Rahul Sankrityayan's (1893–1963) shift from buddhism to marxism: Some reflections

Rahul Sankrityayan, who knew more than thirty languages, travelled more than tens of thousands of miles, taught at well known universities without formal education, a activist who was jailed thrice and whose published works numbering more than 135 ranged from travelogues, sociology, history, religion, philosophy, autobiography, biography, folklore, fiction, science, drama, essays etc.

Sankrityayan‘s drift to Marxism from his Buddhist ideological position has been a subject of interest for many. He was an enthusiastic Buddhist who was bent a revival of Buddhism in India in 1920s. But, his progressive outlook towards the common people pushed him towards the Marxist literature and philosophy. He had shown his basic inclination for a classless egalitarian society in one of his early book—Baismi Sadi. Now, with exposure to Marxism he found a philosophy which could translate his vision into reality. He decided to go for Marxism and sought to create a synthesis of Buddhist & Marxist philosophy and Marxist practice. This paper seeks to address this drift on the basis of literature of Rahul to argue that he did not disown Buddhism and he always sought to bring a creative synthesis of these two philosophies.