Buddhism, by saying that Upanishadas are the origin of Buddhist
thought, thus claiming both that Buddhism was just a refined
“Hinduism”, and also claiming with pride that Buddhism was driven
away by the Brahmanas and it has died down,

As a non-existent tradition or way of life can not die, and as
the decline of Buddhism in India is a historical fact, the theory
of its origin as a “reformed” Brahmanism is false. If Buddhism
was a sect of “Hinduism”, then one may well ask the proud
supporters of Shankaracharya, what was that religion which was
“driven out by Adi Sankara”, as they claim? Was it also Hinduism?
This proves that Buddhism is not a sect of Hinduism, which was
nonexistant till Muslim conquest.

Buddhism was the national Religion of India

Buddhism was the first organized religion in the modern sense of
the term “religion”. It succeeded in driving out the Brahman
religion of sacrifices, but gradually succumbed to the
influences of the religion of masses, who had by then, set up
Buddha’s images and started temple worship. The fact that at one
time Buddhism was the national religion of India and was followed
by the majority of population, is almost ignored. There is a
feeling in the minds of many, that India is and was a Hindu
country having always had a majority of Hindus. This again is a
misconception. In historical times the population of India never
had majority of Hindus. Swami Vivekananda, estimated Buddhists
to be two thirds of population [L.M.Joshi: 1977: 358] and Dr.
Ambedkar says Buddhist were in majority. [W&S, 7, 345] Then there
were Jains and Veerashaivas and Tribal religions in addition to
Muslims, Sikhs and Christians coming in the later times. Brahmins
had lost all the respect of masses as well as princely rulers.
They were smarting under this defeat. [Untouchables, W&S vol.7,
p.346] They did everything in their power to finish off Buddhism
and after Muslim invasion, succeeded in it.

Buddhism was the national religion of India, not only because the
Buddha was an Indian, but because it was the source and
inspiration of the national awakening of Indian empires and for
the first time, united India in a common cultural synthesis and
organization and because unlike Brahmanism, which was the
religion of the privileged classes, Buddhism was the first
religion of the common people, not forced on them, but accepted
by their free will and pleasure; and because Buddhism caused
progress in science and art, literature and religion, commerce
and industry, internal progress and international reputation; and
lastly, because no other religion has till this day been able to
make India a great nation as Buddhism did. [Swami Dharmatirtha,
p. 76]

Brahmins usurped Buddhism

Brahmans became the leaders of Buddhism because of their
learning, and first disfigured it thoroughly with ritualism and
images, and then destroyed its separate organization of
monasteries and monks with the help of the foreign masters who
came into power. But the Buddhism of Harsha and Nagarjuna did
not disappear, it formed the nucleus of the later Hinduism,
superadded with horrors of caste. To become the sole leaders
of the country and to enforce their system of castes, has always
been the prime motive of Brahmanism, and if Buddhist order of
monks and monasteries had survived, the Brahmins could not have
achieved this goal. So they completely destroyed the external
institution of Buddhism, the monks and monasteries. Brahmins
became the undisputed leaders, and a new popular religion,
Hinduism, emerged with important aspect of caste, as
Dharmatitha observed:

“… Caste is an entirely independent social order which
was neither in the ancient Aryan religion nor in primitive
Indian religion nor in Buddhism. It is the unique
contribution of the Brahman priests, and none else ever
wanted it, until the country lost its national religion and
political freedom, and the Brahmans succeeded in imposing
the system upon the people almost at the point of the
bayonet with of alien masters. [Swami Dharmatirtha, p.
110]

Brahmanism does not mean Brahmins alone

As the British Imperialism does not mean the British people and
symbolizes a vast system and has numerous votaries among Indians
also, Brahmanism, similarly, does not signify the Brahmins
exclusively, but an ancient order of things of which the Brahmins
are the leaders and champions. It stands for the aggregate of
ideals, institutions and past history of the socio-religious
constitution of the Hindu society. We have to serve the welfare
of the entire nation and not the sentiment of separate castes,
though Brahmans, or Kshatriyas or others must accept a larger
share of the blame for the disaster which has befallen us all. We
have to understand that it is the pernicious system which is
throttling us all equally, and is the subject of our criticism. A
prominent thinker of Maharashtra, Raosaheb Kasbe, has elaborated
the subject by saying that, Brahmins are fortunte that, “Brahmin”
is a name of Caste as well as of a “Varna”, thereby implying
Class, this status being bestowed upon them by Smritis. As a
class and as a power structure, Brahmins have developed vested
interests. Dalit writers divide the history as Brahmin Vs. non-
Brahmin, instead of Vedic Vs. non-Vedic, and when the words
having Brahmin as one of their components are used by them to
criticise these vested interests, the meaning implied is against
the power structure and not agaist the caste. If this is a
blameworthy mistake, the mistake is committed by the authors of
Smritis, specially “Yama smriti”, and they and the later authors
desrve the blame. [Kasbe Raosaheb, “hindu muslim prashna
aani sawarkara cha hindu rastravaad”, (marathi) Sugawa Publ.
1994, p.242 ff.]

Causes of fall of Buddhism

We saw M. M. Kane’s views and those of other scholars. Caliber of
Vajrayani Buddhists was not the cause, neither was the Tantric
practices. Buddhist Siddhas were the forerunners of Bhakti cult,
which now Hindus claim to be theirs. In this respect Brahmin
books must not be relied upon.

Techniques of imposing slavery over the population by the
Brahmins were studied. In present times the struggle is amongs
the followers of Phule, Shahu, Ambedkar Versus those of Tilak
Gandhi Golwalkar. We saw the Brahmanic tendency to find faults
with Buddhism for country’s ills, like Sawarkar in his “saha
soneri pane” blaming Buddhist Ahimsa and ignorng the real
reason being Chaturvarna.

Position of women in ancient india has been studied in detail in
Pre-Vedic and Vedic times and Buddhist Doctrines and Laws about
them contrasted and Manu’s role in their degradation stressed.
This continued in Rajput and in middle ages in pre-British times,
and got worst during Peshawa rule.

Even today Buddhism is the national Religion of India

We saw how Buddhism was the national religion of India and that
it is flourishing even now in the garb of Hinduism with
superadded Chaturvarna. We saw Buddhism is not a sect of
Hinduism, irrespective of false propaganda of RSS. As Dr.
Tulsiram, Associate Proffesor, School of International Studies,
JNU and editor of Hindi monthly ‘Vishwa Ashvaghosah’, observes
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has organised a number of “World Hindu
Buddhist Conferences”, at Haridwar, Modi Puram, Sarnath, Rajgir,
Buddha Gaya, and Lumbini. At these conferences, it is falsely
claimed that since Buddhism is an essential part of Hinduism,
those who want to embrace Buddhism should embrace Hinduism
directly. Also the text books are manipulated e.g. in a class IX
book, the Sangha Parivar’s Government in Gujrath has inserted
that “the caste system is the greatest gift of Aryans to
humankind.” One of the reasons of reasserting Sankrit is
preservation of caste. He observes:

“… The religion based on caste system has annihilated
millions of Dalits over the centuries. About three million
Dalit women have been raped and around one million Dalits
killed from the time of Independence. This is 25 times more
than number of soldiers killed during the wars fought after
independence. That is why Dalits do not need Aryan culture
or Hindu Dharma based on caste any more. …” [Dr. Tulsiram,
“The Pioneer”, 30 Jan. 2000]

