Introduction PART I Classical Buddhism and caste 1 Buddha’s attitude towards the caste system as available in P?li texts 2 Caste in classical Indian philosophy: some ontological problems 3 Epistemological foundations of caste identities: a review of Buddhist critique of classical orthodox Indian realism 4 Casting away the caste: a Buddhist standpoint in the Vimalaprabh? commentary on the K?lacakra tantra PART II Neo-Buddhism: Ambedkar on caste, class and gender 5 Buddha and Ambedkar on caste: a comparative overview 6 Neo-Buddhism, Marxism and the caste question in India 7 Ambedkar’s critique of patriarchy: interrogating at intersection of caste and gender PART III Hinduism and Buddhism: interaction, conflict and beyond 8 Buddhism and Hindu society: some observations from medieval Marathi literature 9 The Buddhist past as a cultural conflict: Ambedkar’s exhumation of Indian history 10 Gandhi and Ambedkar on caste PART IV Religion, modernity and Navay?na Buddhism 11 Social solidarity or individual perfection: conceptions of religion in Ambedkar and Radhakrishnan 12 Religion, caste and modernity: Ambedkar’s reconstruction of Buddhism 13 Ambedkar and modern Buddhism: continuity and discontinuity Appendix I: Vajras?ci Appendix II: Vajras?ci and its reverberations