Silendrabodhi's story

At the age of 89, Dhammachari Silendrabodhi is one of the most senior members of the new Buddhist movement in India. Here he looks back over a life, which spans a period of extraordinary change within India and particularly in the communities once known as 'untouchable'

"I was born in 1918 in Hyderabad, which at that time was a separate country with its own ruler. My mother died when I was very young and I was brought by my father to a village near Nagpur in what was then the British ruled part of Maharashtra. While I was growing up we suffered a lot because of untouchability. At primary school if we accidentally touched the food of other children we would be beaten up and the food would be thrown away. My father worked in the Brahmins' fields, but we couldn't drink from their wells or go into their houses.
When I was seven my father died and I went to stay in an educational hostel. In the hostel we were given free food and clothing; but the clothing was just rags, things other people had thrown away.

When I was 16 I had to leave school because there was no money to continue my education, so I decide to go to Bombay to meet our leader Dr Ambedkar. I was very nervous because I had never been to a city before and I kept getting lost. It took me two weeks to pluck up the courage to see him. I was filthy and dressed in rags but I brought two of my schoolbooks with me to prove that I wasn't just a thief or a beggar.

Dr Ambedkar wrote a letter enabling me to go and stay in his hostel at Bhusaval. So I did manage to complete my education. Then for seven and a half years I served in the British army stationed on the Northwest frontier near to what is now the border of Afghanistan. I was amazed that in the army there was no practice of caste: people from all different backgrounds would live together and eat the same food.

Since than I have always been a devoted follower of Dr Ambedkar and when he converted to Buddhism in 1956, I converted too as a way of leaving behind the caste system. But it was another 20 years before I had the chance to learn more about Buddhism and practice it seriously myself. After the end of the war I came back to Maharashtra and got a job in the tax department of the state government. That was in the early years of independent India. Dr Ambedkar had secured protected jobs for many people like me from lower caste backgrounds. But even when I was a senior tax inspector I still wasn’t allowed into the houses of higher caste people. If I needed to check someone’s accounts I would need to send someone else into the house to bring the papers out and then check them sitting in the street. So much has changed during my lifetime! The situation for people from our community has improved beyond recognition. It is difficult for young people today to understand how bad things once were. I remember how many days and nights I would have to go without eating or washing. In those days we lived like animals. Today many people from our community are well educated and are getting good jobs. But people still discriminate against us. Even now I wouldn’t be allowed into a Hindu temple because of who my parents were.

It will take a long time for attitudes to change. But every day I say a prayer of gratitude to Dr Ambedkar. Whatever human life I have enjoyed it has all been because of his kindness.”

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