Classical Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism and the Question of Caste

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, Lok¿yata, 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 Ny¿ya and Buddhist logical thought. His published works include Inference and Fallacies Discussed in Ancient Indian Logic with Special Reference to Ny¿ya and Buddhism (1992) and Lok¿yata/C¿rv¿ka: A Philosophical Inquiry (2015), apart from six books in Marathi and the edited volume The Philosophy of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (2008).

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 (Therav¿da, Mah¿y¿na, Tantray¿na and Navay¿na) dealt with the question of caste, and focuses on the radical challenge posed by B. R. Ambedkar's Navay¿na Buddhism or neo-Buddhism.

Introduction PART I Classical Buddhism and caste 1 Buddha's attitude towards the caste system as available in P¿li texts 2 Caste in classical Indian philosophy: some ontological problems 3 Epistemological foundations of caste identities: a review of Buddhist critique of classical orthodox Indian realism 4 Casting away the caste: a Buddhist standpoint in the Vimalaprabh¿ commentary on the K¿lacakra tantra PART II Neo-Buddhism: Ambedkar on caste, class and gender 5 Buddha and Ambedkar on caste: a comparative overview 6 Neo-Buddhism, Marxism and the caste question in India 7 Ambedkar's critique of patriarchy: interrogating at intersection of caste and gender PART III Hinduism and Buddhism: interaction, conflict and beyond 8 Buddhism and Hindu society: some observations from medieval Marathi literature 9 The Buddhist past as a cultural conflict: Ambedkar's exhumation of Indian history 10 Gandhi and Ambedkar on caste PART IV Religion, modernity and Navay¿na Buddhism 11 Social solidarity or individual perfection: conceptions of religion in Ambedkar and Radhakrishnan 12 Religion, caste and modernity: Ambedkar's reconstruction of Buddhism 13 Ambedkar and modern Buddhism: continuity and discontinuity Appendix I: Vajras¿ci Appendix II: Vajras¿ci and its reverberations