History is a trickster in the circus of civilisation. It is an expert at recycling old acts, and burnishing them as brand new shows. Currently, India is witnessing the rise of Buddhism as a brand new political force, far different from what the Buddha imagined it to be. Then, it was an escape from social mores, mainly by the merchant class to prosper in an economy dominated by Brahmins in the Magadha empire. Even as Buddhism became an export from India to Japan and China, at home it faded away because it failed to become a political tool. Buddha himself, born into a warrior caste, refused to engage in politics. 2,500 years later, his philosophy is experiencing a perverse revival as a political weapon to challenge the BJP’s Hindu banner. On Ambedkar Jayanti, the kin of late Dalit student Rohith Vemula, whose suicide saw Rahul Gandhi rushing to Hyderabad in search of fatal capital, converted to Buddhism blaming political injustice. “From today, my mother and I will start a life that Rohith always dreamt of... I will be truly free, free from shame,” Rohith’s younger brother Raja said, blaming Smriti Irani and other ministers for his brother’s suicide.
Unlike the Vemulas, Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism was a symbolic gesture against the upper castes’ domination of the Congress pantheon. Significantly, there is not a single Dalit icon in the freedom struggle among a khadi-clad officer cadre that boasted Nehru, Patel, Naidu, Lal, Bal, Pal, Ghosh and Jinnah. And Gandhi, the generalissimo of non-violence who believed in a greater moral force that would unite Hinduism, and therefore India, failed to remove untouchability. Ambedkar believed that the Mahatma—a title he felt Gandhi didn’t deserve—was in reality an upper caste chauvinist who opposed the former’s advice to the British to allow Dalit voters to choose their own leaders in Parliament and was against Dalit children to be educated in schools dominated by upper castes. Gandhi’s fast unto death against these alienated him from mainline Dalit sympathy. “How can the ‘untouchables’ regard such a man as honest and sincere?” Ambedkar said. The suited, booted low caste leader went on to become the Father of the Constitution. On October 14, 1956, Ambedkar and over three lakh Dalit followers converted to Buddhism, disgusted by the Congress’s version of inclusive Hinduism. “What the Buddha calls Dhamma differs fundamentally from what is called religion,” he wrote. As the decades rolled by, the Congress and its clones perfected sectarian politics, using caste as the only algorithm for winning votes. This pushed India into a darkness neither Gandhi nor Ambedkar would have desired.
Except for disadvantaged tribals who become Christians dreaming of equality and a better life, conversion hasn’t got much purchase in the country. Buddhism is the new Hinduism, and by invoking Sakyamuni, the Opposition has found a new political god against the BJP. But reservation, Mayawati and Nitish Kumar’s politics, like it or not, have already given the Dalit political relevance. Development, an education system however flawed, and growing urban employment opportunities have empowered the Dalits in ways Gandhi and Nehru wouldn’t have dreamed of. Corrupting the Buddha as a conversion magnet and a 21st century political avatar is doing him a cardinal disservice. All it remains to be seen to complete the cynical circus is whether Rahul Gandhi will convert to Buddhism in 2019. Now, that would be a sight to behold.
ravi@newindianexpress.com