Dalit Movement In India Role Of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

by Jai Shankar Prasad

Overview

The Dalit Buddhist movement (dubbed as Navayana by certain Ambedkerites) is a 19th and 20th-century Buddhist revival movement in India. It received its most substantial impetus from B. R. Ambedkar’s call for the conversion of Dalits to Buddhism, in 1956, to escape a caste-based society that considered them to be the lowest in the hierarchy. Ambedkar saw Buddhism as a means to end the caste system in India. The main issues around which most of the Dalit movements have been centred in the colonial and post colonial periods are confined to the problem of untouchability. The Dalits demanded a separate electorate in the 1930s which led to a conflict between Ambedkar and Gandhi. In the early 1930s Ambedkar concluded that the only way of improving the status of the untouchables was to renounce the Hindu religion. Ambedkar and his followers were converted to Buddhism in 1956. This important book traces the history of the Dalit movement from its beginning in the 19th century to the death of its most famous leader, B.R. Ambedkar, in 1956.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789388034647
Publisher:	Arts & Science Academic Publishing
Publication date:	06/30/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	270
File size:	515 KB

About the Author

Dr. Jai Shankar Prasad is principal of Samastipur College, Samastipur, a prestigious constituent College of Lalit Narayan Mishra Darbhanga University, Darbhanga. Dr. Prasad has obtained his M.A. from Bihar University, Muzaffarpur and Ph.D. from Patna University, Patna in subject of History. His area of interests include- Methodology of Social Sciences, Sociology of Marginalized Sections and Sociology of Indian Diaspora. A life of struggle produce the best in him and he is able to dedicate himself for the cause of Dalits and other marginal groups in Indian society.