Celebrating Dhamma Chakka Parivartan Diwas in Hungary

By Pardeep Singh Attri

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 1^st 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.

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1 Gompa is a meditation room/hall in Buddhists centers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gompa

2. Read “A short history of Buddhism in Hungary” at http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/bot/pdf/bot_10_01_03.pdf

3. Read 22vows of Dr Ambedkar applicable in social context of Hungary at http://www.jaibhim.hu/the-credo-of-jai-bhim-network/

http://www.dzsajbhim.hu/dr-ambedkar-22-fogadalma/