Both the above quotations from our two books are correctly reproduced by Brother Gopala Rao. As marxism was the only revolutionary philosophy in our younger days, we took to it like all those youths yearning for social change. But the upper castes who monopolised marxism used It for their private ends and duped the oppressed masses.
Conversion movement: It is true that we did make a comment on Budhism as a “dead religion”. But it was before we read Babasaheb’s book, Buddha & His Dhamma, which was not so easily available in the 1970s though we had read all his important books. This book changed our opinion on Budhism.
Even today our opinion on brahminical Budhism remains the same but Babasaheb’s Budhism is different. His Budhism is revolutionary and that is why we changed our opinion and embraced Budhism at Patna and participated in Bodhgaya liberation movement.
Had Babasaheb been alive he would have spread his brand of Budhism all over India and Hinduism would been dead by now. But his followers did nothing. No leader or Dalit organisation takes up conversion on a missionary basis We are deeply concerned over this lapse.
DV not Budhist journal: Gopala Rao is right when he says we did nothing to preach and spread Budhism. Yes. We are not religious leaders. DV is not a religious journal. Only a Budhist monk with his religious garb can launch a conversion drive. As the Editor of DV we are not cut out for this difficult job. If Gopala Rao wants us to take up that job then somebody else must take over DV. However, we do attend all Budhist conclaves Including the large conversion ceremony organised by late Saddharma at Nellore some 4-5 years back.
Every book written by us are before the people. Every sentence in DV is a public document scrutinized by thousands of eyes. Nothing is secret. Our life itself is an open book.
Frauds cannot hide themselves for long. If we had been frauds by this time we would have been exposed. We stand by every word-written and spoken. –EDITOR.
