Thousands embrace Buddhism in event organised by Dalit body

The rally was carried out in the city as people from various parts of the state arrived in private buses and other vehicles. The people then converged as a big gathering at Ram Katha maidan where many of them embraced Budhhism while shunning Hinduism.

The conversion event was held in the presence of a group of Buddhist monks. One of the Buddhist monks also administered the 22 pledges that Dr B R Ambedkar had taken while embracing Buddhism in 1956. Incidentally, Friday was also the birth anniversary of Ambedkar.

Jaysukh (34) is one of the SSD volunteers from Kodinar of Gir-Somnath district who embraced Buddhism at the event.

Jaysukh, who refused to reveal his last name, said, “I want to embrace Buddhism since I want a caste-less society. Buddhism is a religion which talks about equality and which does not discriminate human beings. And therefore I have decided to convert to Buddhism.”
“I did not get a job on contract basis on three occasions. I underwent interview on all the occasions and it went off very well. However, I did not get the job after the interviewer came to know about my caste,” claimed Jaysukh.

Shailesh Chauhan (43) is another person who is an SSD volunteer from Rajkot and who converted to Buddhism.

Shailesh said that he chose to embrace Buddhism since he wanted to be part of a society without any discrimination.

Shailesh has done nursing and is currently working as an incharge of operation theater in a private hospital.

“I have experienced discrimination at numerous occasions. Before doing nursing, I used to work at a brick kiln. And there, I was not allowed to drink water from a common pot,” Shailesh said.
Urvashi Rathod (23) from Vejalpur area of Ahmedabad is another one who took diksha to embrace Buddhism at the event. Urvashi attended the event along with her family – parents and two siblings.

“We are converting to Buddhism today to embrace culture of equality and fraternity. In Hinduism, at every step we are reminded of our caste. We want to shun it,” said Urvashi, who is currently pursuing her degree in law.

Lavesh Rana, one of the volunteers of SSD, said that they did not have the exact number of people who could have converted to Buddhism since people from across the state came for the event and many of them came without formally intimating them. “But approximately, 10,000 people (mostly Dalits) could have converted to Buddhism today,” Rana said.

When contacted over the event, Gandhinagar Collector Hitesh Koya said, “I had checked with the Superintendent of Police and the event was organised with permission.”

Asked if the permission was taken about the conversion ritual that was performed at the event, the Gandhinagar Collector said, “For conversion, one has to take permission from the district magistrate of his/her district of residence…The provision is such that one has to take permission from the DM of their district of residence.”

For Gandhinagar district, Koya said, “Routine procedures for conversion are always on. I have been transferred to Gandhinagar recently. In last 10-12 days, no permission (for conversion) has been given. I will have to check if there was any other (such permission) given before that.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Superintendent of Police who is incharge Superintendent of Police (Gandhinagar district) Ami Patel said that roughly around 65,000 people had come for the event and prior permission for the same was given.

She added that the event went off peacefully without any untoward incident.