Two Orphans of Humanity

Jesus and Buddha were both ignored in their own countries and
thus two Orphans in the world of Nations as Swami Dharma Tirtha
has compared condition of Indians with Jews. Only that presently,
the Jews have progressed, but we did not. Vedantists’ claim that
Vedanta alone can save the world and humanity has proved false
and let alone saving the world, Hindus did not cultivated any
superior virtues and ideals, and deny justice and humanity to
their own kith and kin. Failure of Socialist Reformers was
because they are steeped in the culture of caste and the
religion of deception and exploitation. Same is the condition of
the so called Nationalists, who only cultivated regionalism and
language struggle and a good number of our Socialists and
Nationalists turned out to be rank Capitalists and fanatical
Communalists. Of many revolutions against Brahmanism, only work
of Guru Govind Singh and Sikhism seems to have survived, at least
to some extent, being influenced by saints like Kabir and Nanak,
all under spirit of Buddhism.

Hindus became Hindus by Conversion

The derogatory sense of the word “Hindu” is forgotten, it is also
forgotten that Brahmins did not like to be called as Hindus, not
a long time back and that Hindus became Hindus by a sort of mass
conversion or mass classification by the Muhammadans, and the
various castes acquired their status by a similar process of mass
classification behind their backs by the Brahman first and
lastly by the British Government by laws made for them. We saw
that Hinduism is not a religion in the sense in which Buddhism
Muhammadanism and Christianity are. It is a loose conglomeration
of castes, which is described by one author as a “grocery shop”,
where the comodity called “grocery” is not sold. Therefore,
all those who are not Muhammadans or Christians are treated as
Hindus, where all types of worship is allowed, as long as Brahin
supremacy is maintained. Even for these Christians and
Mohamedans, Brahmins have plans to incorporate in Hinduism and
terms like “Mohemadi Hindus” are already coined for them, and
full preparations are going on for its implementation. Also plans
are afoot to create new ‘Swastika’ temples for such “purified”
Christians. Thus the vagueness of Hinduism is a virtue for
them, and language of Vedanta is the garb of camaflouge of
equality, which help in the desire of Brahmin elites to govern
the OBCs. Arrogance of Brahmins, who rule Hindus, did not
change since the times of Abbe Dobois, neither did their attitude
towards women.

Suggestions for nation building

The constructive thoughts and efforts and guiding as to what must
be done as advised by Swamiji are summerised in the ability to
evolve new ideals and institutions to embody the spirit of the
collective life and will and avoid an obstinate clinging to mere
existence and past glories. India had been suffering under the
two imperialisms, Brahmanical and British placed one above the
other, and three tests of Hindu Nationalism should be (1)
Opposition to caste, (2) opposition to priestcraft and idolatry,
and (3) Inter-religious tolerance and fraternisation. It must be
realised that more nationalism persisted in the past before the
British arrived, and there was more fellow feeling in teachings
of saints, inspired by Buddhism.

Modus operandi of Brahmins to enslave Hindus

That the kalivarjya was the method of brahmins to tackle
the Buddhist influence over the masses and impose their
supremacy. All laws and rules, were amended including Civil,
Criminal, Revenue and Personal laws, without actually condemning
them. Who suffered in Kalivarjya were the OBCs due to failure of
export of their productions. These are the masses of which Indian
society is made of, and it is the need of the day to educate
them. The process of emancipation of masses was started by
Mahatma Phule, strengthened by Shahu, and put in Indian
Constitution by Dr. Ambedkar. Now it is the duty of masses to
protect the Constitution, if they want to protect themselves from
oncoming Brahmanic tyranny.

Decline and fall of Buddhism

Techniques in causing decline and fall of buddhism, the Caliber
of Vajrayani Buddhists, the methods of Brahmanic Conquest by
peaceful means, the domestic and sexual invasion in Kerala are
discussed, and the role of Shankara explained. Various techniques
of Brahmanic controls, the difference between Local and Regional
Brahmanism the admission of kings to Varna System, the extension
of Varna system, the Extension of Sanskritic deities, the
creation and developement of ceremonial and the Sanskritisation
of names of places discussed and the social self of Brahmin
explained. It was seen how Buddha’s Sangha was captured by
Brahmins, and how Brahmins destroyed Buddhism from outside also
and how Kautilya checked growth of Buddhism and how Buddhism
tried to thwart attempts of Brahmanism and how Brahmanism crushed
Nationalism.

Foreign invasions

The foreigners like Shakas, Pahlavas Hunas etc. were assimilated
by Buddhist ideals and not the Brahmanic, and the Hindu Muslim
Conflict would not have been there if Buddhism was alive at the
time of Muslim invasion. We saw the Brahmins had comunications
links with foreign forces and that they obtained foreign help to
topple kings unwanted for them.

About the conditions at the time of arrival of Europeans, Raja
Sekhar Vundru, IAS, former JNU student writes:

“Vasco da Gama landed in 1498 in India, a veritable social
hell for the dalits. Dalits feeding on carcasses, lurking
like animals in the day with a status worse than an animal
and conditions of life worse than a million genocides of a
Hitler. The greatness of Dalits lies in their confidence to
accept the ultra sub-human existence and breed dasyus,
menials, slave, asuras, chandalas and untouchables:
unparalleled and unrecorded in the history of world
civilizations.” [Raja Sekhar Vundru, “The Pioneer”, Dalit
Millennium Issue, 30 Jan. 2000]

How Hindus enjoyed Brahmanic slavery?

The evils of Hindu caste system are well known. The theory of
karma castrated the society and deprived all the masses
from the motivation to revolt against the domination and
atrocities of the priestly class, making all the Hindus the
slaves of Brahmins. We know that Rigvedic Society had only three
Varnas. The fourth varna, i.e. of Shudras was added by
“purusha-sukta“, late in Buddhist times and was a planned
to destroy the egalatarian Buddhist society, to stop Kshatriya
revolt against Brahmins and to stop the flow of Shudras towards
Buddha’s Dhamma.

We discussed the sexual behaviour of Aryans and how the ancient
Aryan society did not have the marriage institution as we believe
it today, or rather had no marriage institution at all. The
barbarous Aryan society considered no relationship like brother-
sister, father-daughter. Rajwade has explained how the priests
had to satisfy the sexual demand of any woman approaching them at
the time of yajnyas, then and there in open ground, in
presence of Vedic fire. The Buddha fought against this and
included vow to abstain from mithyachara, i.e. improper
behaviour in sexual matters, among the five shilas.

Conversion from three varna society to four varna society was a
great revolution in Aryan society, and entry of shudras into
Chaturvana system, transformed savage society to rural one,
claims Rajwade. But the Buddha discarded Varna System, where
Shudras were made the beasts of burden with all the forced labour
duties and no rights. Buddhists had no caste and Ashokan Society
was integrated and that caste revived on the decay of Buddhism
and emergence of Shaivism and Vaishnavism around 8th century A.D.

