October 14 th – The significance of the day.

Fifty nine years back on 14th of October 1956, Babasaheb Ambedkar rejected Hinduism and accepted Buddhism in Nagpur, Maharashtra. This day is significant in many ways.

Dr Ambedkar had decided that Hinduism was hateful to him and millions of Dalits in India as it condemned them to a death-like life by religious sanction. In his own words,he famously said, “Unfortunately, I was born a Hindu untouchable—there was nothing I could do to prevent it. However, it is well within my power to refuse to live under ignoble and humiliating conditions. I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu.”

Along with Dr Ambedkar nearly 600,000 of his followers shunned Hinduism and got converted to Buddhism by accepting his 22 vows. This was one of the largest conversions in India’s post independence history.

Every year on this day to mark Dr Ambedkar’s conversion,lakhs of Dalits followed the same and and got converted to Buddhism. They renounced the Hindu religion that considered them to be the lowest in the hierarchy. This became an annual event in India and due to the sheer numbers that were involved should get publicity anywhere. But the majority media in our country always ignored it. It was not the regular Ganesha festival or the Navratri festival that needed coverage.

This event happened in many more places, in Mumbai, in Calcutta, in Lucknow and Tamil Nadu.This immediately set alarm bells ringing among the majority community.The pundits then thought of cleverer things to explain away this regular mass renouncal of the Hindu religion in the heartland of India. “All other religions like Buddhism, Jainism, born in India are actually part of the large religion which is Hinduism”, they said. In Gujarat and Tamil Nadu the governments brought laws to ban mass conversions. Dr Ambedkar provides the clearer viewpoint –“ It is false that Buddhism and Hinduism are one. In Buddha’s Dhamma there is no Casteism, inequality and chaturvarnya.”

14th of October, the day when Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism is remembered as the Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din (Mass Conversion Ceremony Day). Now, the biggest stupa in Asia is erected in his memory at
this point. 14th of October was also the traditional date of conversion of Buddhist King Ashoka of the Maurya empire.

The significance of the day is to remind ourselves the freedom to follow our religion. To put it in Ambedkar’s succinct words-“the time has arrived when religion should no longer be inherited from father to son, like goods and chattels but should be examined rationally by everybody before personal acceptance.”