Classical Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism and the Question of Caste

This book examines the interface between Buddhism and the caste system in India. It discusses how Buddhism in different stages, from its early period to contemporary forms—Theravada, Mahayana, Tantrayana and Navayana—dealt with the question of caste. It also traces the intersections between the problem of caste with those of class and gender. The volume reflects on the interaction between Hinduism and Buddhism: it looks at critiques of caste in the classical Buddhist tradition while simultaneously drawing attention to the radical challenge posed by DrB. R. Ambedkar’s Navayana Buddhism or neo-Buddhism. The essays in the book further compare approaches to var?a and caste developed by modern thinkers such as M. K. Gandhi and S. Radhakrishnan with Ambedkar’s criticisms and his departures from mainstream appraisals. With its interdisciplinary methodology, combining insights from literature, philosophy, political science and sociology, the volume explores contemporary critiques of caste from the perspective of Buddhism and its historical context. By analyzing religion through the lens of caste and gender, it also forays into the complex relationship between religion and politics, while offering a rigorous study of the textual tradition of Buddhism in India. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of Indian philosophy, Buddhist studies, Indology, literature (especially Sanskrit and Pali), exclusion and discrimination studies, history, political studies, women studies, sociology, and South Asian studies.

Foreword: caste in classical and contemporary Buddhism GAIL OMVEDT Introduction PRADEEP P. GOKHALE PART I Classical Buddhism and caste 1 Buddha’s attitude towards the caste system as available in Pali texts BIMALENDRA KUMAR 2 Caste in classical Indian philosophy: some ontological problems PRABAL KUMAR SEN 3 Epistemological foundations of caste identities: a review of Buddhist critique of classical orthodox Indian realism AJAY VERMA 4 Casting away the caste: a Buddhist standpoint in the Vimalaprabha commentary on the Kalacakra tantra SHRIKANT BAHULKAR PART II Neo-Buddhism: Ambedkar on caste, class and gender 5 Buddha and Ambedkar on caste: a comparative overview MAHESH A. DEOKAR 6 Neo-Buddhism, Marxism and the caste question in India GOPAL GURU 7 Ambedkar’s critique of patriarchy: interrogating at intersection of caste and gender PRATIMA PARDESHI PART III Hinduism and Buddhism: interaction, conflict and beyond 8 Buddhism and Hindu society: some observations from medieval Marathi literature SHRIKANT BAHULKAR 9 The Buddhist past as a cultural conflict: Ambedkar’s exhumation of Indian history UMESH BAGADE 10 Gandhi and Ambedkar on caste VALERIAN RODRIGUES PART IV Religion, modernity and Navayana Buddhism 11 Social solidarity or individual perfection: conceptions of religion in Ambedkar and Radhakrishnan KANCHANA MAHADEVAN 12 Religion, caste and modernity: Ambedkar’s reconstruction of Buddhism P. KESAVA KUMAR 13 Ambedkar and modern Buddhism: continuity and discontinuity PRADEEP P. GOKHALE Appendix I: Vajrasuci SANGHASEN SINGH Appendix II: Vajrasuci and its reverberations R. C. DHERE

Pradeep P. Gokhale is Honorary Adjunct Professor at the Department of Pali, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India. He has 31 years of postgraduate teaching and research experience in Philosophy at Savitribai Phule Pune University, and was Dr B. R. Ambedkar Research Professor at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath (Varanasi) for six years. He has written in diverse areas such as Indian epistemology and logic; the schools of classical Indian philosophy such as Buddhism, Lokayata, Yoga and Jainism; Indian moral and social philosophy; Indian philosophy of religion; contemporary Buddhism and Ambedkar studies. His research interests have focused on the interface between orthodox and heterodox Indian thought, including between Nyaya and Buddhist logical thought. His published works include Inference and Fallacies Discussed in Ancient Indian Logic with Special Reference to Nyaya and Buddhism (1992) and Lokayata/Carvaka: A Philosophical Inquiry (2015), apart from six books in Marathi and the edited volume The Philosophy of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (2008).