The productive castes suffered in Kalivarjya, one of the means
adopted by Brahmins to dominate non-brahmins. The national
Religion was destroyed by Caste System and Caste hierarchy with
Brahmins having vested interests. They grew most powerful with
the duty of kings being enjoined to worship Brahmins, whose
arrogance was not an empty claim and Brahmins ruled over masses
also not only the kings. Free Lands and houses were given to
them, with no taxes and no fear of punishments. Secular powers
were also exercised by Brahmins and Brahman Sabhas had power over
all castes. Dharma Sastras were recasted in Muslim Rule and laws
amended to establish Brahmin supremacy. Means employed by
Brahmins to enslave Hindus included Punishments and Ordeals on
Caste basis, and false philosophies created to support immoral
acts to distort the religion. Buddhism had tried to save masses
from Brahmanic slavery but in vain. We discussed how Vijaynagar
Empire was a seat of exploitation of masses and Brahmanism was
punished for the crimes.

Scheduled Tribes (aadivaasi)

Fall of Buddhism saw the rise of untouchables, the so called
criminal tribes and Aadivaasis. Their problems are discussed,
explaining differences between Castes and Tribes and origins of
various names. Their history is traced from Prehistoric Period
and it is explained that they are not remenents of Neolithic Age
but are post Buddhistic. We saw how Indus Valley civilization did
not belong to Aryans, how India was land of Naagas and its
language Tamil, and how Vratyas were Naagas. We saw history of
the Sisunaaga Dynasty, that Naaga worship is non-Vedic and Naagas
were Buddhists. There was a casteless society among the Naaga
culture, Naagas having their Republics. We saw the denegration of
Naagas in Mahabharata, which opens with a curse on Naagas. We
discussed Naaga Rajas in Kashmir and Rise of Buddhism there with
Ahimsa of Buddha, and studied Serpent worship during Mauryan
Dynasty, the times of Naagaarjuna and Kanishka, the Buddhist
Sculptures and that Ayrans created writings, whereas Naagas
created structures. We studied importance of Tribal Population in
Sanchi and Amaravati Stupas and antiquity of Naaga clans.

Other effects of Fall of Buddhism

We saw other efects of Caste culture were deprivation of
Education and spread of illiteracy and how fall of Buddhism
directly affected the multitudes of population, who were denied
education. How Gurukul system was detrimental to the interests of
masses is explained and how a most educated country, where
foreign scholars were coming to take higher education in Indian
Universities, became the most illiterate country of the world due
to fall of Buddhism is explained.

We saw how position of women detoriated and ultimately reached to
the stage of burning of widows. We saw that Rajput Age was Dark
Age of India and how Brahmins created Rajputs to get hold over
the population, and how it caused the degradation and fall of
Indian masses.

Kulin system of Bengal: How this was created to increase the
population who would be willing to accept the supremacy of
Brahmins and all the ill effects of this System is explained.

Sambandham System of Kerala: How Brahmins managed to gain control
over the Buddhist Nayars by this method of “Cultural
fertilization” and how it destroyed the cultural fabric of old
Kerala society is discussed.

Devadasis: A system of Religious prostitution is discussed. It
was put forward by the present author, for the first time, that
Devadasis were degraded Buddhist nuns, in his book in 1991,
“Tirupati Balaji was a Buddhist Shrine”. The subject is discussed
more fully here.

Fall of Science: How Science was on zenith in Buddhist India and
how Brahmins purposefully caused its fall to uphold their own
supremacy after the fall of Buddhism.

Kashmir Problem: How a Buddhist country of Kashmir became
Mohammedan country, thereby leading to all the present problems
is discussed.

Language Problem: How a country, which speaking one language and
one or two scripts during the Buddhist period was divided into a
country of multiple languages and scripts is discussed.

The Remedies

The reason why need to know the history is to guide us in future.
If that purpose is not served, it has no meaning. The rulers of
the society know it. Therefore, those who like that the
oppressors should keep on oppressing and sufferers should go on
suffering, never wish that the masses should know the real
history. They present only those aspects of history which suits
them, even distorting the facts. To find the cure, one has to
know and understand the cause of ailments. If the interpretation
of the history is on proper lines, the remedies would be correct.
There is no doubt that now all realize that the real cause of all
the ills of this country has been its religion. If this is
realized, the ills can be cured and Indian masses can see the
bright future. We narrate the views of some of the prominent
thinkers.

Views of A. H. Salunkhe

In key note address at the recent “Bahujan Conference” at Nagpur
by A. H. Salunkhe, a prominent OBC thinker and writer,
expressed his views on the future course of action to be taken by
OBCs. He stressed the importance of realizing the principle that
OBCs and the dalits are co-sufferers. They should make it a point
that they will neither tolerate the injustice done by others, nor
would commit injustice against others. Vedic culture came into
being after the destruction of Indus Culture. Among those who
opposed Vedic culture, prominent was the Buddha and his movement
was much more powerful than that of Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar.
[’Prabuddha Bharat‘, 30.4.2000]

Amartya Sen got the Nobel Prize, Salunkhe said, but did not get
enough publicity in Indian media, not even as much as the Beauty
Contests did. The reason was that while discussing the Asian
cultural history, Sen pointed out that the main reason why
education did not reach the grass root levels in India was that
machinery of education remained in the hands of fistful of
priests, and that as contrasted against this, education reached
the people at bottom levels of society in the other neighbouring
nations like Ceylon and others, because they were following
Buddhism. The Bahujans must realize that a person who declares
these facts would not get any appreciation from the established
society here. [’Prabuddha Bharat‘, 30.4.2000]

Amartya Sen, when questioned by journalists about his preceptor
and the father of his ideals on Welfare State, had acknowledged
the Buddha as his ‘guru’ and Ashoka as his ideal, a fact
which never appeared in any Brahmanical media. [Speech by P. S.
Changole at Aurangabad, ‘Prabuddha Bharat‘, 30.4.2000]

Salunkhe explained how Indus Culture was followed by Vedic
onslaught, how Buddhism was followed by Counter-revolution by
Manu, how Saints and Shivaji was followed by Peshawai and now how
after the revolution of Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar we are faced
with danger of destruction of this system by Brahmanic counter-
revolution by the R.S.S. If we wish to avert this calamity
the Bahujans and Dalits must sort out the points of conflicts and
unite. [’Prabuddha Bharat‘, 30.4.2000]

Salunkhe urged the OBCs to discard Wamana as an incarnation, and
questioned how he can be our ideal instead of Bali. He also
opined that OBC youths should reexamine the ‘Gita‘, and
if it teaches you to follow the duties of ‘Chaturvarnya‘,
you would be required to throw it away. ‘Gita‘ talks of
’swadharma’, which does not mean Hindu or Islam religion, it
means ‘Chaturvarna dharma‘’. He asked OBCs to evaluate
the history of the Buddha through their own values instead of
those of Manu, Shankara or Brahmanic books. He asked them to
examine their own religion and ask themselves what exactly, it
offers them. It offers nothing but slavery, he stressed.
[’Prabuddha Bharat‘, 30.4.2000]

