Babasaheb Ambedkar: A Model for Compassionate Activism for India and Beyond
Presented at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Different Dimensions to Social Change:
An International Conference, September 9-11, 2017Babasaheb Ambedkar, A Model for Compassionate Activism for India and Beyond
Frank M. Tedesco, Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies
True Dharma International Mission & Research Institute
The profoundly thoughtful and courageous life of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar continues to affect the minds and hearts of millions of people in India. His influence has been immense and will expand as more young people become aware of his many contributions and his large corpus of writings. His singular courage and pioneering spirit deserve much more study and recognition across his divided nation. He was a genius and a path breaker and made a great difference in the lives of millions of so-called “Untouchables” like himself.
Babasaheb Ambedkar is widely honored as an icon, but his wisdom is not well understood or accepted. He is revered but kept at a respectful distance by influential decisionmakers. A doctor may diagnose a life-threatening illness and break the bad news to a patient. The patient may deny it, reject it outright, or bury it, sharing it, no one, even his loved ones. The wiser patient faces the diagnosis directly, considers their options and begins treatment immediately. Likewise, Ambedkar’s observations and analyses of India’s frailties, its long history, its religions, and its social structure and caste divisions are denied, ignored or disparaged. Ambedkar’s insights cannot be dismissed, however, because he lived the conditions he spoke and wrote about with uncommon energy and conviction.
It takes more than change in law to bring about major social change. Education and persistent social and political action are required. The New York Times wrote in its Dec. 8, 1956 obituary of Babasaheb, that “Dr. Ambedkar was an intensely vital human being who tried to find the best way in which to work with the materials that were at hand… He set his own standards and lived up to them.” [1] He was a no-nonsense truth teller around which the privileged tremble and continue to hide his inconvenient truths.
Prominent scholars and admirers have devoted years to explain and analyze Ambedkar’s many writings and activities in their historical context. His current and future impact on India’s laws, and culture is monumental. The growth of the influence of his ideas and accomplishments on global society beyond India is the responsibility of those who affirm his vision of an enlightened humanity.
In this paper, I would like to share some of the diverse “engaged Buddhist” work and Buddhist-inspired “compassionate action” I performed in South Korea[2] and the U.S. over the last few decades. Though the historical, cultural and sociopolitical circumstances of these two countries are drastically different than late colonial India, I believe that these activities reflect Dr. Ambedkar’s spirit long after his untimely death. Unwarranted and irrational pain we inflict on each other, and on other beings on our despoiled globe is universal.
Buddhism Under Assault in South Korea
There is a history of flagrant assaults by extremist Christians on Buddhist temples and native religious shrines in South Korea that is not well known. I reported on these hate crimes and other acts of defamation against Buddhists in Korea when I resided in Seoul with my family in the 1990s. I had just finished my doctoral fieldwork on sex selective abortion and auspicious rebirth ceremonies for aborted fetuses in the spring of 1996.[3]
Late one night we were abruptly awoken by the blaring horns and straining engines of fire trucks. The emergency vehicles were attempting to negotiate very steep, unpaved roads leading to secluded temples dug deep in the mountains of the national forest on the border of northern Seoul where we lived. Three traditional wooden temples within walking distance of my home were set aflame in coordinated arson attacks while their residents were asleep. Fortunately, the residents were able to flee on time without injury. Destruction was immense to hundreds of priceless hand-carved wooden statues, valuable, traditional paintings and ornate decorations housed within the wooden structures.
Police investigation pointed to evangelical Christian fanatics who hid in the forest at night and planted homemade incendiary devices in traditional wooden temple buildings that had been constructed by hand centuries ago. Their rationale was “to drive out demons” of Buddhists and shaman folk believers who have worshipped at Buddhist shrines for centuries, if not millennia. Similar attacks have been perpetrated throughout Korea since the advent of American and British Protestant missionary activity after the Korean civil war, 1950-1953.
I also discovered systemic prejudice and demeaning actions against Buddhists in government circles, the military, public schools and universities. There were frequent Christian-led public denunciations and demonstrations in front of temples on Buddhist holidays nationwide. Korean Christian zealots identify modernity and all things progressive with Western religion(s) and American liberators from Japanese colonialism. Unfortunately, all features of traditional Korean culture were labelled antiquated, backward-looking, and associated with 36-year period of Japanese colonial subordination (1910-1945). Buddhism and traditional folk practices were denigrated, and in many cases, obliterated. Ironically, Korean shamanism is now widely accepted and considered an important cultural treasure. Temple stays are fashionable and promoted by the Korean government today!
