Dhammachakra Pravartan Din 2022: Know history, significance and why is it celebrated?

India's first law minister and the architect of the Indian constitution, Bhimrao Ambedkar, on October 14, 1956, embraced Buddhism and renounced Hinduism along with 3 lakh of his followers. 

The day this took place is called Dhammachakra Pravartan Din. The conversion took place on October 14, however, the Dhammachakra Pravartan Din, marking the event, is celebrated on Vijayadashami (Dussehra) every year. This year it will be celebrated on October 5, 2022, on the day of Dussehra. 

In 1956, on Dhammachakra Pravartan Din, Dr Ambedkar and his followers embraced Buddhism at a Buddhist sacred monument in Nagpur called Deekshabhoomi. On this day, many Buddhists gather at Deekshabhoomi to celebrate the mass conversion. 

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After embracing Buddhism and renouncing Hinduism, Dr Ambedkar said, "By discarding my ancient religion which stood for inequality and oppression, today I am reborn."

Dr Ambedkar, in addition, had also made 22 pledges one of which is, "I thereby reject my old religion, Hinduism, which is detrimental to the prosperity of humankind and which discriminates between man and man and which treats me as inferior."

Dr Ambedkar dedicated his life to fighting against caste discrimination against the Dalits. In his journal Mooknayak, he called the Hindu society a ‘tower’ where every floor is designated to a particular caste.

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"The point worth remembering is that this tower has no staircase and therefore there is no way of climbing up or down from one floor to another," he wrote. Dr Ambedkar said that in this tower, a person dies on the floor where he is born.

But, a day after Dhammachakra Pravartan Din, when Dr Ambedkar embraced Buddhism, he said, "Even though I was born in the Hindu religion, I will not die in the Hindu religion."