Salunkhe averred that it is a false history, taught to us that
Shankara defeated Buddhism, but if he had evolved some strategy
and helped its decline, not only for Dalits, but also even for
people in grass root level, and for those who call themselves as
Kshatriyas and for Marathas and Kunbis and OBCs, it was not a
golden day of glory but it is was a moment of pushing them into
darkness and slavery. He advised that the sufferings of Dalits
are the sufferings of OBCs, and vice versa. We are not
fighting against any caste, not even Brahmins, but against a
system of inequality imposed over Dalits and OBCs by the
religious books. Some OBCs think they are Kshatriyas, and
should side with Brahmins because of our scriptures which condemn
the ‘Shudras’ and not the ‘Kshatriyas’. Their mentality is to
accept the slavery of Brahmins but not to consider Dalits equal
to themselves. But if you inspect the reality, you would find
that not only Ekalavya and Shambuka suffered but also Tukaram,
who was an OBC, suffered. For the scriptures, Dalits and OBCs are
both ‘Shudras’ and both deserve condemnation and are
deprived from their rights. Today OBCs are projected as neo-
Kshatriyas and made to fight against Muslims and Dalits, but they
must not forget that they are being used as tools and will the
thrown away after their utility ends. If the merit is
important, there is no doubt that Shivaji’s merit as a
‘Kshatriya‘ was proved. Why then his coronation was
opposed by the Brahmins of Maharashtra. Today Dalits honour
Shivaji and Shahu with full reverence, not as a strategy or
convenience, but from the bottom of their hearts, then why OBCs
should not honour Ambedkar likewise? [’Prabuddha
Bharat‘, 30.4.2000] Similar views are expressed by him later
in “First Maratha Sahitya Sammelan” held very recently at
Amravati in Vidarbha. This literary meet of Marathas was highly
maligned by Brahmanical press and scholars.

Views of Prakash Ambedkar

He explained the two ideologies in India, one of RSS and other of
‘Varkaris’ and stressed importance of unity among the
OBCs. He questioned why the post of ‘Shankaracharya’ is not given
to an OBC and suggested to launch an agitation about this in
social fora. How much success he gets in his endeavour remains to
be seen.

Brahmanic attitude towards Dalitbahujans

Shri Raja Sekhar Vundru describes the attitude of elitist media
towards these people.

“Media explosion finds news value in dalits only when they
are killed. Dalits do not see themselves as victims of
atrocities. Atrocities are part of their daily life. For
Dalits persecution is as old as Shambuka, denial as old as
Eklavya; revolution as old as Buddha; valor as old as Asura;
slavery as old as dasyu and untouchability as old as touch.
Nevertheless, Manudharma’s tentacles are wide spread and
all-compassing.” [Raja Sekhar Vundru, “The Pioneer”, Dalit
Millennium Issue, 30 Jan. 2000]

When Dr. Ambedkar was trying for “Hindu Code Bill”, which was to
remove the injustice on Hindu women, Jereshastri the then
Shankarachrya of Sankeswara Pitha, wrote:

“… Milk or Ganges water may be holy, but if it comes
through a nallah or a gutter, it can not be
considered sacred. Similarly, the ‘Dharmasastra’ howsoever
it may be authentic, it can not be considered authentic
because it has come from a ‘Mahar’ like Dr. Ambedkar.
Ambedkar is a scholar, it is said that his study of
scriptures is great, but he is an ‘antyaja’. How
can the Ganga of Scriptures comming from the nallah of
Ambekar be holy? It must be discardable like milk
comming from the gutter…”

Quoting this passage from ‘Nav Bharat‘, daily, 21 Jan.
1950, Yashwant Manohar observes, even the women for whose
liberation was this Bill opposed it. We see today these women
participating in hindutwavadi organizations. They opposed Mandal
Commission, and they still oppose the reservation of OBC and
other women, however, they demand right to priesthood. [Yashwant
Manohar:, 1999: p.73]

Our religion and Constitution must not have contradictions

In his last speech during Sarnath visit in 1956, Dr. Ambedkar
spoke to students, as reported by Nanak Chand Rattu, in Benares
University Hall. Speaking on Adi Shankara philosophy, he said
that if the Brahman pervaded all, a Brahmin and an
untouchable were equal. But Shankara did not apply his doctrine
of Brahman to social organization and kept the discussions
only on Vedantic level. Had he applied it on a social level and
preached social equality, his proposition would have been
profound and worth consideration, in spite of his belief in the
world being an illusion. Rattu reports:

“He, therefore, asked the students whether they would follow
Hindu scriptures which supported graded inequality
propounded by Purush Sukta and give religious
sanction to social inequality or whether they would stand by
the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity
propounded in the Constitution, and refute the graded
inequality preached by the Hindu scriptures.” [Rattu: 1997:
99]

How Buddhist Books reached West

Arrogance and hatred against Buddhism is seen by the fact that
around 1816 A.D. after Nepal was settled under British rule,
Brian Hodgson came there as Assisant to the Resident in a newly
opened Office. He obtained many MSS from Buddhist pundits like
Amrutananda, and sent the collection to Asiatic Society of Bengal
and to India House in Paris and other libraries. Once, Minister
Rana Bahadur Jang of Nepal seized a Buddhist Vihar and threw away
all the books in the street. Dr. Wrights, who was Physician to
British Resident got it collected and presented to the Cambridge
University. From these sourses Burnuff and his disciple Max
Muller compiled early history of Buddhism. [Kasbe: 1996: 315]

How Upnishads reached West

It is also interesting to know that it was Dara Shukoh, brother
of Emperor Aurangjeb, who got many Upnishads translated into
Persian through pundits of Kashi. These were later translated
into Latin. Duparron obtained a copy from a French scholar M.
Gentyl in court of Sirajuddolah, and later Burneere took it to
France on his trip to Bengal in 1775 A.D., and translated into
French, and later published in Latin. Weber commented on these in
his “Indian Studies”. The South Indian collection was published
for the first time in 1851 by W. Elliot in Journal of Asiatic
Society in Bengal, and later translated and incorporated in
‘Bibliotheca India’. [Kasbe: 1996: 228]

Jabalopnishad

That the main target of Brahmanism was the OBCs, in ancient times
as it is today, is clear from more sourses than one. Kasbe
describes one instance where OBCs are equated with impotents etc.
According to him, “Jabaloupnishad”, which is a later Upnishad, is
highly venomous to the orthdox as they believe it planted the
seeds of starting of Buddhism and destruction of Vedic religion.
The reason was it had allowed renunciation of household duties
and accepting the “pravajya” any time, wihout going through the
tradional Ashramas. Ahitagni Shankar Ramchandra Rajwade, a Vedic
scholar, criticised bitterly this upnishad in his criticism of
‘nasdiya sukta bhashya‘, saying that when a sentence
‘yadahrev virjettdahrev pravajet‘ appeared in this
upnishad, it paved the way for all the “bungled and botched”
‘vratyas’, ‘patitas’ etc. for a life of “Liberty-Equality-
Fraternity”, thereby reducing the importance of Brahmins in the
society. Though Jabalopnishad advocated ‘sanyas‘ at any
age, there were upnishands that time in existence asking for
taking sanyas after all three ashramas, and also upnishadas which
included the ‘Kumbhar‘ (potter), and ‘Teli‘
(oilmen) among the list of those for whom ‘sanyas‘ was
prohibited, like to impotent, outcaste, deaf, dumb etc. [Raosaheb
Kasbe, “manav aani dharm chintan”, Sugawa, Pune, 1996, p.
223]

A neglected message from Dr. Ambedkar to OBCs

An article was published recently in Marathi local magazine by
Suhas Sonwane based on daily Loksatta. The following is a
gist of it, translated from Marathi.

