Navayana

Navayāna (Devanagari: नवयान, IAST: Navayāna, meaning "New Vehicle"), otherwise known as Navayāna Buddhism, refers to the socially engaged school of Buddhism founded and developed by the Indian jurist, social reformer, and scholar B. R. Ambedkar; it is also called Neo-Buddhism and Ambedkarite Buddhism. Its members describe the school as the application of Buddhist principles for the welfare of many.

Ambedkar was an Indian lawyer, politician, and scholar of Buddhism, and the Drafting Chairman of the Constitution of India. He was born into an "untouchable" family during the colonial era of India, studied abroad, and became a Dalit leader. In 1935, he announced his intent to convert from Hinduism to a different religion, an endeavor which led him to study all the major religions of the world in depth, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Islam, for nearly 21 years. Ambedkar soon created a new school of Buddhism, posthumously named Ambedkarite Buddhism. Ambedkar held a conference on 13 October 1956, announcing his rejection of Hinduism. Thereafter, he left Hinduism and adopted Buddhism as his religious faith, about six weeks before his death. Adherents see Navayāna Buddhism not as a sect with radically different ideas, but rather as a new social movement founded on the principles of Buddhism.

To mainstream Buddhists outside of the subcontinent, Navayāna is not considered as an independent new branch of Buddhism native to India, like the branches of Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna, which are considered legitimate lineages in the Buddhist tradition by them. Instead, Navayāna is viewed as a radical and political re-interpretation of Buddhism; Ambedkar regarded Buddhism to be a better alternative than Marxism or communism, taking into account social division within Indian society as opposed to homogeneous European societies.

While the term Navayāna is most commonly used in reference to the movement that Ambedkar founded in India, it is also (more rarely) used in a different sense, to refer to Westernized forms of Buddhism. Ambedkar called his version of Buddhism Navayāna or "Neo-Buddhism". His book, The Buddha and His Dhamma, is considered the primary doctrine of Buddhism by Navayana Buddhists. The followers of Navayāna Buddhism are generally called "Buddhists" (Bauddha) as well as Ambedkarite Buddhists, Neo-Buddhists, and rarely Navayāna Buddhists. Almost 90% of Navayāna Buddhists live in Maharashtra.