22 Vows of Ambedkar

After receiving ordination, Ambedkar gave dhamma diksha to his followers. The ceremony included 22 vows given to all new converts after Three Jewels and Five Precepts. On 16 October 1956, Ambedkar performed another mass religious conversion ceremony at Chanda. He prescribed 22 vows to his followers:

1. 2. 3.
4. 5.

I shall have no faith in Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara nor shall I worship them. I shall have no faith in Rama and Krishna who are believed to be incarnation of God nor

shall I worship them. I shall have no faith in Gauri, Ganapati and other gods and goddesses of Hindus nor shall

I worship them. I do not believe in the incarnation of God. I do not and shall not believe that Lord Buddha was the incarnation of Vishnu. I believe

this to be sheer madness and false propaganda.

6.
7.

I shall not perform Shraddha nor shall I give pind-dan. I shall not act in a manner violating the principles and teachings of the Buddha. I shall not allow any ceremonies to be performed by Brahmins. I shall believe in the equality of man. I shall endeavor to establish equality. I shall follow the noble eightfold path of the Buddha. I shall follow the ten paramitas prescribed by the Buddha. I shall have compassion and loving kindness for all living beings and protect them. I shall not steal. I shall not tell lies. I shall not commit carnal sins. I shall not take intoxicants like liquor, drugs etc. I shall endeavor to follow the noble eightfold path and practice compassion and loving

8.
9. 10.

11. 12.
13. 14. 15. 16.

17. 18. 19. 20.

21.

kindness in every day life. I renounce Hinduism, which is harmful for humanity and impedes the advancement and

development of humanity because it is based on inequality, and adopt Buddhism as my religion. I firmly believe the Dhamma of the Buddha is the only true religion. I believe that I am having a re-birth. I solemnly declare and affirm that I shall hereafter lead my life according to the principles

22.

and teachings of the Buddha and his Dhamma.

Nowadays many Ambedkarite Organisations are working for these 22 vows (i.e. 22 Pratigya). They believe that these vows only are responsible for the existence & rapid growth of present Buddhism in India. The umbrella organization known as the 22 Pledges Practice & Propagation Movement (i.e. in Hindi- 22 Pratigya Aacharan aur Prachaar Abhiyan) is fully devoted for this purpose. This totally nonpolitical movement is the brain-child of Arvind Sontakke, and comprises around 5,000,000 volunteers (Pracharaks) including many regional and local groups throughout India.

Objectives of BAMCEF The main objective of BAMCEF is the Change of Social System. BAMCEF has been continuously putting efforts to organize the intellectual class for this purpose. As a result number of things have been achieved so far. But they are not adequate enough for the purpose of change of system. More and more efforts are still needed. They need to be expedited. In order to complete the task of Change of System and in order to achieve the goal at the earliest and in a systematic manner, a number of goals have been kept by BAMCEF for itself. These are as follows: 1. 2. 3. To inculcate the feeling of Paying back of social obligation among the intellectual class To strengthen the non-political roots in the Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj To develop objective-oriented and objective-inspired awakening of the Mulnivasi Samaj

4. To spread and propagate the ideology of Rashtrapita Jyotirao Phuley, Jana Nayak Birsa Munda, Periyar Ramasami, Shahuji Maharaj, Dr. Ambedkar and other forefathers of our social movement 5. To create awakening among the 6000 backward castes of Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj and to create a feeling of brotherhood among them and to create social polarization by uniting them 6. To generate human and financial resources for making our social movement self-reliant

7. To develop a responsible and honest leadership in the Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj, which is passing through leadership crisis. To utilize and manage developed human resources. 8. To guide Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj in order to lead respectful life.

9. To create full-time activists dedicated to the objectives, ideology, values and principles of the organization and involve them in the propagation of the ideology.

10. To undertake research in the various departments of human sciences, to generate literature, and spread it into the Mulnivasi Bahujan masses. It must be clearly understood that the success of the movement Shall depend on the achievements of the above objectives.