Dr B. R. Ambedkar adopted the policy of ‘religious conversion’ to provide social justice to the Mahars—an untouchable community in the state of Maharashtra. Nearly, three and a half million people accepted Navayana Buddhism on a single day under his leadership, denouncing Hindu gods and goddesses and vowed not to accept untouchable status imposed by the caste-Hindu population. Contrary to such a radical departure from Hinduism, there is evidence that a substantial chunk of the people still follows Hindu traditions and beliefs and practices, exhibiting a culture of religious pluralism. Based on a primary field study conducted among the Navayana Buddhist women in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the article examines and explains the causes of such manifestation in the studied population’s religious life.

BR Ambedkar 博士采用了“宗教皈依”政策，为马哈尔人——马哈拉施特拉邦的一个不可接触的社区——提供社会正义。在他的领导下，一天之内就有近三百五十万人接受了纳瓦耶纳佛教，谴责印度教的神明和女神，并发誓不接受印度教种姓人口强加的贱民地位。与如此彻底地背离印度教相反，有证据表明，相当多的人仍然遵循印度教的传统、信仰和习俗，表现出宗教多元化的文化。基于在孟买都会区的纳瓦亚纳佛教女性中进行的初步实地研究，本文检查并解释了在被研究人群的宗教生活中出现这种表现的原因。