Trading Cultures by Heung Wah Wong
Author:Heung Wah Wong
Language: ara, eng, fra, jpn, zho
Format: epub
Publisher: Bridge21 Publications
Published: 2015-03-24T02:21:56+00:00
Notes
The names “New Buddhist” and “Neo Buddhist” have been used to label Buddhists who followed Ambedkar in converting from Hinduism to Buddhism. However, Buddhists in Nagpur city regard the names “New Buddhist” and “Neo Buddhist” as derogatory terms. Many have voiced criticisms in the following manner: “Buddhists abroad call Buddhists in India New Buddhists, and distinguish Buddhists in India from overseas Buddhists so that they implicitly suggest that Buddhists in India are ‘untouchables.’ Buddhists abroad do not accept Buddhists in India as the same Buddhists.” Among Nagpur Buddhists, the term “Converted Buddhists” has also been criticized. That is because over 50 years have passed since the 1956 mass conversion. Now, those who converted in that original ceremony are in their late 60s at least. In present-day Nagpur city, many Buddhists were not converted from Hinduism, but were born as Buddhists into Buddhist families. These Buddhists call themselves “Buddhists,” and want to be known as “Buddhist” rather than “New” or “Converted Buddhists.” For these reasons, this paper respects the wishes of the Nagpur Buddhists and does not refer to them as either “New Buddhists” or “Converted Buddhists” but simply as “Buddhists.” Also, in contemporary India, the designation “Dalit,” which means “the suppressed,” has replaced “untouchable” in popular use. However, this paper uses the latter designation. This is because, according to Ambedkar’s teachings (Ambedkar 1990 [1948]), Buddhists became regarded as “untouchables” in ancient times, and thus contemporary “untouchables” should be regarded as being equal to Buddhists. Owing to these teachings, Buddhists in Nagpur city use the term “untouchable” more often than “Dalit,” particularly when discussing their history.
However, Nagpur Buddhists share the common perception that the Buddhist population in the census does not reflect the actual population of Buddhists; they believe that the number in the census is much smaller than the actual number. Buddhists consider the actual number of Buddhists in India to be between 10 million to 100 million; the number varies depending who is speaking and from where he or she is speaking. Some Buddhists even say that the Buddhist population in India is around 200 million. This is the same for the Buddhist population in Nagpur city: Buddhists commonly believe that the Buddhist population accounts for 30 percent or 40 percent of the city’s total population. Based on this understanding, the Buddhist population in Nagpur city would be between 60 or 80 million people, which would be over double the number given in the Census of India 2001.
The relationship between the Buddhists’ efforts and Japanese Buddhist monk Sasai’s religious thoughts and practices is discussed in Nemoto (2010). Since he came to Nagpur in 1968 and engaged in the “untouchable” liberation movement with Buddhists in Nagpur city, Sasai has developed his own philosophy of Buddhism. Sasai says, “Equality is discrimination, discrimination is equality. If you see the aspect of discrimination in this real world, equality appears, and if you look at the side of equality, discrimination appears. We must carry out both the struggle to resist discrimination and the equality that accepts those who discriminate us.
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