Mr. Gawande, a close friend of Dr. Ambedkar, who was then the Law
Minister in Nehru Cabinet in 1947, asked for a message for the
Maratha people to be published in the Souvenir of “Maratha
Mandir” of Bombay. Ambedkar declined saying that he had no
relation with the Organization or the Marathas, but on persistent
insistence, a message was given and published in the souvenir on
23rd March 1947. It was made available by Shri Vijay Survade
recently and was undocumented till now. Dr. Ambedkar said:

“This principle will apply not only to Marathas but all
Backward Castes. If they do not wish to be under the thumb
of others they should concentrate on two things, one is
politics and the other is education.”

“One thing I like to impress on you is that the community
can live in peace only when it has enough moral but indirect
pressure over the rulers. Even if a community is numerically
weak, it can keep its pressure over the rulers and create
its dominance as is seen by the example of status of
present day Brahmins in India. It is essential that such a
pressure is maintained, as without it, the aims and policies
of the state can not have proper direction, on which depends
the development and progress of the state.”

“At the same time, it must not be forgotten that education
is also important. Not only elementary education but higher
education is most essential to keep ahead in competition of
communities in their progress.”

“Higher education, in my opinion, means that education,
which can enable you to occupy the strategically important
places in State administration. Brahmins had to face a lot
of opposition and obstacles, but they are overcoming these
and progressing ahead.”

“I can not forget, rather I am sad, that many people do not
realize that the Caste system is existing in India for
centuries because of inequality and a wide gulf of
difference in education, and they have forgotten that it is
likely to continue for some centuries to come. This gulf
between the education of Brahmins and non-Brahmins will not
end just by primary and secondary education. The difference
in status between these can only be reduced by higher
education. Some non-Brahmins must get highly educated and
occupy the strategically important places, which has
remained the monopoly of Brahmins since long. I think this
is the duty of the State. If the Govt. can not do it,
institutions like “Maratha Mandir” must undertake this
task.”

“I must emphasize one point here that middle class tries to
compare itself with the highly educated and well placed and
well to do community, whereas lower class all over the
world has same fault. The middle class is not as liberal as
upper one, and has no ideology as lower one, which makes it
enemy of both the classes. The middle class Marathas of
Maharashtra also have this fault. They have only two ways
out, either to join hands with upper classes and prevent the
lower classes from progress, and the other is to join hands
with lower classes and both together destroy the upper class
power coming against the progress of both. There was a time,
they used to be with lower classes, now they seem to be with
the upper class. It is for them to decide which way to go.
The future of not only Indian masses but also their own
future depends upon what decision the Maratha leaders take.
As a matter of fact it all should be left to the skill and
wisdom of the leaders of Marathas. But there seems to be a
lack of such wise leadership among the Marathas.”

What he said about Marathas, equally applies to all OBCs, and
still holds true after half a century. Dr. Ambedkar wrote much to
educate the OBCs. It is only now that OBCs are awakening
gradually. It must not be forgotten that the future of this
country depends on them.

Buddhist “Bahujan” meant Non-Brahmin

Vedic social stucture was created for supremacy of Brahmins and
it was not possible to liberate all the non-Brahmin masses
without destroying it. “Bahujan Samaj” of Buddha was not the
middle castes like Kunbis, Telis and Malis but comprised of all
non-Brahins - Kunbis Telis to Mang Mahars and Nomadic and ex-
Criminal tribes, opined Ambedkarite laureate Yashwant Manohar.
[’Prabuddha Bharat‘, 30.4.2000]

OBC Problem

It is not properly realized that the ultimate fate of India
depends upon what course of action the OBCs take. The dalits have
already made their choice, that they do not wish to lead a life
of Slavery under the Brahmins. As a matter of fact, they always
wished to free themselves from it one way or the other. If the
present movement of Ambedkar for conversion to Buddhism is
sabotaged and if it fails, they would find other
alternatives. It is for the OBCs to decide what they wish to
do, whether to join Ambedkarite movement or to join Brahmanical
movement. That the political power in Independent democratic
India is mostly in the hands of the OBCs, is technically
speaking, true. But the real power evades them. What is the
reason? There is a lot of awakening among them, these days, and
everybody seems to be searching for the solution, but the real
reason is elluding them. The real reason, in our opinion, is that
these people are not concerned with their “Cultural Slavery”
under the Brahmins.

Examples of Brahmanic hostility towards OBCs

OBC youth in Maharashtra had demanded of the Government that
certain books which had deroatory remarks about OBCs be banned.
The then Govt. of Maharashtra under Sharad Pawar had declared the
ban. But perhaps it was not effected. The President of Marathi
Sahitya Sammelan held at Panaji (Goa) a few years back, Shri Ram
Shewalkar, then criticised the Maharashtra Govt. for this
decision as, he claimed, it was against the “freedom of speech”,
going out of the way by speaking what was not in the written
speech.

The then Chairman of the Marathi Sanskruti Mandal, a Govt.
organization for promotion of literature, criticised that an OBC
saint Tukdoji Maharaj, who played a great role during
Independance movement, is termed as “Rashtra Sant”, and in
his opinion, only a Brahmin saint Ramdas deserved this
appellation.

Recently the word “Kunbi” was shown to have been included in a
dictionary mentioned having derogatory meaning, for which the
publisher had to apologige.

At all these times, OBCs had protested. Sometimes, in their caste
functions, they talk of denouncing the Brahmanic slavery. They
talk that Eklavya was deceived by Dronacharya, that killing of
Shambuka was wrong. But they can not deny the grip of cultural
slavery on their minds. They can not demand that the name of
Dronacharya given to the highest award in Sports be withdrawn.
They can not stop participating in “Ganesh Festival” started by
B. G. Tilak, and which was then criticised by the Mahatma Phule’s
followers in Satya Shodhak Samaj and requested a ban on it.

As a matter of fact, the relationship of dalitbahujans to ‘upper’
castes in all the political parties run by Brahmins, as various
teams from A to E of Brahmanism in Kanshiram’s terms, is like Ram
and Hanuman, as put forward by Kancha Ilaiah, whose observation
about Congress applies to all parties under Brahmanic control:

“…The Congress was systematically moulded into being a
bhadralok party. They talked about the welfare of the
Dalitbahujan castes, while all the state resources were
cornered by the Hindus. The relationship between an ‘upper’
caste man and a Dalitbahujan caste man within Congress was
like that between Rama and Hanuman. It is a common knowledge
that Hanuman was a South Indian Dalit who joined the
imperial army of Rama to fight against the South Indian
Nationalist ruler - Ravana. Hanuman worked day in and day
out in the interest of ‘Ramrajya’ (an anti-Dalitbahujan and
anti-woman kingdom), yet his place in the administration was
marginal and subservient. Similarly, all the Dalitbahujan
activists who joined the Congress party were given
subservient places in the party hierarchy. Their main task
was to mobilize the masses, and organize the ‘praise
melas’ of ‘upper’ caste Congress leaders in whose name
they would carry the party flag. They would organize the
photographers to publicize the images of ‘upper’ caste
Congress leaders. The aim of an average ‘upper’ caste
Congress leader would be to mould every Dalitbahujan into a
trustworthy Hanuman. While Ambedkarism was creating a small
force of conscious people among Dalitbahujans who were
trying to organize into an autonomous political force, a
large number were (perhaps for the sake of fringe benefits
that the Congress administration could offer, perhaps for
other reasons) willing to be Hanumans. [p.58]

