Two days before his 89th birthday, Anand Parmer, a writer and union leader based in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, embraced Buddhism, following the footsteps of his idol Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. “But it was just a technicality,” he said, adding “I have been living as a Buddhist for a long time”.

Parmar has translated, among others, two books on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the architect of Indian Constitution, from Hindi to Gujarati. (On October 14, 1956, Ambedkar embraced Buddhism, along with an estimated 365,000 to 600,000 Dalit followers, marking one of the largest religious conversions in history.)

Parmar was among 44 people from the Scheduled Castes hailing from eight districts of Gujarat, who converted to Buddhism at a ceremony hosted by the Lotus Bauddh Sangh Trust in Nava Vadaj area of Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

The converts are from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Gandhinagar , Mehsana, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Sabarkantha and Patan districts.…