Ambedkar-SGPC talks at Amritsar

Who: Dr B. R. Ambedkar, the Dalit leader; the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, which set up the Sarb Hind Sikh Mission in response to his declaration; and Mahatma Gandhi, who opposed the plan.

What: On 13 October 1935 Ambedkar vowed at Yeola, "I solemnly assure you that I will not die as a Hindu." The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says this declaration was the immediate cause of the Mission. The SGPC's executive committee took up the matter on 25 January 1936, and its general session of 1 March 1936 passed four resolutions on initiating the so-called untouchable classes. The SGPC then called the Sarb Hind Shiromani Sikh Prachar Conference at Amritsar. The Encyclopaedia dates it 11 to 13 April 1936 and Pritchett's Ambedkar timeline has him addressing it on 13 to 14 April, reiterating his intention to renounce Hinduism. Ninety-four people received Khalsa initiation at the conference, at least 43 of them non-Sikhs from outside Punjab, and the conference formed the permanent Sarb Hind Sikh Mission.

The scale was large. SikhRI's article on the episode carries the figure of 60 million in its title, while a contemporary quotation in it says thirty million. On 18 September 1936 Ambedkar sent thirteen men to the Mission to study Sikhi; according to Keer, cited by SikhRI, they were "coldly received back in Bombay".

Gandhi called the idea "A Dangerous Proposal" in Harijan and wrote to Jugal Kishore Birla on 7 September 1936 that "to me Sikhism is a part of Hinduism". B. S. Moonje of the Hindu Mahasabha wrote on 26 July 1936 that the Mahasabha would not object to conversion to Sikhism.

Where: Amritsar.

Why it mattered: The sources give different reasons for the end of the plan. Gurmit Singh writes that Gandhi's public opposition made Ambedkar abandon it "in view of changed circumstances", and SikhRI says he dropped it in 1938. Ramachandra Guha writes that Ambedkar briefly considered Sikhism but dropped it because Sikh congregations had reproduced the Hindu caste system. The Encyclopaedia says only that he and his followers ultimately decided not to adopt Sikhism. Ambedkar became a Buddhist at Nagpur in October 1956, with more than three lakh followers.