AP News, May 27th, 2007
About 2,000 low-caste Hindu Indians bowed before orange-robed monks and recited prayers as they converted to Buddhism in a mass ceremony Sunday that they said would bring them dignity in a society that considers them "untouchables."
"I feel like I have been reborn," Mahi, a farmer who uses only one name, said at the ceremony in Mumbai. "This is my rebirth."
Organizers said the ceremony was conducted in the spirit of B.R. Ambedkar, an untouchable, or dalit, who fought British colonial rule and injustice in Indian society. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution that outlawed discrimination based on caste, renounced Hinduism for Buddhism in 1956 because he believed it treated people equally. He died that same year.
Buddhists form a small minority in mostly Hindu India.
"There has been injustice done to us for so many years. This (conversion) is our fight for justice," said Mahi.
Similar ceremonies are held across India several times a year, but organizers said this was one of the biggest. In addition to the converts, several thousand others came to witness the ceremony.
Most of the converts were men who traveled from remote corners of Maharashtra state where discrimination against dalits is common.
Mahi described life in villages where dalit children could not enter schools and dalits were forced off local buses.
"If we change our religion, things should improve, we will get respect," he said. "This is our beginning."
Traditional Hindu society in India sets limits on economic and educational progress among those born in low-caste families. Dalits say they are routinely barred from entering temples and schools despite the caste system being outlawed.
"There has been so much discrimination and nothing is done to stop it," said Jayandra Kamble, a trader from Mumbai who converted to Buddhism on Sunday. "I now belong to a religion that truly believes in peace and harmony."
