Bhimayāna - An Introduction

Bhimayāna is Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's version of Buddhism. 

Ambedkar since his childhood was the victim of caste system. He had seen how tyrannical, inhuman and barbaric caste system was. He initially thought of reforming hindu society by getting rid of caste system, which was completely devoid of his ideals of Freedom, Equality and Fraternity. But soon he realised that it was almost impossible to reform the hindu society(which according to him never existed in the first place). 

He kept warning about the dangers of caste system and insisted the only solution lies in annihilation of caste. Meanwhile he was also determined that Hinduism can never be the right religion for the oppressed masses. 

Ambedkar never believed in the religion of orders, rules, decree etc. But he imagined of a religion of principles: liberty, equality and fraternity. He was in the search of a religion which has his ideals subsumed in it. Finally, he came across Religion of Buddha which was nearly a perfect religion. 

However, when he realized that ethics of buddha was the best religion to build a just society upon it, he also found that Traditional Buddhism itself was full of inconsistent beliefs. He straight out rejected the Theravada, Mahayāna, Vajrayāna Buddhism.

He reinterpreted Buddha on the grounds of modern ideals. He stripped Buddhism of all its inconsistencies. A new wheel of Dhamma was started which was called as Navayāna aka Bhimayāna.

Ambedkar delivering speech during conversion, Nagpur, 14 October 1956. (Src: Wikipedia)