Mayura Choudhari is a freelance journalist. She is a visiting faculty member at the Bachelor of Mass Media Department at Siddharth College, Mumbai.

Many believe that religion is a constant presence in human society. When he converted to Buddhism with more than 600,000 of his fellow Dalits, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar said that humanity needs Dhamma, but also outlined the major difference between Dharma and Dhamma (Buddha and His Dhamma 1957, Book 4, Part 1, Chapter 2). Whereas Dharma denotes religion, or a set of beliefs that need not to be questioned but followed, Dhamma refers to the Buddhist philosophy that gives us a set of ethics and morals to be applied in daily life. This application is intended for the betterment of all and the maximizing of collective wellbeing (based on the concept of Bahujan Hitay Bahujan Sukhay—for the happiness of the many, for the welfare of the many).

For millennia, we have been conditioned in such a way that we need some supernatural power to rely on for our own good. Religion imparts hope, direction, and meaning. Yet while human beings created religion, everyone believes that religion created humanity. Be it Christianity or Hinduism or Islam, everyone has their own theory of human development. When we talk about religion, we set logic aside; popular expressions of religions do not generally permit us to question its laws and theories. It is believed that God, gods, or other divine powers, through religion, have been guarding human beings. The reality on the ground contradicts this assumption: it is human beings who have been guarding their religions.



We see this most clearly in contemporary India, where the majoritarian religion of Hinduism is said to always be in danger. Therefore, the first priority of believers has become one of protecting the religion; with violence a justifiable part of the ideology.

India and religious politics

India has been a democratic republic for more than 70 years, a diverse country rich in cultures, languages, and beliefs. Its values of fraternity and secularism are enshrined in its Constitution. Tragically, the majority religion of Hinduism has often contradicted this ideal of “Unity in Diversity,” despite acknowledging differences. It has done so by discriminating and stratifying differences within the religion itself. This deeply rooted cultural inclination is called the Varna System, which has four major Varnas and thousands of castes within. The architects of this divide-and-conquer game benefit at the expense of millions of people, who are taken advantage of and misled.



The Buddha was the first person to challenge this Vedic Dharma, which was and remains based on social discrimination and hierarchy. Thus Buddha denied “Dharma” and established “Dhamma,” the Middle Way, as the way for equity and equality. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar wrote: “India’s history is nothing but mortal conflict between Buddhism and Brahmanism.” (Revolution and Counter-revolution in Ancient India, Part 2, Chapter 7) Since the era of Yuddha (as mentioned in the Rigveda and Vishnupuran), there was always a conflict raging between the indigenous kings of the land and the so-called “Arya” Brahmins that imported their Vedic Dharma into the subcontinent.

Despite being a minority, the Brahmins have successfully bamboozled the majority population of indigenous Indians to see Hinduism as a majoritarian religion under threat. This Vedic bias has been guiding Indian politics for centuries. Today Hinduism has reached the apex of its power. The Brahmin-affiliated classes have used religion as the most useful tool to push the notion of Vedic superiority and its “manifest destiny” over India’s large population.

A non-Indian might see Indian history as a recurring conflict between Hindus and Muslims, Mughals versus Marathas, or partitioned India against Pakistan or Bangladesh. The divide-and-rule policy is blamed on the British, who did use it among Indians, but it originated among the Brahmins, who have used it against indigenous Indians for centuries. Even today we see Hindus and Muslims being divided up for cynical political ends. Hindus are not monolithic, but a collection of many castes segregated by heirarchy, while Muslims in India are converts from lower Hindu castes, similar to the Buddhists that converted after 1956 under the leadership of Dr. Ambedkar.

Although our Constitution frames freedom of religion as a fundamental right and an individual’s choice, actual moves to conversion mostly occur in the so-called lower castes of the caste system, many of whom were treated as untouchables. Thus, during the Mughal period these untouchables chose Islam, during the British Raj they chose Christianity, and in modern India they come to Buddhism in large numbers.



A very recent example of such conversions is from Chennai, where Dalit Cameras (a popular YouTube channel) founder Ravinchandran (now Raees Mohammed), along with many others from his community, converted to Islam in January 2020. All of this just to renounce Hinduism, which never treated them as human beings, or human enough. According to the Vedas, all the lower castes are supposed to live life serving the Brahmins.