Though Buddhism began to revive in India in the late nineteenth century, Buddhist organizations did not pay much attention to bring the Dalits into their folds. Rather, the lower caste communities had aspired for constructing respectable caste identities in the late colonial period. However, conversion of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) to a modified form of Buddhism (called ‘neo-Buddhism’) has appeared as a sociocultural tool for the Dalits to fight against the casteism. In this paper, we have highlightws the background of the introduction of neo-Buddhism and the location of the Scheduled Castes of West Bengal in it.
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