ABSTRACT
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was a twentieth century socio-political and religious reformer whose activities impacted millions of lives, especially among India’s Dalit community. This article illustrates his lifework and its lessons for social work scholarship on religion. Using the examples of Ambedkar and Navayana Buddhism, I discuss three sources of complexity for social work scholarship on religion: 1) religion may function as both oppressive and emancipatory; 2) religion is malleable, not monolithic; and 3) religion is situated in and interactive with contexts. I conclude with suggestions for how social work scholarship on religion may account for complexity.
Acknowledgments
The author expresses deep gratitude to the following scholars for their valuable feedback on the contents of this article: Dr. Santosh I. Raut (Dhammachari Maitriveer Nagarjuna), Assistant Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy at EFL University, Hyderabad, and Honorary Director of the Nagarjuna Training Institute at Nagaloka, Nagpur; Dr. Charles Strain, Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University; and Dr. Katherine Tyson McCrea, Professor of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.