Celebrating Dhamma Chakka Parivartan Diwas in Hungary
Tarang
Dispatches from Hungary -III
When a senior Indian embassy official in Hungary is invited in a
programme celebrating one of the historic national event of 20th
century India, he speaks on every thing under the sun except on the
event and fails to utter a single word on the most important figure
involved with that particular event and his life and struggles.
This peice is in continution of articles written by Pardeep Singh
Attri on his vist to Hungary. Read his previous two articles:
Dispatches from Hungary - I and Dispatches from Hungary- II.
“I tell you, religion is for man and not man for religion. If you want
to organize, consolidate and successful in this world, change this
(Hindu) religion” – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Dhamma Chakka Parivartan means ’setting in motion the wheel of Dhamma’
and Diwas means ‘Day’. This is the day to refresh our memories of the
very first sermon given by Buddha to his five disciples at Sarnath.
Also on 14th October, 1956, Babasaheb Ambedkar took diksha in Buddhism
along with more than half a million people leaving behind the caste-
virus of Hinduism.
Traces of Buddhism in Hungary can be found since 15th century (it’s
around the same time when gypsies/romas migrated from Balkan regions
of India, so it can be possible Buddhism here in Hungary may have been
brought by these gypsies/romas).
There are few scholars in Hungary who believe that name of the capital
Budapest is derived from the word Buddha. As in 19th century there
were two cities Buda and Pest, on both sides (east and west) of River
Duna. The city of Buda being somewhat hilly, scholars believe there
may have stood a lama monastery, Stupa or Buddha statue from which the
name “Buda” is derived. “Past or “Pest” is a Persian word meaning
“low”. It expresses the topographical relation between Buda and Pest.
“Lower-of-Buda, Lower-of-Gompa1” = Budapest. 2
In Hungary, contemporary Buddhism is new to Romas. Total Buddhist
population of Hungary is about 15,000. Romas of village Sajokaza
(population around 3300) came to know about Babasaheb Ambedkar and
Buddha due to the efforts of Jai Bhim Network, that is working here
from last 3 years. It was decided by Derdak Tibor, Janos and others of
the Network that this time they’ll celebrate “Dhamma Chakka Parivartan
Diwas” on 14th October to commemorate Dr. Ambedkar’s conversion to
Buddhism. Earlier, the Network had also organised an event on Poona
Pact on 24 September, 2007.
The preparations for the celebration of Dhamma Chakka Parivartan Diwas
started from 1st October, 2009 onwards and there was lot of excitement
in local Roma community, especially among the students about the
event. So as to fulfill the curiosity of students of school I visited
“Ozd School” twice and talked with the students about Buddhism, Dr
Ambedkar, what all five colors of Buddhist flag means (Blue- Faith,
Yellow- Holiness, Red- Wisdom, White- Purity and Orange- No Desire)
and Diskhabhoomi, Nagpur etc.
Together with Janos, Tibor, Benu, Bharat, Katlin, we prepared the
schedule of the events to take place during the celebration to be held
on 14th October. We then decided to invite people from Indian Embassy
as well as from Hungarian Education Ministry for the programme. In
this regard on 5th October, Bharat and Janos went and met Mr. V. V.
Mohan, Second Secretary of Indian Embassy and personally hand over the
invitation.
Apart from various speeches by the network activists on Buddhism, we
also planned for Buddha Vandana, a Buddhist play by Lazi Monika, Benu
and Anna. I was also asked to deliver a lecture on ‘Buddhism and Dr
Ambedkar in India’. We decided to end the celebration by a cultural
programme followed by the movie on Babasaheb Ambedkar. For this whole
event, we booked the ‘cultural house’ of Sajókaza.
Finally the much awaited day came, Mr. V.V. Mohan along with one of
his colleague arrived at around 11am. At that time, all of us were
busy in cooking food for 150 people. However, some of us welcomed Mr.
Mohan and discussed about Jai Bhim Network’s activities and later took
him to various Roma settlements of nearby areas.
In the afternoon, around 2 pm, we started our program with around 150
people in attendance. The other dignitaries that graced the function
were Soltesz Lojosne (vice-mayor of Sajókaza) and Belik Istvan
(member, local governing council). Five of us inaugurated the function
by reciting Buddha Vandana on the stage followed by the welcome speech
delivered by the senior activist Janos.
Then Mr V.V. Mohan was invited to speak and share his views, which he
did by talking about India and the activities of Jai Bhim Network.
However, what surprised me the most in his speech was that Mr. Mohan,
speaking in the event on Dr. Ambedkar’s historic conversion to
Buddhism, failed to utter a single word about Buddhism and Babasaheb
Ambedkar. I am amazed at the audacity and stubbornness of caste-Indian
psyche on maintaining a silence at all cost on Babasaheb Ambedkar and
Buddhism.
After that Derdak Tibor spoke about the importance of Buddhism and Dr
Ambedkar, how he converted to Buddhism, necessity of Buddhism in
present life etc. Then, women congregation took place and they sang
Roma songs. Then came my turn to speak on importance of Buddhism and
Babasaheb in Indian context.
Initially, I was bit nervous due to my stage fear as this was only the
second such opportunity for me, to speak before the gathering, the
first being in Nagpur last year. But then, Derdak Tibor being my
interpreter brought me some relief and I was able to talk about the
life and struggle of Babasaheb, about untouchability in India,
importance of Buddhism and the role of Buddhism in empowering the
whole Dalit community in the country. I also told the audience about a
study that found out that people embracing Buddhism doing much better
than those Dalits who have not yet converted.
At the end of the programme one of the Network activists Benu thanked
everyone and distributed gifts to children among the audience. We also
handed over Babasaheb Ambedkar’s pictures, Jai Bhim bands, Buddhist
bracelets, books etc to Jai Bhim Network that we brought from India.
It was around 5pm and the programme was concluded after serving
delicious food to all participants.
After two hours we again gathered at the same venue for showing the
movie on Dr Ambedkar but before that we gave a brief introduction to
the movie, being translated by another Roma activist Katlin. We also
featured a short movie ‘Pay Back to Society’ directed by our friend
Saurav Arya and ended the programme by reciting 22 vows of Dr
Ambedkar, being translated in Hungarian language and suited to
Hungarian context by Derdak Tibor. The response to the event was very
warm and welcoming by the whole Roma community.
By Pardeep Singh Attri