Unpublished Preface to Buddha and his Dhamma: A book by Dr• Ambedkar
I was born in the community known in India as the "Untouchables." A question is always being asked of me "How I happened to take such high degrees of education?" Another question is being asked, ' Why I am a buddhist ?" This is the question which I feel that this preface is the proper place to answer. This is the way it happened .My father was very religious person and he brought me up under a strict religious discipline. Quite early in my carrier, I found certain contradictions in my father religious way of life. He was a 'kabirpanthi'. As such he did not believe in " Moortipuja"(idol Worship). He read the books of his panth. At the same time. he compelled me and my elder brother to read every day before going to bed, a portion of the 'Ramayana and the Mahabharta' to my sisters and other persons who assembled at my father's house for hearing the 'katha'. This went for a long time number of years. I passed the fourth