Building Ambedkar’s India: Nagaloka centre as a microcosm of Prabuddha Bharat

ABSTRACT Nagaloka Centre in Nagpur, Maharashtra is a community centre for local members of the Triratna Buddhist Community. Nagaloka hosts the Nagarjuna Training Institute (NTI) which provides free training and Bachelors’ degrees in Buddhism and Ambedkar Thought to Indian students from disadvantaged social backgrounds. In offering these courses, NTI’s administrators aim to build a pan-Indian Buddhist network and hope to eventually enact Prabuddha Bharat, ‘enlightened India.’ In their view, Prabuddha Bharat will be an India built around the principles of dhamma as Ambedkar understood them. Nagaloka serves as an important crossroads for intra- and international Buddhists to debate and demonstrate their vision of India as Prabuddha Bharat and is a vital location from which SC, ST, and OBC Indian Buddhists are in conversation with international Buddhists to (re)claim India as a Buddhist homeland.