Navajyoti, International Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Research Volume 5, Issue 2, February 2021 EPISTEMOLOGICAL BASES OF NAVAYĀNA: AMBEDKAR’S VISION OF NATION, IDENTITY AND JUSTICE Biswadeep Chakraborty PhD Research Scholar Department of History Visva Bharati – Santiniketan, West Bengal ___________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: Navayāna or neo-Buddhism emerged in the 1950’s as a new branch of Buddhism and was first promulgated by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in 1956. For Ambedkar the situation in India was a unique one in comparison to other nations since slavery here was linked with religion or religious identity as the downtrodden achut or untouchable dalits were part of a particular religion. Ambedkar argued for the ‘psychic unity’ of mankind and rejected the crude idea of the biological weakness of the shudra in the brahmanical religion and thereby developed his own postcolonial religious doctrine which he used as the political device against untouchability. The topic of this paper addresses an essential period in the history of postcolonial India where one of its founding fathers developed a new religious system altogether for the downtrodden and oppressed. Despite a growing body of literature on Ambedkar as the father of the dalit movement in south Asia, scholars largely neglect his religious philosophy which he used as a political tool for the betterment of the community. This paper will explore how he attempted to rewrite Indian history with his religious credo of navayāna as an abstract philosophical solvent against all religious and social hierarchy. This paper will argue how Dr. Ambedkar developed his own sense of ‘nation’, ‘identity’ and ‘justice’ for the new postcolonial nation