Kancha Ilaiah, himself an OBC, has very convincingly put forward
that the process of “Sanskritisation”, i.e. elevating one’s own
caste, without demolishing the framework of Chaturvarna
can never end the Brahmanic domination. Describing how various
methods of Sanskritisation are futile, he observed:

“…Sanskritization process did not dilute caste identities
and caste based humiliations. Many Dalitbahujans who got
Sanskritized later realized that Sanskritization is no
solution to Hindu barbarity. This is the why Ambedkar
embraced Buddhism to build a counterculture to Hinduism, and
Periyar Ramasamy Naiker attempted to establish the hegemony
of Dravida culture by attacking Hindu culture and Hindu
Gods.” [Kancha Ilaiah, “Why I am not a Hindu”, publ.
Samaya, Calcutta, third reprint 1998, p.70]

Kancha Ilaiah, strongly advocates ‘dalitization’ - signifying
dignity of labour rather than of leisure and combining physical
and mental knowledge as dalitbahujans do - rather than
hinduization, of the civil society, state and administrative
apparatus, which is the real solution to the problems of India.
He feels that only through liberation of dalitbahujans that the
rest of the society, namely, the ‘upper castes’ can be liberated.
And this process, which could be “very painful and tortuous”
should start with addressing to the UC women, who also feel that
dalitbahujans are the “others”, but are receptive to Dalitbahujan
questions, as they seem to prefer “divorce and remarriage” of
dalitbahujans to “wife-murder” policy of UCs. [p.129]

Second thing he recommends is the capture of Hindu temples by
expelling Brahmins, for the wealth they hold, convert them into
centres of public education, taking care that the Brahmanical god
culture does not get assimilated into Dalitbahujan culture. It is
comparatively easier for neo-Kshatriyas to unlearn many things
than baniyas and brahmins, but he warns that this anti-caste
revolution may be more tortuous than the ‘proletarian cultural
revolution’ in China. He avers about the NRIs that the post
capitalist markets into which these NRIs are integrated did not
de-caste them as is very clear from their pro-Hindutva
proclamations from abroad. [Kancha, p.131]

Examples of OBC awakening

Apart from Dr. Salunkhe’s advice to OBCs, there are other
indicaters of OBC awakening. A recent literary meet of “Mana”
community in Maharashtra declared themselves to be of “Naaga”
clan and associated themselves with the Buddhist culture, denying
the Brahmanic one. The important Adivasis are already
dissociating themselves from the hindutvavadis and associating
with Ambedkarites, in spite of strong propaganda by BSO of
converting them into “Vanavasis”. Everybody is realizing that the
way of liberation is the fight against the caste and Brahmin
supremacy.

Ambedkar’s Efforts for Adivasis

All these people are now realizing that Dr. Ambedkar had
struggled a lot for Adivasis also. We must strive for upliftment
of BCs and Adivasis said Dr. Ambedkar. The purpose of keeping
them in sub-clause (2) of Hindu Code Bill was to make some
provision for them and Hindu Law would “apply to them only if it
is proved that Hindu customs and Hindu usages are prevallent in
that class”, and it will not apply to them unless “they have
adopted the customs.” [W&S, vol. 14 part 2, p.886-7]

Ambedkar asked for right of Adult franchise for Adivasis, in
1928, Simon Commision Statemnt, commenting that Legislatures are
the places where “social battles have to be fought, previlages
have to be destroyed, and rights have to be won”. He avered that
their illeteracy should not come in way of giving them right to
vote, as even an illiterate is intellegent and knows his welfare.
[W&S, vol.2, p.471]

Disagreeing with the Britishers’ idea of keeping the Adivasis
segregated, during the evidence taken before the joint Committee
on Indian Constitutional Reforms in 1933, he professed the ideal
that these primitive people should not remain primitive and they
should cease to be an isolated part of humanity and take part in
the public affairs of this country like others. That they must
not loose their lands and be landless labourers and their lands
be protected from money lendes by suitable Laws. The education is
more neccesary for BCs and Adivasis, more than anybody else, he
said, and wanted adequate representation for them in legislature
assuring the friendship of many BCs. [W&S, vol.2, p.737 ff.]

Stand of “Dalit Voice”

V. T. Rajshekhar, for last three years or so is recommending that
each caste should consolidate itself and advocates breaking of
SCs into some categories for purpose of reservations also, he
claims this will destroy Brahmanism, a tall claim which is based
on unproven logic. Everybody is entitled to his own opinion.
But the tragic part is he ascribes his logic to Kanshiram and
Mayawati and erroneously says they also subscribe to this view.
The present author has repeatedly opposed this stand, so have
many prominent Ambedkarites including Bhoja Tarakam and N. G.
Uke.

“Jati Todo Samaj Jodo”

One of the senior Ambedkarites, Dr. Vellu Annamalai from USA
ascribes motives of vested interests to VTR’s attitude. This may
or may not be true, but one thing is sure that Mayawati and
Kanshiram do not ascribe to this view. They talk of “Jati Todo
Samaj Jodo“, which does not mean, as VTR seems to suggest,
that they advocate consolidation of each caste. On the contrary,
they say break your own caste, forget about wellbeing of only
your caste and strive for making up a “Bahujan Samaj”
identity, which alone can convert the minority into majority as
Brahmanism has broken the society into various castes numbering
about six thousand. It should be our aim to unite these various
castes into one identity of “Bahujan”. They believe that
political solution is the most important method and quote
Ambedkar that political power is the master key to all the
ailments of non-Brahmins. They point out to the tremendous work
that has been done in U.P. in a short span of her rule there.
They have not tried to strengthen only Chamar caste, as is
presumed by VTR. They have asked to strengthen all Bahujans to
come together and work for common good of all Bahujans including
dalits. They never worked for “separate but equal” castes.
Neither Dr. Ambedkar, nor Shahu, nor Phule worked on the lines
mentioned by VTR. They always worked to bring all together,
demolishing walls among the castes, never ever, they advocated
salvation of any individual caste or that of an individual person
within a caste. A well known letter by Dr. Ambedkar to a Mang
youth is proof thereof.

