Sunday 17th April at 12.30 – Heart and Soul: The Dalit Hindus of India
Sunita Thakur investigates why in recent months hundreds of thousands of India’s Dalit Hindus are leaving their faith and converting to Buddhism.
Despite making up 150 million people in India, as Dalits they are neither seen nor heard. Changing their religion makes them visible. They will hide their roots, give up their name, and change their religion, all in an effort to escape their caste.
India’s Dalits are reconciling their religious conversion by referencing the most prominent Dalit in India and architect of the Indian’s Constitution, Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Six weeks before he died in 1951 Ambedkar said publicly Hinduism would not let Dalits live in dignity so he would convert to Buddhism. Sunita also meets those Dalits who have chosen not to convert, adamant a faithful life in the present will be rewarded by birth into a higher caste in the next.
In some states governing bodies, increasingly wary of conversions by the Dalits, have amended anti-conversion laws to classify Buddhism as a branch of the Hindu religion, denying it’s status as unique religion. Sunita talks to Swami Agnivesh, Buddhist monk and Winner of the Right Livelihood Award, discussing the validity of such claims – whether Buddhism is simply an off shoot of Hinduism, and how the similarities and differences between the two faiths affect the religious journey of the individual wishing to convert.