Dr. BR Ambedkar was the chief architect of India’s Constitution. He was also a titan of social reform who made one of the most radical decisions of his life when he renounced Hinduism. In 1956, he embraced Buddhism along with 3.65 lakh followers. This was not a knee-jerk reaction to caste oppression but a carefully calibrated spiritual and political move, twenty years in the making.
After advocating for Abrahamic religion’s “equality,” his understanding of the corrosive ideology of Islam or sectarianism in Christianity increased.
Thereby, leading to a total rejection of both!
However, what’s tragic is how his legacy is of “Neo-Buddhists” who are neither followers of the Eightfold Path nor understand the Four Nobel Truths neither are they well-read in Dr. Ambedkar’s philosophy! These Ambedkarites are easily herded under the populist slogan of Bheem + Meem, which completely betrayed Dr. Ambedkar’s final intellectual legacy. In their blind anti-Hindu rage, they’ve forged a false unity with political Islam. Ironically, they are “best friends” with the very ideology Dr. Ambedkar critiqued most harshly in his writings.
Why did Dr. Ambedkar Reject Islam and Christianity?
Ambedkar never rushed into conversion. He was fascinated with Islam until he wasn’t! And enamoured by Christianity until it seemed unnatural. Thus, slowly with age he understood the enormous symbolic and sociopolitical significance of the act of conversion as a leader. Over two decades, he attempted to restructure the Indian society under Hindu Dharma. He also examined the major religions of the world, especially the Abrahamic ones – Islam and Christianity.
Thus, Dr. Ambedkar rejected Islam for its rigid exclusivity, doctrinal supremacism, and rejection of pluralism.
Christianity also didn’t fare much better, given its history of forced conversions and Western colonial baggage. What clinched the decision to turn to Buddhism was Dr. Ambedkar’s unwavering commitment to India’s civilizational ethos. He wanted a Dharmic faith born of the same soil whose son he was – not a foreign one.
Hence, his chosen path was Navayana Buddhism – a rational, reformist, ethical philosophy. It met all the parameters of equality for him, while it lacked against the true practice of Buddhism. However, the socio-political New Buddhist version was indigenous to the land and deeply aligned with its moral compass. Moreover, it offered liberation without the sword, and transformation without cultist behavior.
Dr. Ambedkar’s Scathing Analysis of Islam
In one of his most explosive texts, Pakistan or the Partition of India (1940), Dr. Ambedkar dissects Islamic political theology with brutal honesty. If written today, his views would instantly get him labeled “Islamophobic” by the same people who idolize him. He writes:
“Islam is a close corporation and the distinction that it makes between Muslims and non-Muslims is a very real, very positive, and very alienating distinction… For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity.”
Dr. Ambedkar argued that Islam did not promote universal brotherhood. Instead, it promoted Muslim brotherhood – an exclusive in-group cult of Muslims. This meant that loyalty was owed not to a nation, but to a religious community – the Ummah. He was deeply worried that Islamic political philosophy actively discouraged Muslims from integrating into a pluralistic, secular nation-state. And time has proven him correct. He also noted:
“Islam can never allow a true Muslim to adopt India as his motherland and regard a Hindu as his kith and kin.”
This wasn’t casual rhetoric. This was Dr. Ambedkar’s studied conclusion, rooted in Islamic canon law. The concepts of Dar-ul-Islam and Dar-ul-Harb weren’t just academic – they had real political implications. To Muslims, India was only their land if it was under Islamic rule. Otherwise, it was a warzone (Dar-ul-Harb) waiting to be reclaimed.
The Hypocrisy of ‘Bheem + Meem’: A Dangerous Mirage
Today’s “Neo-Buddhists” are often urban activists with limited knowledge of Dhamma and a false sense of attachment to Dr. Ambedkar. A large section of “Neo-Buddists” have latched onto the Bheem + Meem slogan as a badge of social and political justice. But in reality, it’s a shallow alliance built on shared animosity towards Hindus, not shared values.
Here’s the irony: Dr. Ambedkar criticized Hinduism for its birth-based caste hierarchy, but he never said Hindus were foreigners or his enemies.
His criticism was surgical based on research and observation, it was not genocidal. He envisioned a reformed Hindu society, not its erasure. In contrast, he described Islam as inherently hostile to non-Muslims. He warned against appeasement politics. He also said Muslims would never truly integrate into a democratic system where their religious supremacy was not recognized. Dr. Ambedkar even stated:
“The allegiance of a Muslim does not rest on his domicile in the country which is his but on the faith to which he belongs.”
Modern Neo-Buddhists who chant “Bheem + Meem” should ask themselves: Would Dr. Ambedkar have allied with a community whose theology he believed was fundamentally opposed to democracy, equality, and nationalism?
Additionally, Neo-Buddhists today have reduced Buddhism to little more than anti-Brahmin Twitter rhetoric. They don’t meditate, they don’t follow the Eightfold Path, and they certainly don’t try to emulate the Buddha’s life. They equate a social and political leader to Gautam Buddha which irritates the true followers of Buddhism. And these Neo-Buddhists scream “Jai Bhim” but never read what Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar wrote – especially on Islam.
In Summary – Read Dr. Ambedkar’s Writing
Dr. Ambedkar was not a political mascot. He was a complex thinker, a moral warrior, and a patriotic reformer who stood for intellectual integrity. His critique of Hinduism was meant to change society, not to hate it altogether. His rejection of Islam was not based on bigotry but on a rational, evidence-based reading of its doctrines and history in India.
If anyone chants “Jai Bhim” they must also read Dr. Ambedkar’s “Pakistan or the Partition of India”.
Read his “Annihilation of Caste” and his “Buddha and His Dhamma”. Only then will a true understanding of the man become evident. If Dr. Ambedkar were alive today, he would weep – not at Hindus, not at Muslims – but at those who invoke his name without understanding a single word he wrote or believed in!!!
The reality is Dr. Ambedkar was never about Bheem + Meem.
Instead, he was more about Bheem vs Meem!! And if anyone truly respected Dr. Ambedkar, they would stop being a pawn in someone else’s war.