A Legacy of Revival and Revolution: The Buddhist Resurgence in India

 

A Legacy of Revival and Revolution: The Buddhist Resurgence in India

By Sat Pal Muman

Ambedkar Centre, Southall, Middlesex – 5 October 2025

In a world gripped by religious and racial hatred, climate disasters, and unchecked political rhetoric, the message of Buddhism offers a timeless anchor of peace and rationality. This was the central theme of a powerful address by Sat Pal Muman at the Dhamma Deeksha event, organised by the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations, which traced the monumental journey of Buddhism’s revival in India.

The speech highlighted that the resurgence of Buddhism in India is not a modern phenomenon but a historical inevitability, foreseen as early as 1881 by Sir William Hunter, who stated, "the revival of Buddhism is, I repeat, one of the possibilities in India." Given India's current stature as a significant global player and the second-largest economy in Asia, this revival holds profound consequences for world peace and prosperity, hearkening back to the global diplomacy of the Ashokan Empire.

Unearthing a Lost Heritage

The narrative of revival began with the work of 18th and 19th-century pioneers. Figures like Padre Tieffenthaler, Captain Polier, and the pivotal James Prinsep, who deciphered ancient Prakrit inscriptions, began to unveil a lost heritage. The advent of Alexander Cunningham, the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, accelerated this process. He excavated Sarnath at his own expense in 1837 and, in 1851, opened the great stupas of Sanchi, discovering the sacred relics of the Buddha’s chief disciples, Sariputta and Moggallana.

Following in the footsteps of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang, Cunningham successfully identified most of the Buddhist shrines across India. His successors, like James Burgess, and the first Indian archaeologist, Dr Bhagwanlal Indraji, continued this vital work, unearthing Ashokan edicts and stupas.

The Literary Renaissance

The literary activities of Western and Indian scholars gave a further boost to this renaissance. The pioneering Indian scholar Rajendra Lal Mitra, with works like ‘Buddha Gaya’ and ‘Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal’, aroused considerable interest in Buddhist studies. This collective intellectual effort, Muman noted, built the momentum for the mass movement to come.

Ambedkar’s Genius: Synthesising the Dhamma

While explorers and scholars created a new awakening, the transformation into a mass movement is credited to one man: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. "Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was a scholar of immense depth," Muman stated. He studied the ancient sects—Theravada, Sarvastivada, Mahasangika, Vatsiputriya, and the vast branches of Mahayana and Tantrism—and saw how the Buddha's original teachings had accumulated "dead wood" over 2,500 years.

His genius was to synthesise this vast ocean of knowledge, cutting through the accretions to capture the essential, rational, and socially liberating core of the Buddha's Dhamma. This lifelong study culminated in his magnum opus, "The Buddha and His Dhamma," published with the explicit hope of setting humanity on a modern, scientific, and humanistic footing.

Muman paid tribute to the great Indian scholars who lit the torch before him, including Dharmananda Kosambi, Rahul Sankrityayan, Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan, and Ven. Jagdish Kashyap.

The Climax: A Historic Mass Conversion

The revival reached its climax on 14th October 1956, the year of the 2500th Buddha Jayanti. On that Dussehra day, which Dr. Ambedkar explicitly called Dhamma Deeksha Day, he and half a million of his followers embraced Buddhism in a historic ceremony in Nagpur. It was the most significant event of peaceful religious conversion on a single day in human history, achieved without a single drop of blood. The following days saw hundreds of thousands more embrace the faith in Nagpur and Chandrapur.

The impact was dramatic. The Buddhist population in India, a meagre 2,487 in 1951, skyrocketed to 2,789,501 by the 1961 census—a transformation entirely attributable to Dr. Ambedkar's movement. Today, estimates suggest there are over 20 million Buddhists in India, with thousands of Buddha viharas across the country, a testament to the enduring power of what Muman termed the "Buddha Dhamma Revolution."

A Point of Historical Inquiry

Concluding his address, Muman shared a point of personal reflection. He noted that he found no reference in Dr. Ambedkar's writings linking Dhamma Deeksha Day to Ashoka Vijayadashami, and questioned why the event is sometimes described as Dhamma Chakra Parivartan (turning the wheel of Dhamma), which refers to the Buddha's first sermon. "I do not believe Dhamma Chakra Parivartan should be confused with Dhamma Deeksha," he stated, inviting learned members of the gathering to shed light on these historical nuances.

"Finally, my friends," Muman concluded, "we are the heirs to this great and peaceful revolution started by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Let us carry its legacy forward with the wisdom, compassion, and unwavering commitment to equality that he embodied."

Namo Buddhaye, Jai Bheem