This panel utilizes ethnography to center the voices of caste-oppressed Buddhists in India, Western Odisha, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The first two panelists focus the relationship caste plays in Buddhism(s) transmitted through oral cultures in India. Panelist 1 examines the forms, cultural practices, and meanings of Buddhist songs for Dalit-Bahujan communities, showing how sonic culture reflects anti-caste cultural practices. Panelist 2 explores the role of myths, legends, and folktales within the Gandha community of Odisha for reconstructing anti-caste histories. The next two papers move outside of India to consider the role of caste and ethnoreligious identity within Muslim majority regions. Panelist 3 examines the impact of Bengali Muslim migration in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, on indigenous Buddhist social structures. Panelist 4 traces the Buddhist lifeworld created by caste marginalized Buddhists in Pakistan.
Tathagata Buddha songs refer to a set of singing practices, hymns, and other musical performative dimensions that is particularly dedicated to Buddha, his preaching, and the sense of emancipation that the emergence of Buddhism is rooted in. This paper aims to explore what constitutes Buddhist sonic, particularly for communities who have perceived Buddhism as a way of revival of cultural identity. Through ethnographies of anti-caste singers, the paper aims to engage with the forms, cultural practices, and meanings of Buddhist songs for Dalit-Bahujan communities. While acceptance to Buddhism, since Ambedkar’s conversion in 1956, has been a significant moment for oppressed caste cultural revival, the paper will specifically engage with the ways in which sonic culture is significant and how it reflects anti-caste cultural practices.
Keywords: Music, Buddhism, anti-caste movement, cultural practices, emancipation.
This paper explores the historicization of myths, legends, and folktales within the Ganda community of Kurul and Malgodampada, Balangir, Odisha. Challenging the dominant historiographical exclusion of caste-oppressed communities, it examines how myths are not merely remnants of the past but serve as mediums for reconstructing history. Drawing from Ambedkar’s call for imagination in exhuming history, Vico’s insights on myth as social history, Russell’s synthesis of logic and mysticism, Carr and White’s criticism of dominant forms of historiography, this study interrogates how myths undergo logical scrutiny within communities to be articulated as ‘probable pasts.’ Through ethnographic data and semiotic analysis, it engages in Asad’s view on power’s role in defining ‘true speech.’ By tracing the discourses and practices around Bhima Buddha, Saat Bahin, and Bastarain Mata, among others, across Buddhist Tantric and Hindu narratives, the paper highlights myth’s role in anti-caste cultural praxis, reclaiming lost histories beyond narratives of mere ‘loss.’
This study explores how Bengali migration, primarily of Muslim settlers, has transformed indigenous Buddhist social structures in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. The demographic shift has intensified ethnic and religious tensions, affecting indigenous Buddhist communities such as the Chakma, Marma, and Tanchangya. This research examines how migration, religion, and caste-like hierarchies intersect, reshaping social relations and indigenous identity. While Buddhism in the CHT traditionally emphasizes inclusivity, local communities report that Bengali dominance has led to economic marginalization, land dispossession, and socio-political exclusion, reinforcing caste-like divisions. Using ethnographic interviews and historical analysis, this study highlights indigenous perspectives on religious coexistence, resistance, and adaptation in response to settler expansion. Findings suggest that migration has not only threatened indigenous autonomy but also altered Buddhist monastic and social structures, influencing perceptions of caste, identity, and intergroup relations. This research contributes to discourses on migration, religious pluralism, and indigenous resistance in South Asia.
The decline of Buddhism in Pakistan began with the advent of Brahmin rule in the region in the 7th century before the Arab Muslims conquered it. Today, Pakistan is dominated by Ashrafiya caste Muslims with 96.35 percent identifying themselves as Muslims, and Islam is declared as an official religion. Hindus and Christians together constitute about 3.8 percent of the population. These Buddhist communities are scattered across Pakistan mostly living in small villages and towns. Using ethnographic methods, this paper attempts to explore the Buddhist lifeworld, and their lower caste status to find ways to create a Buddhist sub-culture, visibilise their lower caste existence to secure their fundamental rights. It delves into the fears, anxieties, and apprehensions of the Pakistani Buddhists, their unwarranted absorption into the Hindu minority and Muslim majority, influences of ashrafisation and savarnisation, and suggests remedial measures for the change agents at the local, national, and global levels.