This website uses cookies to improve the user experience. If you continue on this website, you will provide your consent to our use of cookies.

Access Contact 日本語
  1. TOP
  2. Research grants
  3. Nemoto, Tatsushi

Nemoto, Tatsushi

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of TsukubaAssistant Professor*Profile is at the time of the award.

2019Inamori Research GrantsHumanities & Sociology

website
Research topics
Digital Archiving of Historical Materials Concerning Untouchable Liberation Movements in India and Research on Buddhist Monk Sasai’s Religious Practices of “Becoming-Untouchable”
Keyword
Summary
Led by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a former “untouchable” who drafted India’s Constitution, over 300,000 former “untouchables” were converted from Hinduism to Buddhism on October 14, 1956. Ambedkar, however, passed away just 53 days later. The purpose of this proposed research is to digitally archive a huge amount of historical materials concerning Untouchable Liberation Movements in the 1970s onward and to reveal what experiences the former untouchables went through after the death of Ambedkar (during the post-Ambedkar period). Most of the historical materials in question were kept in India by a Buddhist monk named Shurei Sasai, who took the role of a religious leader for the Untouchable Liberation Movements in India during the post-Ambedkar period from 1967. The materials include Sasai’s diaries and memoranda on his thoughts and practices. In the course of my research, along with digitally archiving the relevant materials, I will attempt to learn how Sasai, originally from Japan, conducted the religious practice of “becoming an untouchable,” i.e., how he became involved in such a movement in India as a person concerned.

Message from recipient

My goal is to not only make academic achievements like writing papers but also to share my research findings with the general public, as well as those in academia, by making the most of videos and photographs.

Find other recipients

Humanities & Sociology