Angol
Although B.R. Ambedkar has been widely recognized§for his social, religious, and political reforms in§India, he has not yet been acknowledged for his§innovative revisions to Marxist theory. By§re-structuring Marxist theory so as to replace the§traditional economic base and social superstructure§with a model that places religion as the base and§economics and politics as the superstructure,§Ambedkar imparted a flexibility to Marxist theory§that allows for it to be culturally situated and,§therefore, more appropriately utilized in various§contexts. More importantly, by imbuing his vision of§Buddhism with his vision of Marxist theory, Ambedkar§impacted the emerging Buddhist revival in India so§significantly that the resulting Indian Buddhist§identity cannot be fully appreciated without§recognizing his Marxist influences. As such, it is§here argued that the contemporary Buddhist revival in§India, known as Neo-Buddhism, Ambedkarite Buddhism,§Dalit Buddhism, and Navay na Buddhism, would be§better understood simply as Marxist Buddhism.
