Ambedkar’s Navayana, or “New Vehicle,” presents Buddhism as a radically egalitarian and socially engaged path, centered on the lived realities of oppression and dignity. Rather than treating the Dhamma as primarily a means of escaping an otherworldly cycle of rebirth, this reinterpretation reads suffering as including systemic injustice—especially the humiliation and bondage of caste. The Buddha is portrayed as a moral and social reformer who challenged priestly authority and birth-based hierarchy, and whose teachings are inherently anti-caste. In this vision, the Sangha becomes a model for a casteless, democratic community grounded in human dignity rather than ritual status.

Within this framework, Buddhism is recast as a religion of principles, rooted in rationality, ethics, and social responsibility, rather than in metaphysical speculation or supernatural belief. Doctrines that appear to justify social inequality—particularly traditional understandings of karma and rebirth as explanations for one’s social position—are questioned or rejected, because they can foster fatalism and acceptance of oppression. Metaphysical concepts such as nirvana are de-emphasized in favor of practical morality and the creation of a just social order. Faith is reinterpreted as confidence in ethical truths tested by reason and experience, not as blind adherence to inherited dogma.

Navayana thus aligns the heart of Buddhist teaching with the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity, treating these not as external political ideals but as expressions of the Dhamma itself. The path is reformulated so that classical elements like right action and right livelihood are understood in explicitly social terms: to live rightly is to oppose exploitation, to work for social justice, and to build institutions that embody equality. Monasticism is no longer the privileged arena of practice; lay life and collective struggle become central fields of Buddhist discipline. Conversion, in this light, is not merely a change of belief but a conscious act of emancipation from caste identity and a commitment to a new, dignified way of being.

In Ambedkar’s reinterpretation, Buddhism becomes a human-centered, this-worldly project: a rational, compassionate effort to transform both character and society. The ultimate goal is not only inner peace but a community in which no one’s suffering is sanctified by religious ideology, and where fraternity arises from shared ethical commitment rather than shared birth.