We cannot go into the historical details at length in this paper. However, it is important to note that Koreans became a subordinated under-class in their own country, completely deprived of their autonomy and independence. They were forced to take on Japanese names and speak Japanese exclusively at school. All positions of government authority and commercial leadership were held by Japanese. Koreans were reduced to serving their Japanese masters and performing menial tasks while Japanese industrialists and merchants raped the Korean countryside in pursuit of resources to support their imperialistic conquest of Asia.
Korean Buddhist monks at that time were renowned for their strict adherence to celibacy and the traditional vinaya vows. However, they were obliged to marry like Japanese Buddhist priests or be forced out of their temples in the cities. A small number of defiant monks found refuge in deep mountain monasteries in order to maintain their vows. After liberation from Japan in 1945, the conservative monks returned to power. There has been continual turmoil and lawsuits over ownership of temples between the celibate monks of the dominant Jogye Order and married clergy.
Although the majority of the Korean population is nominally Buddhist (census figures on Korean religious membership are notoriously unreliable), regular participation in religious activities is meagre, except for the elderly, and sangha leadership and education in Buddhism is reliant on the clergy who are not trained as competent executives or teachers. Consequently, the Buddhist institutional response to the arson attacks was weak and ineffective. I was outraged both by the hateful, violent attacks on the local temples (where I had practiced as a novice and taught our daughter to bow and chant) and by the cluelessness and passivity of the Jogye Order Headquarters executives. I found myself having to “Educate, Agitate, Organize” among ordained and lay Buddhists, like Dr. Ambedkar, in order to bring public awareness to the crimes, and hopefully, some justice.
Many Korean Buddhists told me that they were intimidated by over-zealous Christians because of their confidence and outspoken vehemence of their beliefs. Many Buddhists also felt powerless because Christians were in most prominent social positions and in control of the media. They also had financial clout and could push their weight around because of many influential connections in large church organizations. A common Buddhist response to these outrageous crimes was to suppress raw feelings with religious pretense- smother anger and grief, chant harder and meditate longer- and not make any waves!
Monks and nuns gave dharma talks about forgiveness and right speech, but no one was directly confronting the atrocities that had gone on for years. They were practicing a kind of placid victimhood, and burning up inside like their temples were burning outside! Many elder Korean Buddhists were fearful of expressing their Buddhist faith, as if they were outcaste heretics. They reminded me of the humble leprosy victims I worked with in resettlement farming villages in the rural southern provinces of the country when I was a US Peace Corps volunteer in the 1980s.
I could not stand by idly and allow these destructive attacks to continue. Using my own resources and standing as a professor and UNESCO advisor, I contacted local newspapers and the foreign press to report the news of Christian terrorism. At the same time, I reached out to a few Christian ministers, Catholic priests and religion scholars I knew professionally to express my outrage and force them to declare their positions. Too many Korean Protestant clergymen and foreign missionaries wiped their hands of the matter, claiming they has no control over extremist elements and dismissed doing anything about these “un-Christian Christians.”
I was gratified to find one theology professor and minister who realized that he had to reach out to the Buddhist victims and offer his apologies and regrets. He went so far as to join his students to learn meditation from monks at a nearby temple that had suffered serious smoke damage from an arson attack. A few months later, Rev. Dr. Kim joined the symposium panel I organized to seek solutions to Christian and Buddhist friction in Korea at an international conference of the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies (DePaul University, Chicago, 1996).[4]
My efforts to resolve the problem of Christian aggression against Buddhists in Korea “agitated” many Christians in high places in the Ministry of Culture of the Korean national government, the World Council of Churches in Geneva, and I learned later, even reached the desk of US President Bill Clinton. My research paper on this conflict was published in the Journal of Buddhist Christian Studies[5] and was translated into French, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, etc. Newspapers in Australia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the United Kingdom ran with the story. I was also interviewed on BBC-TV.[6]
The upshot of my attempts to “educate” the public about these hateful attacks, “agitate” among passive Buddhists and Christians, and “organize” or set in motion a public relations campaign on behalf of Korean Buddhists, led the ROK Ministry of Culture to initiate special round table meetings among Christian and Buddhist leaders in order to confront the issue and accept responsibility to thwart attacks from reoccurring. The Korean government wanted to squelch the stinging international scandal that revealed Korea as a hotbed of Christian fanaticism.
The Jogye Order personnel were unimpressed by the Christian rationales or excuses they had heard many times before after other ugly acts. “How could “good Christians” perpetrate such crimes?” the church people protested in defense. Like my Christian friends told me, they see themselves as victims, just like Jesus and his early disciples, never perpetrators. They have difficulty seeing themselves or their brethren as guilty of hate crimes against others. They couldn’t apologize for wrongs they didn’t commit, so social and emotional healing with the Buddhists never happened. Nevertheless, there was a hiatus in violent incidents for a few years after the high level meetings but they still occur sporadically, even now, twenty years after my “notorious” revelation.
