(RNS) — Many Buddhists today trace their social justice activism to the work of BR Ambedkar, the Indian caste abolitionist who once led a mass conversion of Dalits, or lower caste, to Buddhism. (RNS) ...

I met Minal at a retreat center in rural England in March 2023, and we became fast friends. We were there to attend a Buddhist course, with six other women from different parts of the world. Over the ...

Explore the origins of the caste system, rooted in political and economic factors rather than purity, pollution, or race.

NEW DELHI — “We are Hindus no more, and inferior to nobody,” declared Ramkumar, a low-caste Indian from the northern Indian state of Utter Pradesh. Ramkumar, a bureaucrat in the state government, ...

MUMBAI, India (AP) -- About 2,000 low-caste Hindu Indians bowed before orange-robed monks and recited prayers as they converted to Buddhism in a mass ceremony Sunday that they said would bring them ...

Consider the story of Sunita, a Dalit woman from Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. In 2020, she and her family, along with others, converted to Buddhism after facing caste-based violence from dominant-caste ...

FILE - Members of the audience listen to a speaker at a rally organized by National Conference of Dalit Organisations in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Dec. 5, 2005. Dalits, who belong to the lowest of ...

VADNAGAR, India (RNS) — For generations, folk tales passed down by northern Gujarat’s nomadic goat herders described an ancient well atop Dhagolia hill in the Taranga mountains. Then, last May, ...

FILE - Members of the audience listen to a speaker at a rally organized by National Conference of Dalit Organisations in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Dec. 5, 2005. Dalits, who belong to the lowest of ...

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. Caste is an ancient system of social ...