Classical Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism and the Question of Caste

This book examines the interface between Buddhism and the caste system in India. It discusses how Buddhism in different stages, from its early period to contemporary forms―Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Tantrayāna and Navayāna―dealt with the question of caste. It also traces the intersections between the problem of caste with those of class and gender. The volume reflects on the interaction between Hinduism and Buddhism: it looks at critiques of caste in the classical Buddhist tradition while simultaneously drawing attention to the radical challenge posed by Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s Navayāna Buddhism or neo-Buddhism. The essays in the book further compare approaches to varṇa and caste developed by modern thinkers such as M. K. Gandhi and S. Radhakrishnan with Ambedkar’s criticisms and his departures from mainstream appraisals.

With its interdisciplinary methodology, combining insights from literature, philosophy, political science and sociology, the volume explores contemporary critiques of caste from the perspective of Buddhism and its historical context. By analyzing religion through the lens of caste and gender, it also forays into the complex relationship between religion and politics, while offering a rigorous study of the textual tradition of Buddhism in India. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of Indian philosophy, Buddhist studies, Indology, literature (especially Sanskrit and Pāli), exclusion and discrimination studies, history, political studies, women studies, sociology, and South Asian studies.

Pradeep P. Gokhale is Honorary Adjunct Professor at the Department of Pali, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India. He has 31 years of postgraduate teaching and research experience in Philosophy at Savitribai Phule Pune University, and was Dr B. R. Ambedkar Research Professor at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath (Varanasi) for six years. He has written in diverse areas such as Indian epistemology and logic; the schools of classical Indian philosophy such as Buddhism, Lokāyata, Yoga and Jainism; Indian moral and social philosophy; Indian philosophy of religion; contemporary Buddhism and Ambedkar studies. His research interests have focused on the interface between orthodox and heterodox Indian thought, including between Nyāya and Buddhist logical thought. His published works include Inference and Fallacies Discussed in Ancient Indian Logic with Special Reference to Nyāya and Buddhism (1992) and Lokāyata/Cārvāka: A Philosophical Inquiry (2015), apart from six books in Marathi and the edited volume The Philosophy of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (2008).