Varieties of Compassionate Buddhist Service in the United States
I relocated from Seoul to the Tampa Bay region Florida in the US in the summer, 2001. In the past sixteen years, I have had many opportunities to interact with and serve members of different minority and stigmatized communities as a Buddhist teacher, chaplain and counselor. Besides my earned doctoral degree in Buddhist Studies, I had no problem being recognized as a qualified Buddhist teacher because I am certified by the Korean National Dhamma Teachers’ Association. I teach Buddhism and Eastern religions academically at various colleges and universities in Florida, but also practice the “true dhamma”-saddhamma in practical life.
In accord with two of Dr. Ambedkar’s twenty-two Buddhist’s Oaths taken with the Three refuges- tisarana- “I will have compassion on all living beings and will try to look after them” and “I will try to mould my life in accordance with the Buddhist preachings, based on Enlightenment, Precepts and Compassion” I have to live the teachings from my heart.
I was called upon to teach Buddhist meditation in the county jail, Florida state prisons, and with groups and needy individuals in the general community seeking spiritual guidance. I corresponded with a prison inmate who served sixteen years for multiple drug dealing charges. Peter became a licensed paralegal assistant while behind bars. He used his time well. Most do not. We employed him when he was released to assist my non-profit organization, True Dharma International Buddhist Mission, apply for US federal tax-exempt status as a religious charity.
Ex-felons carry a very heavy burden of social stigma and discrimination in the US, almost like an Indian untouchable or Dalit. They are feared and avoided even though there are so many of them in the “incarceration nation” USA. They have great difficulty finding and keeping employment and cannot vote on a state by state basis. They leave prison with no resources and no employment history except for a catalogue of what they learned in prison or their prison duties. I am happy to report that Peter did an excellent job with our paperwork. All the complex documentation that he completed was within deadline. We received approval very quickly, and have received tax-exempt donations since 2007.
Unfortunately, years of drug addiction and abuse, emotional distress, heavy smoking and poor diet took a toll on Peter’s health. He died of complications of pneumonia and emphysema under hospice care within three years of leaving prison. Peter was one of many people we have assisted at the end of life at home and in residential hospice houses. I am on call throughout the county-wide Suncoast Hospice catchment area to render spiritual care at different stages of disease and aging. Because of more than ten years of trained volunteer service assisting dying patients of all religious persuasions, in addition to experience with end-of-life in Korea, I was asked to join the Suncoast Hospice Spiritual Care Advisory Council and its Executive Committee as a Buddhist clergyman and, in effect, representing all Asian religions including Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism! (www.suncoasthospice.org).
I have been asked to develop education and training units about for the medical staff-doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains- so that they will be more familiar with the social and spiritual needs of gravely ill patients from India and Westerners who have converted to the dharma traditions of India- Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. (True Dharma IBM received a small foundation grant to initiate related research in 2016) The hospice staff has the most rudimentary knowledge of Indian culture and society.
Most Americans learn very little about India in school and have many misunderstandings. They know a bit about yoga, Bollywood, Indian curry and Gandhi but have never heard of Dr. Ambedkar, the millions of Dalits who have converted to Buddhism and the many pressing social problems involving caste discrimination, the degradation of women in the villages, etc. There is a tremendous need to educate Americans about Dr. Ambedkar’s historic work in the helping professions since the overseas Indian population continues to grow and India itself becomes an emerging world power among its populous and belligerent neighbors.
You cannot expect upper caste and/or well-to-do “forward caste” Indian professionals who immigrate to the US to show the reality of the Indian world through an Untouchable’s eyes.[7] Who among the privileged can present a modern Dalit woman’s experience in depth like Sujatha Gidla, author of Ants Among Elephants.[8] Her book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand India from the bottom up, and the extraordinary accomplishments of Dr. Ambedkar whose frontline, activist leadership she commends in the last paragraph of her Afterword.
I think millions of people in the West and the rest of the world today feel like broken people, similar to Dalits themselves. They can identify with social and economic oppression, and their own unique conditions of social structural suffering. They feel powerless and degraded, thoroughly hopeless, with no way out, especially the youth. These subjective depths of emotion are mental disease. The Buddha dhamma, however, as Dr. Ambedkar understood it, can provide a contagious joy that is an antidote to the “afflictive emotions” of anger, hatred, envy, disappointment, frustration, self-loathing and despair that lead to suicide. Personal healing and elevation of mood does not come immediately or easily, however.
