From Karma to Justice: Narrative-Textual Hermeneutics of Ambedkar's Navayana Buddhism

From Karma to Justice: Narrative-Textual Hermeneutics of Ambedkar’s Navayana Buddhism Aditi Verma Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India Email:[email protected] ——————————————————————————————————————— Abstract This study explores the philosophical and socio-political transformation enacted by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar through his reinterpretation of Buddhism, particularly as expressed in The Buddha and His Dhamma. Drawing on a hybrid methodological framework—Narrative-Textual Hermeneutics—the research integrates hermeneutic textual analysis with narrative inquiry to examine how Ambedkar’s writing reconfigures canonical Buddhist concepts into tools of epistemic resistance and social justice. Core findings reveal that Ambedkar inverts traditional metaphysical structures such as karma and dukkha, transforming them into secular ethics and diagnostic categories of collective suffering. Through narrative rituals such as conversion and the public articulation of vows, Ambedkar performs a discursive rupture from Brahmanical orthodoxy, constructing a new ontological grammar centered on human dignity and equality. The study frames Ambedkar not merely as a political reformer but as a narrative philosopher—a sovereign author of liberatory knowledge. This re-reading has implications for both religious studies and narrative theory, suggesting that story can function not only as representation but as a cognitive engine for socio-ethical transformation. Keywords: Ambedkar, Navayana Buddhism, narrative hermeneutics, epistemic rupture, caste, karma, dukkha, narrative sovereignty, textual analysis, tone.