Bhim Army politics: Dalits converting to Buddhism, but at a dwindling rate

Dalits, ranked lowest on the Hindu caste hierarchy, first started converting to Buddhism as a political gesture in 1956. This was the year BR Ambedkar, a Dalit icon, embraced Buddhism contending that this was the only way to escape caste oppression.

The community has continued to use initiation into Buddhism as a gesture of protest. Every time the Dalit movement peaked, the number of conversions rose. After 1956, the number of neo-Buddhists–or fresh converts to Buddhism–grew again in the 1980s and 1990s because of the rise of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a major Dalit-centric political party.