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That doesn’t follow. Take Dr. Ambedkars neo-Buddhist movement for instance. By calling themselves Buddhist, upwardly mobile untouchables could identify with a
by jaldhar 7y ago
That doesn’t follow. Take Dr. Ambedkars neo-Buddhist movement for instance. By calling themselves Buddhist, upwardly mobile untouchables could identify with a socially prestigious “world religion” that was still identifiably Indian. Never mind that there was no connection to actual historical Indian Buddhism which had gone extinct centuries earlier. But it could be recovered (or reimagined) from books. Read his works and you will see that he appeals to and rebels against colonialist notions just like any other contemporary Indian thinker. To assume it was all about upper castes and the British is more trendy academic bullshit IMO.
- abhiyerra 7y agoAmbedkar was a response to Gandhi and his caste Hindu movement. The Independence movement is split into three groups: 1) Upper Caste Hindus 2) Untouchables (or Harijans as Gandhi called them) 3) Muslims. Most untouchables did not like Gandhi because he sought to keep the caste power structure, hence the response from Ambedkar to escape that hierarchy altogether by moving to Buddhism. The initial organized independence movements which were largely confined to Bengal during the 1900-1918 timeframe were very much an upper-caste movement.