There is a compelling need to change social structure in India. Inner and outer healing are needed at all levels. Inner purification by means of ardent spiritual practice in tandem with moral activism with a good heart. Ideally, caste must be erased, annihilated, so that not even residual memories of its horror persist. All people have a fundamental Right to Life (Constitution of India, Article 21), and a right to a healthy life.[9]
I would like to conclude with mention of some of the compassionate service activities initiated the True Dharma International Buddhist Mission I founded in Florida. Except for a small Buddhist Peace Fellowship chapter, no other Buddhist groups in the area were bringing the Buddha dhamma into people’s lives except for traditional devotional practices and passive, private Zen or vipassana meditation.
Hospice and End-of -Life Concerns
Representing Buddhism on the Executive Committee, Spiritual Care Advisory Council, Suncoast Hospice of Empath Health
On-call Hospital and Hospice Spiritual Support – Pinellas County and Tampa
Advance Care Planning and Living Will Certification- to assist medical decision making
Telephone talk line for End-of-Life and Bereavement Support
Suicide Prevention Counseling - networking with suicide prevention organizations
Compassion Fatigue counseling - training with USF Traumatology Research Center
Prison Dharma Ministry
Jail and prison Dharma instruction and guided meditation practice; volunteer chaplaincy.
Correspondence with prison inmates throughout Florida and around the U.S.
Ex-Inmate Social Re-entry Facilitation- Post-Incarceration Rehabilitation Support
Cooperation with Florida Council of Churches-interfaith relations and youth detention program
Public Education and Community Service
Free Buddhist book distribution with Vietnam Pho Hien Temple, St. Petersburg, FL
Change Your Mind Day teachings with local sanghas
Buddha’s Birthday and Vesak celebration teachings annually
Member of Interfaith Tampa Bay & Interfaith Week activities annually
Invited lectures on Buddhism- Indian Cultural Center, Tampa- Indian senior citizens
Keep Pinellas Beautiful: Adopt-A-Mile - Quarterly roadside litter cleanup
Community Garden Produce Distribution to food pantries- Eckerd College student garden
Organic sustainable gardening- free seeds and advice, True Dharma IBM
Vegetarian/Vegan cooking and education- Florida Voices for Animals event support
Homeless emergency financial support
Tampa International Airport Interfaith Chaplaincy- volunteer chaplain on-call
Organize and promotion of Buddha Relic Tour, UU Clearwater, Florida Oct/Nov 2008
Animal Rights Activism and Animal Welfare
Animal Rescue and Adoption via SPCA, Humane Society, private parties
Road kill removal, burial and blessings; creation of wildlife cemetery-Cemetery blessed by Buddha relic collection, 2008
Support of Farm Animal Sanctuaries like Darlynn’s Darlins Rescue Ranch, Polk City, Fl.
There is so much suffering in this world caused by inner (mental) obscurations and social barriers caused by ignorance. There are so many different ways to share the Buddha’s teaching, saddhamma. There are so many places to practice metta -friendship and loving-kindness for all beings. There are so many humans in need of wisdom (prajna) and compassion (karuna).
ENDNOTES
[1]New York Times, Obituary, December 8, 1956. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, p.18. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/12/08/issue.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=LedeAsset®ion=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article
[2] See Frank Tedesco, “Social Engagement in South Korean Buddhism” in Queen, et al, eds. Action Dharma: New Studies in Engaged Buddhism, 2003.
[3] See Frank Tedesco, “Abortion in Korea” in Keown, D., Buddhism and Abortion. London: Macmillan and University of Hawaii Press, 1998.
[4] Frank Tedesco, organizer and moderator of panel: "Buddhist and Christian Cooperation for Social Action in Korea," Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies 1996 Conference "Socially
Engaged Buddhism and Christianity," DePaul University, Chicago. 1996.
[5] Frank Tedesco, “Questions for Buddhist and Christian Cooperation in Korea”: Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies 17 (1997).
[6] TV Interview: Asia Today special “Under Attack” BBC World News- May 21-22, 1999. Reporter: Andrew Wood, BBC Seoul correspondent.
[7] Sudipto Mondal, “Indian media wants Dalit news but not Dalit reporters”, Al Jazeera 02Jun2017. He humorously notes about “passing” as a Brahmin: “It is truly a great mercy that some Brahmins can be the colour of ebony and some Dalits can be lighter than peaches.”
[8] Sujatha Gidla. Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India. 2017.
[9] See K.S. Jacob, The Hindu, 10/26/2016 and 12/17/2016.