G. P. Deshpande, Prof. Of International politics at JNU and a
theater personality in Delhi advises that a caste-group is never
a leader and Dr. Ambedkar never thought so either. What he
identified was central contradiction in Indian society epitomised
in and by the Varna and Jati system. The transformative movement
that India needs so badly today should take note of this
understanding. Ambedkar’s relevance lies precisely in this
approach in building a wider social base. The present Dalit
movement, Deshpande comments, is yet to define itself and
demonstrate that it is conscious of the whole within which it is
to function, and avers that it has as much relevance for Savarnas
and upper castes as it has for the Dalits and other classes. He
concludes:

“Dalits, today, have to realise that it is all a question of
hegemony. He also has to realise that in matters of politics
and culture, he will provide leadership only if his politics
is of genuine ‘jatyanta’ (end of caste). Interests
of caste have to be secondary to the interests of end of
caste.” [G. P. Deshpande, “The Pioneer”, Dalit
Millennium Issue, 30 Jan. 2000]

Kancha Ilaiah

He laments that dalitbahujans are the oldest people of the globe,
and yet have no calender of their own and a largest group in the
world without the own individual dates of birth. They invented
through their scientific approach to production by counting
seeds, birds and animals the ‘concept of zero’, which was
“patented” by Bana Bhatta, an Aryan Brahmin. These first
invaders, the Aryan Hindus, condemned the discovery of tool
making, leather making, and wool weaving as Chandala processes.

The degradation of dalitbahujans was achieved through two methods
- danda and mantra, first ‘Danda’ i.e. violence
and second ‘Mantra’ i.e. by developing the consent systems. As an
example of second, he observes:

“Did not Hinduism make us do the same thing when it forced
us to celebrate the birthday of Rama as Ramnavami, a
dateless day, a man who killed my ancestors Tataka, Vali,
Shambhuka and Ravana, and cut off the nose and earlobes of
most beautiful woman of India, Shurpanakha? Jesus Christ’s
noble soul did not kill even his enemies. What a difference
in godhood.” [Kancha Ilaiah, “The Pioneer”, 30 Jan. 2000]

“Post independent India has not given the dalitbahujans
anything except a saga of atrocities. The Hinduism that
rendered this country calenderless is forcing all
dalitbahujans to call themselves Hindus. I made my position
very clear that “I am not a Hindu” as I cannot worship the
very gods who killed my ancestors. My predicament is that
of Angada, the son of Bali who was killed by Rama and while
his father’s dead body lying there he was forced to worship
the killer of his father, Rama. I refuse to do that.”
[Kancha Ilaiah, “The Pioneer”, 30 Jan. 2000]

Describing the sufferings of dalitbahujans for last two thousand
years, Kancha Ilaiah describes:

“In the first millennium, the Shudras along with the
Chandalas suffered all kinds of atrocities at the hands of
the Hindu rulers who constructed a Swarna Yuga
(golden age) of their own during political rule of Guptas.
It was during this period that the scientific temper the
Shudras constructed among themselves was destroyed and they
were pushed into most dark period of their life. During the
first millennium Manu Dharma as law and Kauttilya’s brutal
state craft were brought into force and they destroyed all
the creative ability of the Shudras, Chandalas and Adivasis
(SCAs). Except the text ‘Mritchakatika‘ by Shudraka,
all other texts including ‘Megha Sandesha’ by
Kalidasa were written in the image of Brahmanical leisure-
centered classes. The history of SCAs from then was rendered
invisible and non-existent.” [Kancha Ilaiah, “The Pioneer”,
30 Jan. 2000]

“… By the beginning of the second millennium, Brahmins,
Kshatriyas, Vaishyas (BKVs) had eaten away the vitals of
Subcontinent. These three leisure and pleasure centered
castes lived in celestial and spiritual luxuries and sexual
orgies. During this period, the BKVs destroyed the Buddhist
ethical and productive life and also symbols of that
civilization and errected erotic temples translating the
sexual pleasure-centered discourse of Vatsayana’s
‘Kamasutra’ culture into sculpture at the cost of
enormous labour power of the unpaid sculptors. All the
sculptors came from the SCA backgrounds. Investment of
wealth and labour on constructing structures like Khajuraho
and Konark reflected the negative cultural mould of the
ruling castes/classes. No single structure that reflected
the productive culture of people was errected during the
period.” [Kancha Ilaiah, “The Pioneer”, 30 Jan. 2000]

Gail Omvedt

Today as India heads into new millennium, its own sixth
millennium of civilization, it has no clear vision of where it is
going, kind of society it wants and how it proposes to build it,
she laments and emphasizes, the fervor of freedom fighters and
Nehruvian socialism are gone and “Gandhian version of Hinduism is
empty now”, and its modern ‘avatar‘, the environmentalists
wish the revival of traditional forms of production and culture
in the form of “Ram Raj”. She feels that neither Gandhism, nor
socialism are more than empty terms in India, and Hindutva
Nationalism alternative is itself based upon the Brahmanic
version of Indian tradition. She recommends five new visions for
the Dalitbahujan masses of India:

“1. Alternative enlightenment” - based on moralism,
rationalism, whether religious or aesthetic or agnostic, a
genuine democratic socialism can have its roots only in
“Ambedkar’s Buddhism”.

“2. Alternative spirituality” - “…Even before Ambedkar
chose Buddhism in 1956, it had emerged with Pandit Iyothee
Thass and Tamil Buddhism; with Srilanka’s Anagarika
Dharmapala, Brahmanand Reddy of Andhra and Acchutananda of
Uttar Pradesh. Phule took Buddhism as an important source of
’shudra-ati-shudra’ tradition. …”

“3. Alternative Economics” - “…Ambedkar’s economic
trajectory went from conventional welfare liberal economics
in twenties to endorsement of state socialism that lasted
upto 1947, to a final disillusionment of Soviet model and
efforts to seek alternative Buddhist economics, described
variously as democratic socialism, liberal socialism, a
mixed economy or simply as beyond labels. …”

“4. Alternative Nationalism” - Only Ambedkar realized the
need for English to unite all dalits in India. “This
illustrates that real nationalism in India must (be)
realized in the language of the people, not in the
Sanskritised Hindi taught in schools or link language of
cinema.”

“5. Empowerment of women” - In contrast to Brahmanic
subordination of women, Dalitbahujan leaders projected a
vision of women as equal citizens with rights to individual
fulfillment. [Gail Omvedt, “The Pioneer”, 30 Jan. 2000]

V. P. Singh

Asked about effects of globalization on Dalits, he remarked that
he was not in favour of blind liberalization, but certain
licenses, quotas and regulations have to go. However state can
not refrain from human investment. Second stage of justice should
be education, which is a key to empowerment. With
commercialization of education, future decision makers will come
only from effluent sections. Social justice is a continuous, self
corrective process, where the neglected will fight and correct
the system. [V. P. Singh “The Pioneer”, 30 Jan. 2000]

Hindu Muslim Unity

Arvind Das, the editor of New Delhi review journal, “Biblio”,
commenting on the attitude of elites, observe that any of those
who demand that Christians apologize for the Inquisition or
Muslims be sorry for being designated “Babur ki aulad” do
not express the slightest regret for the centuries of oppression
that they have practiced on the dalits, and there is only a
thundering silence in that respect. [Arvind Das, “The Pioneer”,
30 Jan.2000]

Syed Shahabuddin, editor of Muslim India and former M.P. observes
that the Draft constitution had declared Muslims and SCs as
minorities and provided reservations for both. But Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel moved resolution and Muslims were denied
facilities. He observes:

“… The goal of Dalit Muslim unity is neither racial
kinship nor religious uniformity but political unity. …
Even if the forward Shudras were not included, the EBCs (the
Backward backwards), SCs, STs, and Muslims alone form about
67.5 percent of the population. … a majority that lives
below the poverty line. They own less than 15 per cent of
national resources and have a long way to go before they
become equal partners in the national enterprise - in power
sharing as well as effective participation in decision
making.” [Syed Shahabuddin, “The Pioneer”, 30 Jan. 2000]

