Urmila Phadnis (1931 – 1991) was an Indian political scientist and sociologist, who specialised in the ethnology of South Asia.
摘要
Because of their numerical strength and political articulateness, neo-Buddhists in India have been able to regain the concessions in education which are available to scheduled castes and which had been denied to them so long. Though they are still not eligible, without acknowledging their caste, to benefit from the reservations of quotas for scheduled castes in Government services and from the reservations of constituencies, unlike the scheduled castes they have not fared badly in open competition for Government jobs or in elections from general constituencies. Rapid politicalisation of the group, its relatively high literacy rate as well as its numerical strength in the one State where most of them live, Maharashtra, are among the factors which have made this possible.
Neo-Buddhists in Ceylon, though fewer in number than their counterparts across the Straits, have gradually assumed importance because of the political implications of their acceptance of a faith which is the religion of the majority community in the country. The Sinhalese-Tamil political interaction has heightened the interest of the major Sinhalese parties in the problems of neo-Buddhists.
