What Ambedkar’s conversion tells us about caste and belonging today

Mar 10, 2026 | 10:04 IST

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Seventy years after B R Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism, his decision still speaks to unresolved questions of caste, religious belonging and ecological justice. Revisiting his break with Hinduism reveals why the promise of annihilating caste remains unfinished business in India

In 1956, Dr B R Ambedkar fulfilled his solemn promise made in 1935 to an audience in Yeola, near Nashik, that although he was born a Hindu, he would not die a Hindu. Seventy years after his conversion to Buddhism, how should we who are guided by his thought and work respond to his decision? What do we learn from it?

TOI

TOI

What Ambedkar’s conversion tells us about caste and belonging today

Seventy years after B R Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism, his decision still speaks to unresolved questions of caste, religious belonging and ecological justice. Revisiting his break with Hinduism reveals why the promise of annihilating caste remains unfinished business in India

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TOI

What Ambedkar’s conversion tells us about caste and belonging today

Seventy years after B R Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism, his decision still speaks to unresolved questions of caste, religious belonging and ecological justice. Revisiting his break with Hinduism reveals why the promise of annihilating caste remains unfinished business in India

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