SUGGESTED READING
Ambedkar, B. R., Annihilation of Caste, edited & annotated by S. Anand. Introduced with essay The Doctor and the Saint by Arundhati Roy, London: Verso, 2016.
The Buddha and His Dhamma. A Critical Edition. Edited, introduced, and annotated by Akash Singh Rathore and Ajay Verma. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Blundell, David. Arising Light: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and the Birth of a New Era in India. 26 Minute DVD Preview of the Full Length Feature. Navaloka Productions. www.arising-light.org
Dalrymple, William. Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India. New York: Knopf, 2010.
Dauhshanti & Paanchajanyaa. “Evangelicals Attempt to Convert Deceased Former President of Bharat”, Hindu Post, July 28, 2017. http://www.hindupost.in/society-culture/evangelists-attempt-convert-deceased-former-president-india/
Economist, The. “Dalits in India: A memoir of the lowest caste”, Books and Arts, July 27, 2017.
Gidla, Sujatha. Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2017.
Gupta, Jitender. “Was India’s First Dalit President K. N. Narayanan Really a Christian?”, Outlook The Website, July 26, 2017.
Jacob, K.S., “Caste and inequalities in health”, The Hindu 8/22/2009, updated 12/17/2016.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/Caste-and-inequalities-in-health/article16876113.ece
“Healthcare for all”, The Hindu 1/26/2012, updated 10/26/2016
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/Health-care-for-all/article13380789.ece
Jondhale, Surendra and Johannes Beltz, eds., Reconstructing the World: B. R. Ambedkar and Buddhism in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Kakutani, Michio. “Where Everyone Knows Your Caste”, New York Times, NY edition, July 18, 2017, C6.
Kalantry, Sital. “How to Fix India’s Sex-Selection Problem”, New York Times, 7/27/2017. Opinion Pages https://nyti.ms/2u13DJ0
Keown, Damien. Buddhism and Abortion. London: Macmillan, 1998.
New York Times, Obituary, December 8, 1956. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, p.18.
Nanda, Ved P., ed., Compassion in the 4 Dharmic Traditions, New Delhi: Prabhat Prakashan, 2016.
Omvedt, Gail. Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003.
Understanding Caste: From Buddha to Ambedkar and Beyond, Second Edition. NewDelhi: Orient Blackswan, 2011.
Senauke, Alan. Heirs to Ambedkar-The Rebirth of Engaged Buddhism in India. Berkeley: Clear View Press, 2015.
Tedesco, Frank. “Compassion and Service in Buddhism”, Chapter 13 in Compassion in the 4 Dharmic Traditions, edited by Ved P. Nanda, New Delhi: Prakash Prabhat, 2106. Kindle Book.
“Abortion in Korea” in Keown, D., Buddhism and Abortion. London: Macmillan, 1998, pp. 121-155.
“Religious Aggression and the Quest for Understanding in South Korea” in Socially Engaged Buddhism for the New Millennium: Essays in honor of the Ven. Phra Dhammapitaka (Bhikkhu P.A. Payutto). Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation: Bangkok:1999, pp.307-314.
“Social Engagement in South Korean Buddhism” in Queen, et al, eds. Action Dharma: New Studies in Engaged Buddhism, London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, pp. 152-182.
“Questions for Buddhist and Christian Cooperation in Korea”: Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies 17 (1997) 179-195.
TV Interview: Asia Today special “Under Attack” BBC World News- May 21-22, 1999. Reporter: Andrew Wood, BBC Seoul correspondent.
Radio Interview: “Religious Intolerance in Korea,” BBC World Service East Asia Today FM radio broadcast interview with Rob Gifford: London, September 14, 1998.
“Persecution: Buddhist Perspectives”, The Encyclopedia of Monasticism, ed. by W. Johnston. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago, 2000.
“Buddhism and Social Welfare in Modern South Korea”: Professor Mikhail Pak Festshrift, Moscow State University, Moscow, 1998.
"Dying in Korea": Living and Dying in Buddhist Cultures, ed. D. Chappell and K. L. Tsomo, University of Hawaii, Manoa, 1995.
Queen, Christopher, Charles Prebish and Damien Keown, eds., Action Dharma: New Studies in Engaged Buddhism, London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation, ed., Socially Engaged Buddhism for the New Millennium: Essays in honor of the Ven. Phra Dhammapitaka (Bhikkhu P.A. Payutto). Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation: Bangkok, 1999.
Zelliot, Eleanor. Ambedkar’s World: The Making of Babasaheb and the Dalit Movement. New Delhi: Navayana, 2004.
From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on Ambedkar Movement. New Delhi: Manohar, 1992.