A great light of the 20th century,
This review is from: Ambedkar and Buddhism (Paperback)
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born at the end of the 19th century as the last child of 14 into a family of untouchables. The lowest caste in Indian Hindu society, untouchables were not allowed to drink the same water as other castes, could not walk the same streets, in fact had to be careful of the sun so as not to cast a shadow over higher caste persons. They were denied education or any but the most menial employment. They were forbidden even to hear, sing or read the Vedas, the very scriptures underpinning the moral order enslaving them. The penalty for defiance could be death.
Despite having been born with few advantages, Ambekar would go on to become not only one of India's first university educated untouchables, but also one of the first of his caste to do post-graduate work overseas, earning degrees at both New York's Columbia University and the London School of Economics. Returning home he took up the cause of emancipation of the lower caste, tussling with Gandhi, whom he found patronizing, and after independence serving the Nehru government as chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee. He is remembered in India today as the father of the constitution. After establishing a college for untouchables and an unsuccessful run for political office, he retired to writing about Buddhism and in his final days led a mass ceremony of conversion to Buddhism for nearly half a million untouchables before passing away in 1956.
The author of this book, Sangharakshita, has an equally compelling story that is only briefly reviewed within its pages. An Englishman stationed to India during WWII, he stayed on after the war to become a Buddhist monk, spending 14 years in India during which he met Ambedkar on three occasions, participating in campaigns to empower untouchables through Buddhism. After returning to the UK, Sangharakshit founded the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order and became a prolific speaker and writer on Buddhist topics, including this biography, in which he attempts to trace the origin and development of Ambedkar's interest in and later adoption of Buddhism, as well as to summarize Ambekar's major writings. Beginning with the time he was presented as a child with a biography of the Buddha, the reader is given a thorough overview of Ambekar's life, as well as his major ideas, including the origin of caste and untouchability, and his conception of a stripped down, socially engaged Buddhism for a new age. Unfortunately in such a survey not everything can be described in great detail and so some particulars are glossed, but nothing so much that it leaves the story incomplete.
Despite having been written by a Buddhist, Ambedkar and Buddhism is pitched to the general reader, does not proselytize, and requires only a passing familiarity with Buddhism and 20th century Indian history. This book is also a worthy companion to the 2000 film, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, helping to fill in some of the detail in Ambedkar's thinking.
- New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) The central government Wednesday set up a committee to develop Dr. Ambedkar National Centre for Social Justice and a memorial in Delhi.news.in.msn.com/national/
article.aspx?cp-documentid=5638768 - More than 200 people damaged public property and indulged in rioting in the suburban areas of Khar and Bandra here late on Monday night, protesting a derogatory page ...www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-
states/article1459287.ece
more results from thehindu.com » - Read 'Agra gears up for Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations' on Yahoo!. Agra, April 13 (IANS) Preparations are in place for the three-day Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations ...in.news.yahoo.com/agra-gears-ambedkar-
jayanti...
more results from in.news.yahoo.com » - Dec 4, 2003 . NEWS ANALYSIS: Ambedkar Foundation - Ambedkar Memorial and Museum: Eleven years had passed by, since the establishment of Ambedkar Foundation, as ...www.dalitindia.com/news/news9.htm
- Read 'Name Mumbai station after Ambedkar, says Congress' on Yahoo!. Mumbai, July 6 (IANS) The Congress Wednesday demanded that Dadar railway junction of teh city ...in.news.yahoo.com/name-mumbai-station-
ambedkar-says... - Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s dream of setting up a university in Talegaon remains unfulfilled to this day. Inspired by the universities of Nalanda and Takshila, Ambedkar ...www.punemirror.in/article/2...
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Name Mumbai station after Ambedkar, says Congress
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Mumbai, July 6 (IANS) The Congress Wednesday demanded that Dadar railway junction of teh city should be renamed as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Railway Terminus.
Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) chief Kripashankar Singh said he has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Minister of State for Railways Mukul Roy with a formal demand.
Dadar is the most important junction which serves as the only intersection point of the Central Railway and Western Railway in teh city besides being a mini-terminus for several long-distance trains.
The Congress appeal comes amidst similar demands from the Shiv Sena, Republican Party of India, and the Nationalist Congress Party.
In the letter, Singh has said: 'Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Ambedkar was cremated at Shivaji Park (near Dadar). His last remains have been kept at the very place. This place is called 'Chaityabhoomi.' Lakhs of followers of Ambedkar visit this place every year and majority of them use the railway facility at Dadar to reach Chaityabhoomi.'
'The followers of Dr Ambedkar strongly feel that the Dadar Railway Terminus should be renamed after him as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Railway Terminus.'
Chaityabhoomi, at a stone's throw from the Shivaji Park in Dadar, was the place where the Ambedkar was cremated Dec 6, 1956.
Later converted into a national monument, it attracts millions of Dalits from Maharashtra and other parts of the country on Ambedkar's death anniversary.
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