신불교운동의 현황과 종교적 한계

Abstract

Buddhism in India once disappeared from India and revived in 1956 through Ambedkar's Neo-Buddhism Movement. This movement was for the liberation of Dalit. Currently, India's Buddhist population is estimated at 8.44 million, accounting for 0.7% of India's religious population. This figure is down from 0.74% of the 1961 Indian Census after 1956, and although there have been fluctuations in rise and fall since then, it has hardly increased and rather decreased. Although the influence of caste in India has not disappeared and discrimination against Dalits or human rights issues have not improved, the achievements of the Neo-Buddhism Movement have stopped.
 The purpose of this paper is to review the purpose and current status of the Neo-Buddhism Movement and to analyze the limitations of the New Buddhism from a religious perspective. To this end, first of all, the purpose and characteristics of the new Buddhism are examined. Ambedkar chose Buddhism instead of Hinduism and led the Neo-Buddhism Movement for Dalit, focusing on rationality and social equality.
 In addition, as a result of analyzing the current status of Neo-Buddhism Movement and articles related to conversion, it is found that the new Buddhism in India plays a limited role as a religion for Dalits. There is a lack of efforts by the Indian government and the state to recognize Buddhism as an institutional religion, and Hindutva hegemony inhibit the conversion of Dalits to nebulism. In this situation, for Dalit, the meaning of Buddhist conversion is only an alternative religion of Hinduism and does not work as a religion itself.
 Such religious limitations are analyzed in two ways: the doctrinal level and the religious level. On the doctrinal level, the Neo-Buddhism is based on Ambedkar's understanding of Buddhism. The aspect of pain and the problem of liberation were excluded while practicing discipline, wisdom, and mercy for the purpose of equality and emphasizing morality. At the religious level, Neo-Buddhism is not much different from Hinduism in terms of custom and worship. This limitation of Neo-Buddhism prevented the Buddhism from acting as a personal religion.