Navayana Buddhism, as articulated by Ambedkar, approaches other religions through an ethical and rational lens rather than a purely theological one. The central criterion is whether a religious tradition upholds human dignity, liberty, equality, and fraternity, and whether it resists structures of social oppression, especially caste and hereditary hierarchy. Traditions that sustain birth-based inequality, ritual purity and impurity, or priestly dominance are regarded as fundamentally incompatible with the values Navayana seeks to embody. In this sense, Hinduism in its Brahmanical form is subjected to particularly strong critique, because its scriptural and ritual framework is seen as legitimizing caste and undermining human equality.

At the same time, Navayana Buddhism does not rest its evaluation of religions on metaphysical claims or exclusive assertions of absolute truth. Rather than debating doctrines for their own sake, it asks whether a religion contributes to social transformation and the annihilation of oppression. Superstition, blind faith, and fatalism are rejected wherever they appear, including within Buddhist traditions themselves, because they are viewed as obstacles to rational inquiry and social emancipation. Religious teachings, to be acceptable from this standpoint, must be compatible with reason and capable of supporting a just, democratic, and casteless social order.

This perspective allows Navayana Buddhism to affirm certain universal values that may be present across different faiths, while still maintaining a clear preference for its own reinterpretation of the Dhamma as the most adequate path for building an egalitarian society. Other religions are not necessarily condemned as wholly evil, but they are judged as limited or defective to the extent that they fail to challenge entrenched hierarchies or continue to justify inequality. Where religious communities align themselves with the struggle against caste and other forms of domination, Navayana thought can recognize common ethical ground and the possibility of cooperation in social reform.

Ultimately, the measure of any religion, from the Navayana standpoint, is not its rituals or speculative doctrines, but the concrete effects it has on the lives of the most marginalized. A religion that serves as a tool of liberation, that encourages rational reflection, and that actively works to dismantle oppressive structures is regarded as worthy of respect. One that sanctifies injustice, however venerable its traditions, stands in need of radical critique and transformation.