Resumo de Ambedkar's Writing

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Religious
(One of the schemes of Dr. Ambedkar is " The Conversion of the Untouchables ". This scheme includes the following chapters:
(1) Hinduism as a Missionary Religion.
(2) Christianising the Untouchables.
(3) The Condition of the Convert.
(4) The Eternal Verity.
(5) The Untouchables and Their Destiny. From these essays, Sr. Nos. 2 and 3 have been received from Shri S. S. Rege and Sr. No. I has been found in our papers under the title ' Caste and Conversion ', which was originally published in the Telagu Samachar Special No. of November 1926. One more typed essay entitled "Away from the Hindus ", which also deals with religious conversion of the Untouchables, has been found and included in this Book. Rest of the titles mentioned in the above scheme have not been found.)

chapter 1
AWAY FROM THE HINDUS

A large majority of Untouchables who have reached a capacity to think out their problem believe that one way to solve the problem of the Untouchables is for them to abandon Hinduism and be converted to some other religion. At a Conference of the Mahars held in Bombay on 31st May 1936 a resolution to this effect was unanimously passed. Although the Conference was a Conference of the Mahars1, the resolution had the support of a very large body of Untouchables throughout India. No resolution had created such a stir. The Hindu community was shaken to its foundation and curses imprecations and threats were uttered against the Untouchables who were behind this move.
Four principal objections have been urged by the opponents against the conversion of the Untouchables:
(1) What can the Untouchables gain by conversion? Conversion can make no change in the status of the Untouchables.
(2) All religions are true, all religions are good. To change religion is a futility.
(3) The conversion of the Untouchables is political in its nature.
(4) The conversion of the Untouchables is not genuine as it is not based on faith.
It cannot take much argument to demonstrate that the objections are puerile and inconsequential.
To take the last objection first. History abounds with cases where conversion has taken place without any religious motive. What was the
1 [f1] The Conference was confined to Mahars because the intention was to test the intensity of feeling communitywise and to take soundings from each community.
The typed pages with Sr. Nos. from 279 to 342 have been found in this script which is titled as Chapter XX under the heading 'Away from the Hindus nature of its conversion of Clovis and his subjects to Christianity? How did Ethelbert and his Kentish subjects become Christians? Was there a religious motive which led them to accept the new religion? Speaking on the nature of conversions to Christianity that had taken place during the middle ages Rev. Reichel says:[f2] [f2]
" One after another the nations of Europe are converted to the faith; their conversion is seen always to proceed from above, never from below. Clovis yields to the bishop Remigius and forthwith he is followed by the Baptism of 3,000 Franks. Ethelbert yields to the mission of Augustine and forthwith all Kent follows his example; when his son Eadbald apostatises, the men of Kent apostatise with him. Essex is finally won by the conversion of King Sigebert, who under the influence of another king, Oswy, allows himself to be baptised. Northumberland is temporarily gained by the conversion of its king, Edwin, but falls away as soon as Edwin is dead. It anew accepts the faith, when another king, Oswald, promotes its diffusion. In the conversion of Germany, a bishop, Boniface, plays a prominent part, in close connection with the princes of the country, Charles Martel and Pepin; the latter, in return for his patronage receiving at Soissons the Church's sanction to a violent act of usurpation. Denmark is gained by the conversion of its kings, Herald Krag, Herald Blastand and Canute, Sweden by that of the two Olofs; and Run, by the conversion of its sovereign, Vladimir. Everywhere Christianity addresses itself first to kings and princes; everywhere the bishops and abbots appear as its only representatives.Nor was this all, for where a king had once been gained, no obstacle by the Mediaeval missionaries to the immediate indiscriminate baptism of his subjects. Three thousand warriors of Clovis following the example of their king, were at once admitted to the sacred rite; the subjects of Ethelbert were baptised in numbers after the conversion of their prince, without preparation, and with hardly any instruction. The Germans only were less hasty in following the example of others. In Russia, so great was the number of those who crowded to be baptised after the baptism of Vladimir, that the sacrament had to be administered to hundreds at a time." History records cases where conversion has taken place as a result of compulsion or deceit.

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