“Not by birth is one an outcast; not by birth is one a brahmin. By deed one becomes an outcast, by deed one becomes an brahmin.”

Sn 1.7, Vasala Sutta

Nearly 10,000” dalits take refuge near the anniversary of Ambedkar’s mass conversion. They certainly have the incentive to leave the caste system — one was killed recently for entering a temple in Bihar. (But in the world’s largest democracy, they have the vote.)

Are dalits the future of Buddhism? What sort of dharma will emerge from this second flowering in India?

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