Paper short abstract:

Conversion is not a onetime phenomenon, which could break the Hindu way of thinking in one go. It is a continuous process for creating new public spheres based on fraternity and equality, which is an essential feature of emancipation of selfhood.

Paper long abstract:

Religious conversions have attracted scholars to look into the religiosity and politics of conversion in very linear fashions. While ending ritual and hierarchical essence of religion and understanding spirituality as important part of masses, Ambedkar made religious [conversion] a political process for emancipating selfhood. But critics have found Buddhist conversion insignificant to challenge the larger Hindu fold, where converts keep practicing rituals of different kinds and not been able to transcend their sense of Hindu belonging in their practices. This paper is an attempt to contest such criticisms by highlighting Ambedkar's idea of conversion and theory of conversion at large, wherein sudden transformation in one's life world and psyche have never been desirable to the philosophy of conversion. Herein, conversion has a larger politics to create different public spheres in different sectors of life which were denied in Hindu life world. The day to day practice of converts must not be desirable to get a sudden break from the long possessed Hindu way of thinking. In fact, once done conversion is not an end in itself, but a continuous process in which changes are brought through generations whose measurement is desirable and essential through methodological innovations. Thus, this paper highlights micro level variables through ethnographic study to show how conversion is not a onetime phenomenon, but a continuous process for creating new public spheres based on fraternity and equality, which is an essential feature of emancipation of selfhood.