Dr Ambedkar And Sikhism

[JaMdooT]

I am a little confused over this topic; you guys probably know that around 1930's, the founder of the Dalit movement Dr. Ambedkar was so fed up of Hindu caste system that he looked into other religions and seriously considered conversion to Sikhism at one point. He had a massive support of all the dalits of that period and who were seeking a new way of life. Their number was almost 20 times the population of Sikhs at that time and were ready to convert and had it happened Sikhs might have been a majority in India today. To easy the transition of these people, various proposals were made to start colleges to teach Sikhi.

But for some reason, even after making a serious effort towards Sikhism, it didn't work out and he converted to Buddhism with half a million of his followers.

Now(please, I am not disputing if it was good or bad) I am simply asking you guys if any of you know what was the reason that he ended up not coming to Sikhi, even after making various efforts.

I have heard that our Panthic leaders at that time didn't let that happen. It would be great, if you guys can elaborate on this one.

Fateh !!

[Medallion Stallion]

im not sure if this is right so i apologise in advance:

He liked sikhism and wanted his followers to join sikhism but at that time he argued that sikhs were fighting amongst themselve, i.e. caste, sadly still even like today...............and he said those sikhs were being hypocrites and not practicising what they were preaching so he moved to Buddhism...............shame really :sady:

once again im not sure if what i said is right..................

[proactive]

I think that nowadays it has become fashionable to criticise the Sikh leaders of that time and exonerate Dr Ambedkar. The truth is a bit different. If you read the biography of Bhai Narain Singh who was the first manager of the Nankana Sahib Estate after Mahant Narayan was kicked out and who was allocated the task of creating the educational institutes for these new Sikhs. He says that there was fault on both sides as well as with Gandhi as he was against Dalits becoming Sikhs. Many of the Akali leaders were more interested in running for upcoming elections to SGPC at the time and Dr Ambedkar was milking the Sikhs for everything he could get. Khalsa College in Bombay was built purely as an educational institute for the followers of Dr Ambedkar. The Akali Dal created the 'Sarb Hind Sikh Mission' as an organisation to provide the logistical infrastructure for the conversions. The Akalis had even been willing to entirely fund the creation of a newspaper just to publicise the writings of Dr Ambedkar. Ambedkar thought that with his millions of followers he could take over Sikhi but when he found that he could only play a minor role in Sikh politics because he had virtually no followers in North India he gave up his plan to convert to Sikhi. A few good outcomes from the Dr Ambedkar episode was that the Sikhs refugees fleeing Sind and Punjab who came to Bombay had a first class educational institute to cater for their needs. The SGPC became more interested in Sikhi Parchar outside Punjab and set up the Aligarh and Hapur Sikh missions in UP.

Just as a sidenote, the Indian constitution which lumps Sikhs along with the Hindus was the creation of Dr Ambedkar.

[chatanga]

proactive the main point was that Ambedkar was infulenced by the attitudes of the ruling akalis towards him .they realised after a word in ther ear from mahatma and like that the lower castes would take over the Sikh instituions and the higher castes would become a minority in thier religion, and so the akalis kinda cooled things off between themselves and ambedkar, so ambedkar got the feeling that again the akalis were putting thier personal ineterests andcastes aboove sikhi.

its really a shame tho that ambedkar looked at sikhi thru the akalis when he should have been looking to the like of Sant Sundar Singh and Sant Gurbachan Singh, Sant Ishar Singh , Baba Sahib Singh KalaDhari and all the other mahapursh who would have given a better picture of Sikhi.

Realising that even after conversion to sikhi would only marginaly raise the status of the dalits ambedkar went totaly opposite and embraced a religion that is very diiferent to sikhi- budism, even after he said the the Guru Granth Sahib is the key to God.

chatanga

[JaMdooT]

Ambedkar thought that with his millions of followers he could take over Sikhi but when he found that he could only play a minor role in Sikh politics because he had virtually no followers in North India he gave up his plan to convert to Sikhi.

Bhaaji, I understand what u are saying but I am not sure about your above statement. Looking at the time when he chose Buddhism, he had severe problems and everyone knew he gonna die sometime soon; thats exactly what happened, he died a few months after converting to Buddhism.

So I am not sure if you can justify his wanding off from Sikhism by saying that he realized that he couldn't play a major role in Sikh politics.

proactive the main point was that Ambedkar was infulenced by the attitudes of the ruling akalis towards him .they realised after a word in ther ear from mahatma and like that the lower castes would take over the Sikh instituions and the higher castes would become a minority in thier religion, and so the akalis kinda cooled things off between themselves and ambedkar, so ambedkar got the feeling that again the akalis were putting thier personal ineterests andcastes aboove sikhi.

chatanga

^^

This is what I've come across as well. Sadly, looking at our panth today, I gotta say maybe he did make the right decision converting to Buddhism - to completely get out of caste system.

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

the author of "behind the mask of divinity" a book exposing the real "mahaatma", says ambedkar was pressured by gandhi not to accept sikhi. everythingw as set and ambedkar was to take amrit, when he didn't show up teh sikhs asked him what ahppened and he said his hands were tied.

just as the british didn't mind a naked gandhi and his non-violence marches, the hindu facist leaders didn't mind a bunch of peaceful buddhists, whereas a new group of tens of millions of sikhs would have scared the living daylights out of the gandhi-nehru propaganda machinery.

it is said that gandhi threatened to fast until death if ambedkar accepted sikhi, like a typical little baby who refuses to eat whenever he wants something.....

anyways.

india has so much shady history that we will never know the full truth.

peace.

[raj_karega_khalsa]

yeaa ive been wondering about this guy for a while....at the surrey nagar keertan there one of the signs comin off an airplane taht said 'happy dr.ambedkar day' lol i was suppper confused