In a programme on “Dr. Ambedkar and Religion” organised by Shoba-e-Dawat of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind on September 6, Mr. RS Adil enlightened the audience with short rundown on Dr. Ambedkar’s life, his inclination towards Islam and disenchantment towards the caste system in Hinduism. Ambedkar was not religiously musical in his childhood days and was very naughty. He was born in the times when Dalits could not think of getting education and in fact had no means to educate themselves. Ambedkar however studied a lot and when he came back to India in 1923, he received the first hand experience of oppression and exploitation. Even after being a highly educated man he could not get accommodation in hotels. Once when he hid his identity and got a room booked, his luggage was thrown out of the room once his identity got known. At this point Ambedkar cried his heart out and made a firm resolve to fight the preposterous caste system which denies man equal status in society.
He initiated movements to snatch the right to live with dignity from the society he was living in; however he failed to change the minds of the people and started doing political struggle to achieve the same. He was of the view that the political struggle would empower the Dalits and demanded reservations for them in the power sharing. Though his demands, stemming from the unjust treatment by the upper caste Hindus, were rational, Gandhiji opposed them giving the reason of split in the majority community. Gandhiji confronted the demand by saying that separate reservations for Dalits would mean disintegration of Hinduism, which would not be a right move.
In his initial struggles and movements, Ambedkar received a lot of support from the Muslims and in fact they gave him and his followers refuge from the oppression of the upper caste. Being moved by the indivisibility of the Muslims and the notion of oneness and equality for all in Islam Ambedkar then decided to revert to Islam. He developed the thought that Dalits would never get equal status until they remain associated with the religion they had been born in. Hence he came up with the idea of reverting to Islam. However, Gandhiji and others held secret meetings with him which lasted for three days and persuaded him not to revert to Islam and if he wanted to convert, then convert to Sikhism or any other religion. Hence, on being pursued relentlessly, he reluctantly converted to Buddhism, instead of Islam.
Mr. Adil also mentioned the book written by Arun Shourie where he writes that Ambedkar was against Islam and Muslims; however there are innumerable written texts which corroborate to the fact that Ambedkar was impressed with some of the aspects of Islam and wanted to revert to Islam. “In the issue of March 15, 1929 of Bahishkar Bharat, he writes, “If you want to change religion then become Muslim.” He also said, “If you love humanity, convert to Islam.”