Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar visited Bangalore in 1954. At that time, the Raja Pramukh of the state who was also the last Maharaja of Mysore invited him for breakfast at his Bangalore Palace.
Dr. Ambedkar then expressed his desire to launch an international Budhist reserach center in Bangalore and requested for a suitable site for the same.
To build a centre to train Budhist bhikkus (Buddha Mutt), a five acre of land was gifted to Babasaheb by the benevolent Maharaja in the adjoining Palace Orchards – now the posh Sadashivanagar or Rajamahal Vilas Extn.
On formation of the new extension in 1959, this five-acre land was reduced to 3 acres and 17 guntas, as the then casteist men in power cornered the remaining extent of the land.
The late B. Basavilangappa, a powerful Dalit Minister, was elected president of the Peoples’ Education Society (PES), Bombay (founded by Babasaheb), which owned the land.
Basavalingappa told the press on April 13, 1987, that the Budha Mutt project would be taken up soon.
Sixteen years are over, and nothing has come up except a school for the elites.
K.H. Ranganath, a senior Dalit Minister for Forests, Govt. of Karnataka, Vidhana Soudha, Bangalore – 560 001, is the new president of the PES. He told the media at Chitradurga on Nov.1, 2003 that he would soon build the Budha Mutt. (Hindu Nov.2, 2003).
As Budha Mutt was the last and the most important dream of our Saviour, Babasaheb, it is the duty of all Ambedkarites to see that the work starts on this historic project in the new millenium which DV called as the “Ambedkar Era”.
