Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's View on Buddhism

In the critical approach of Dr. Babasaheb R. Ambedkar to religion and his subsequent conversion to Buddhism as an ethical and social philosophy, this essay examines his understanding of the concept of untouchability. It argues that the criticism of untouchability made by Ambedkar was based on an advanced moral interpretation of caste as a social practice and ideology supported by religion and not limited to the legal and economic sense. Dr. When Ambedkar recognised untouchability as a cultural and ethical problem that could not be eliminated only through constitutional means, he showed how the Brahmanical Hinduism structure fulfilled the need to justify graded inequalities. Thus, it was the rejection of a religious institution that denied human dignity, moral equality, and social fraternity and not the rejection of religion as such. The essay proceeds to demonstrate how Dr B.R. Ambedkar felt the need to reconstruct religion into a rational, egalitarian and humanistic form of moral order that could transcend the issues behind untouchability. By understanding Buddhism as a social ethic and a social democracy, which is grounded in equality and compassion and in reason, it converted Buddhism into a foundational element of social democracy and moral citizenship. Navayana Buddhism made conversion a less spiritual choice but a community action of self-liberation. This paper highlights the enduring importance of the Buddhist vision of Dr B.R. Ambedkar in addressing the long-standing social injustice and establishment of the democratic culture founded on liberty, equality, and fraternity by situating his views in broad deliberations on caste, democracy, and moral philosophy.