I believe that the religion of saints is the original religion of Bharat...
I believe that all human beings are equal, and brothers...; the feeling
of high and low is an illusion. Humans become high and low by their
own [individual] virtues and vices...
I believe that giving up lust, greed, attachment...is one’s [true]
personal religion...
I believe that according to the teachings of Kabir all the Brahman’s
scriptures (dharma grantha) are based on selfishness, falsehood and
injustice...I will never have our rites of birth, tonsure ceremony,
marriage and death performed by a Brahman (quoted Khare 1984: 84).This includes a strong rejection of the rites, rituals and sacred texts
of the Brahmanic tradition. It asserts equality and individualism in
spiritual matters; it suggests that greed or thirst is what must be
given up; it seeks to substitute the ‘company of saints’ for other
religious institutions. This seems to have been strongly influenced
by Kabir’s nirguna bhakti. Yet, as Hawley and Juergensmeir have
noted in their introductions to Kabir and Ravidas’ songs (1988:
16–23, 46–49), there have been strong ongoing processes of
absorption which turn these great rebels into figures of worship
within what can be interpreted as a pantheon of ‘Hinduisation’.
In conclusion, the 19th and early 20th centuries gave birth to
powerful currents of cultural-religious radicalism which underlay
the anti-caste movements of Dalits and non-Brahmans. As these
moved towards an alternative religion, the Buddhist alternative
became increasingly attractive. However there were also counter-
currents which pulled Dalits and non-Brahmans back into a
Brahmanic framework. The greatest ideological support for this
backward pull was to come in the 20th century first from Gandhian
Hindu reformism and finally, from the wave of Marxist radicalism
which disdained all ‘religious’ solutions in its hopes for a proletarian
revolution. As the greatest Indian of the millennium, Bhimrao
Ambedkar, rose up from among those whom the dominant tradi-
tion of his country considered untouchable, he had to confront
both of these in formulating a Buddhist alternative.
242 Buddhism in India