Yeola: On the evening of October 13, 1935, in the quiet town of Yeola near Nashik, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar delivered a thunderous declaration that would echo across generations: “I will not die as a person who calls himself a Hindu.” The words, though spoken before a massive gathering of his supporters, were met with a startling lack of media attention. Yet, this statement marked a watershed moment in India’s history and in Ambedkar’s personal journey of resistance against caste oppression.
At the time, Ambedkar stood apart from all dominant political currents — the Gandhians, the Congressmen, the Hindu Mahasabha, the communists — and remained an isolated yet powerful voice for the Depressed Classes (not yet officially called Scheduled Castes). The mainstream English press of the era dismissed him as a “careerist” and a “nominee of the British.”
In a rare, detailed report by Vividh Vritta, a Marathi weekly edited by Rambhau Tatnis, Ambedkar’s speech was quoted in Marathi as: “Me Hindu mhanvat marnar nahi” — suggesting not merely a change of religious belief, but a rejection of a social identity.
The announcement came as a shock to Mahatma Gandhi, who had, just three years earlier, negotiated the Poona Pact with Ambedkar to resolve the issue of separate electorates for the Depressed Classes. Gandhi, who had initiated the Harijan movement to fight untouchability within Hindu society, saw Ambedkar’s statement as a betrayal of that vision. He attributed the decision to caste atrocities like those at Kavitha, Gujarat — where untouchables were violently punished for enrolling their children in a government school.
But Ambedkar was clear. “Let none think I have done this in a huff or as a matter of wrath,” he told The Bombay Chronicle. “Kavitha does not represent an isolated incident but is the very basis of the system.”
Ambedkar believed that without religion, the upliftment of Dalits in India was not possible — but that religion, he insisted, could not be Hinduism. Interestingly, before he ultimately embraced Buddhism, Ambedkar was seriously inclined towards Islam. This inclination was evident in his speeches and writings. In fact, as early as 1929, he wrote an editorial in Bahishkrut Bharat titled “Notice to Hinduism”, stating: “If you want to convert your religion, then become a Muslim.” Several of his followers acted on this sentiment and converted to Islam. However, Ambedkar himself took a deeply intellectual route, studying many religions closely.
The Yeola declaration did not immediately spell religious conversion, but it planted the seed. Ambedkar would later lead a historic mass conversion to Buddhism in 1956, fulfilling the promise he made two decades earlier.
