Preface
India in 2003 is at a turning point. On one hand, even as this book
was being written, a raging ‘Hindutva’ force had turned the move-
ment for ‘Ram mandir’ into pogroms against Muslims, spreading
death and fire over the entire state of Gujarat, displaying a face of
India etched in terror. On the other, growing interest in Buddhism
as well as a growing reconsideration of the role of Christianity
and Islam in India, is leading to a far-ranging reassessment of the
cultural, spiritual and artistic heritage of the subcontinent.
Questions such as ‘who are we?’ and ‘what is really our heritage’?,
questions which cut at the heart of the attempt to foist a Hindu
identity on the Dalit-Bahujan masses, are being debated with new
fervour.
This book grew, in an unintended and almost spontaneous
process, out of the ‘Dalit Visions’ project sponsored by the Karuna
Trust in England. ‘Dalit Visions’ was conceived of in discussions
with G. Aloysius, Raj Kumar, Bharat Patankar and others as an
open-ended project of translation that would bring forward the
philosophical, ideological and historical contributions of the major
men and women intellectuals of India’s radical anti-caste move-
ments. The first round of the project included translations of the
writings of Jotirao Phule (Maharashtra), Iyothee Thassar (Tamil
Nadu) and Bhima Bhoi (Orissa) done throughout the 1999–
period. These were originally to be accompanied with a survey,
provided by me, of Buddhism in modern India, which would pro-
vide a framework for looking at these works. This was what turned
into a project much longer than at first envisaged. Looking at
Buddhism in modern India required some knowledge of the origi-
nal texts; this led me first into an intensive reading of translations
of Pali literature and then into looking at interpretations of these
and using the perspective for a re-study of the history of ancient
India. It has been an absorbing and exciting process, reshaping
much of my own understanding of Indian history and society. The
results are visible in the book before you.