Colonial Challenges and Buddhist Revival 241with the Sakya Buddhist journal Tamilan. The first Self-Respect
General Conference, in fact, was held under the auspices of the
Kolar branches of the Buddhist society in 1932, with Periyar’s
movement in many ways taking off from Tamil Buddhism. It is
thus understandable that for a long time he expressed a sympathy
to Buddhism, as distinct from the other religions which he criticised
(Aloysius 1998: 191–93).
However, in the end these developments came to a halt by the
1930s. After their discussions of Buddhism, most of the Kerala
Ezhava leaders rejected it; the influential Ezhava religious reformer,
Shree Narayana Guru, adopted instead an expansive form of
Vedanta with his slogan ‘one god, one caste, one religion for
mankind’. The temples set up by his society, the Shree Narayana
Dharma Paripalan (SNDP), resembled Hindu temples, with
installation of all kinds of idols, that is with many aspects of a
‘syndicated Hinduism’. In Tamil Nadu itself, the Sakya Buddhist
society began to be marginalised; it faded away after 1916 as the
non-Brahman movement emerged as a powerful political move-
ment, but one dominated by elite non-Brahmans. The more radical
Periyar turned to atheism. In Maharashtra, similarly, while there
was a revival of the Satyashodhak Samaj from 1910 to 1930 and a
powerful political non-Brahmanism in the 1920s, this largely
ignored Phule’ssarvajanik satya dharma. Its most powerful patron
and symbol, Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur state, became himself a
member of the Arya Samaj, and other leaders often described them-
selves as reformist Hindus. The leaders of the Dalit movement in
Maharashtra before Ambedkar tended to focus on Cokhamela as
their forerunner, through this and some were drawn into support
for Hindu Mahasabha activities.
In the north, the Dalit movements of the time, though strongly
carrying on the themes of being ‘original inhabitants’ enslaved by
invading Aryans who imposed a false religion, tended to turn to a
militant version of bhakti. Here the egalitarian focus of Kabir
and Ravidas was important. This can be seen in the themes of
Acchutananda, a Chamar leader of Uttar Pradesh:I believe that God is only one...and formless...Neither is there any
book of His; nor does he incarnate, nor is there any image of His...
I believe that I am an autochthon of Bharat; hence I am an
adi-Hindu...transmitted to them. Ethically considered, the psychic life of an individual
cannot be separated from the psychic life of the community of which
he is a member.... How, then, can a man have karmaapart from other
human beings? The enjoyments and sufferings of an individual are not
always the result of his special karma. The Milindapanhatells us that
it is an erroneous extension of the truth when the ignorant declare
that ‘every pain is the fruit of (individual) karma.’ Yet no Buddhist
will deny that everything is under the sway of causality. Unless we
regard all mankind as linked together as part of one universal whole,
we cannot perceive the full significance of the doctrine of karma.... The
life of the individual has no other possible measure than that of its sig-
nificance, its influence and its value to other individuals (Narasu
1950: 191).This was a ‘modern’ interpretation which paved the way for
Ambedkar’s Navayana Buddhism.
Towards Buddhism?
During the time of Iyothee Thass, his ‘Sakya Buddhism’ spread,
mostly with Paraiya migration, with a strong branch in the Kolar
gold mines area, and branches also in Burma and South Africa. It
found its support largely among those Paraiyas who had become
urbanised, moving away from their traditional village occupations
and finding themselves in a new life. The organisation gradually
died away; but the ferment in south India began to bring
Buddhism as a possibility before many in the Dalit and anti-caste
movements.
Thus in the 1920s, conversion to Buddhism was debated among
social reformers in the Ezhava community in Kerala, with many
arguing that Ezhavas were descendents of the Buddha (Sahadevan
1993: 48). In Hyderabad also, Dalit leaders like Bhagyareddy
Varma began to be attracted to Buddhism. Finally, in Tamil Nadu
itself, the emerging leader of the militant anti-Brahman movement,
E.V. Ramasamy (‘Periyar’) associated with the Sakya Buddhist
movement during his early career as a Tamil nationalist. He was a
frequent visitor to the Kolar gold fields during the period where his
discontent with Congress was crystallising and he was about to
launch the Self-Respect Movement; he spoke from many Buddhist
platforms and his journal exchanged news, contributions and articles
240 Buddhism in India