Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: The necessity of Conversion

Abstract

After the Yeola declaration, where Ambedkar said that he would not die as a Hindu, A Conference of Mahars was convened by him on the 30th and 31st of May 1936 in Bombay to assess the support of people from his own caste for the conversion movement. Around thirty-five thousand Untouchable Mahars from far-flung areas came to attend the Conference. Ambedkar gave an important speech at the Conference where he stated that Hinduism did not treat the Untouchables as human beings. Hinduism prohibited them from entering the temples. Hinduism did not allow them to drink water. It was Hinduism which did not allow them to get an education. A religion which prohibited righteous relations between two humans should not be called a religion but a display of force. A religion which precluded one class from getting an education and bearing arms was not a religion from any point of view but a mockery of human life. A religion that forces the uneducated to stay uneducated and the impoverished to stay in poverty can not be regarded as a true religion but rather as a form of punishment. Ambedkar made it clear that religion is for humanity, not the other way around.^[i]