He advocates alliance of deprived, but thinks it is unrealistic
to think on national level. But in MLA segments, where the
strength of these people exceeds fifty percent, it can be tried.
In UP BSP and in Maharashtra RPI represent Dalits, but there is
no party of Muslims anywhere, he laments, and stresses the need
for “composite leadership”. He also stresses the need of common
agenda, and feels that the Brahmanical order is on the decline,
but not so Brahmanism. He laments that every emergent class tends
to be reborn as a Neo-Brahmin aspiring for social domination.
Those who stand for social justice cannot accept such succession
and, therefore, the battle for Identity, Dignity and Equality
will go on, he avers. [Syed Shahabuddin, “The Pioneer”, 30 Jan.
2000]

Communism and Dalitbahujans

A lot has been written by Dr. Ambedkar discarding Communist
idiology. Prof. T. K. Oomen at JNU, explains layers of Dalit
movement. There are people who concentrate on economic side and
others on caste basis. But he feels that all Dalits are not
proletarians and a small substratum among this traditionally
unprivileged class has undergone a process of elitisation. In
addition, Dalit consciousness is qualitatively different from
proletarian or caste consciousness. Stressing the importance of
cultural enlightenment, he comments that it is no accident
that Dalit protests in India first crystallized against socio-
cultural oppression like untouchability, which was followed by
mobilization for political enfranchisement and finally protests
against economical exploitations were heard. [T. K. Oomen,
“The Pioneer”, 30 Jan. 2000]

Dalit Unity is not enough

Without in any way denigrating the efforts of those who are
striving for Dalit Unity, I feel, even if all the Dalits of
India, of all castes, shades and colours, unite, they cannot
achieve any power without the help of other oppressed castes, as
they are only about 16% or so. And if there is no power, caravan
of Ambedkar will be on retrograde journey. Many non-dalit non-
brahmin castes are realizing the mischief done by Caste system,
they are having dialogue with Dalits and uniting with them, as is
seen in North Indian states. And the message is spread broad and
wide and all regions of this country are awakening.

Should we not destroy our identity?

Are various leaders ready to give up their identities on argument
that Dalit liberation must get priority over all other demands?
One does not have to give up ones identity, if we are talking at
this stage of only political unity. But if we unite only
politically at this stage, a time will come, when we have to
unite religiously and socially also. At that time, I would like
to ask these leaders, “Can they afford not to dissolve their
identities?” If they did, their castes would be wiped out by the
BSO. One has only to see the way these sub-castes are fighting
among themselves just for crumbs, they have forgotten that their
real enemy, BSO, is safe and secure in its own citadel. Even at
this stage, infighting among the sub-castes is counter productive
and injurious to the interest of their own caste.

Role of Jains and Osho

There are always some sporadic news items keep appearing in
papers that, some youths have started a social movement to assert
that Jains are not Hindus. We read that at one time Jainism was a
revolutionary religion, and they had to suffer for it at the
hands of BSO. K.A.N.Sastri tells us how eight thousand Jains were
put to death by impalement by a Saiva King and how a festival is
celebrated every year, even now, to commemorate this event in a
temple at Madura. [K. Jamanadas, “Tirupati Balaji was a Buddhist
Shrine” p.134]. Whether same revolutionary spirit will be revived
among the Jains again, is more than I can predict.

I only know of one Jain revolutionary in modern times. He is Osho
Rajnish, who said about the glass of orange juice given by
Robindranath Tagore to break the fast of M. Gandhi at the
conclusion of Poona Pact, “But this orange juice, this one glass
of orange juice, contains millions of people’s blood!” [“Dr.
Ambedkar aur Osho”, Hindi, by Sandesh Bhalekar p. 43] He had
the courage to denounce Manu in no uncertain terms that if we
could forget Manusmriti whole world would call us more liberal
and broad minded; Manu is sitting on our chest like a big stone.
[p.51] Some Ambedkarite scholars like Lokhande and Bhalekar
project him as ‘in lineage of Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar’. Other
equally prominent scholars like Yashwant Manohar call such
projections as pollution (pradushan) in Dalit literature. What
role, if any, the followers of Osho, the world over, will play in
opposing BSO in future, is a question better left alone for the
future generations to work out.

Future of Buddhism in India

The struggle for destruction of Caste is the precursor of the
spread of Buddhism, but need not be a precondition. Equitable
distribution of land and fast implementation of Land Reforms is
the need of the day. They know that this will dilute the hegemony
of Brahmins, and so such reforms are not implemented. With this
attitude, one may contrast the honesty of the British, who knew
that imparting education to lower castes will, one day, enable
these people to drive away the alien rulers, but still they did
not keep us ignorant. Under such circumstances we conclude this
tract with the prophesy of Dr. Ambedkar about future of Indian
Buddhism.

After comparing Buddhism with Hinduism, while comparing Buddhism
with other non-Hindu religions, Dr. Ambedkar observes:

(i) The society must have either the sanction of law or the
sanction of morality to hold it together. Without either society
is sure to go pieces. He explains that in all societies law plays
a very small part. It is intended to keep the minority within the
range of social discipline. The majority is left and has to be
left to sustain its social life by the postulates and sanction of
morality. Religion in the sense of morality, must therefore,
remain the governing principle in every society.

(ii) That religion as defined in the first proposition must be in
accord with science. Religion is bound to lose its respect and
therefore become the subject of ridicule and thereby not merely
lose its force as a governing principle of life but might in
course of time be disintegrated and lapse if it is not in accord
with science. In other words, religion if it is to function,
must be in accord with reason which is merely another name for
science.

(iii) That religion as a code of social morality, must
recognize the fundamental tenets of liberty, equality and
fraternity. Unless a religion recognize these three
fundamental principles of social life religion will be doomed.

(iv) That religion must not sanctify or ennoble poverty.
Renunciation of riches by those who have it may be a blessed
state. But poverty can never be. To declare poverty to be a
blessed state is to pervert religion, to perpetuate vice crime,
to consent to make earth a living hell.

Which religion fulfills all these requirement, he asks, emphasing
that the days of the Mahatmas are gone and the world cannot have
a new Religion and choice is limited to existing ones, and avers
that the only religion which satisfies all these tests is
Buddhism. Buddhism is the only religion which the whole world can
have. The new world needs religion far more than the old world
did, and it can only be religion of the Buddha. The confusion is
because most of those who have written about the Buddha have
propagated the idea that the only thing Buddha taught was Ahimsa.
Without minimizing its importance, as it is a great doctrine and
the world can not be saved unless it, he emphasized that Buddha
taught many other things besides Ahimsa. He observed:

“… He taught as a part of religion, social freedom,
intellectual freedom, economic freedom and political
freedom. He taught equality, equality between man and man
but between man and woman. It would be difficult to find
a religious teacher to compare with Buddha whose teachings
embrace so many aspects of the social life of a people whose
doctrines are so modern and whose main concern was to give
salvation to man in his life on earth and not to promise it
to him in heaven after he is dead.” [Buddha and future of
his religion”, p. 9]