“The [local] priest tells me if I was a good dalit in this life, then in my next life I can be born into a better part of society. [I say] why wait?”

—Narasimha Cherlaguda, a member of the Dalit class (more commonly known as the untouchable caste) in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, explaining his motivation to convert to Buddhism. Although the caste system has been outlawed for more than half a century, Dalits, relegated to the lowest echelons of the Hindu religious social system, still perform menial jobs – such as handling human waste and sweeping streets – and face intimidation and abuse, particularly in urban areas.

Narasimha Cherlaguda will be joining scores of others in his village to participate in a mass conversion on the 60th anniversary of BR Ambedkar’s conversion, along with 100,000 of his supporters, to Buddhism in order to evade the social stigmatization he faced in the Hindu caste system. Anxious about losing its support base, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government reclassified both Buddhism and Jainism as sects of Hinduism in an attempt to deny Dalits dignity even in conversion.

Mimi Hanaoka