My Dalitality
Issue# 34: March 2025
Dear Friends:
This month has been alarming in the US politics. It is an indication of what lies ahead for the country and the world. The geopolitical shifts have unnerved many who believe in a liberal, capitalist order.
President Trump is subverting the porous structure that has always been met with suspicion and distress. One of the first attacks this administration launched was against the supposed woke canard of educational institutions. It is based on the premise that the rise of the left and right have seen competing wars of wokeness. The right is punishing the left. The traditional left may not parley with the contemporary left of the neoliberal state order.
Raosaheb Kasabe Distinguished Lecture Series
We are hosting Jason Stanley, the author of How Fascism Works to talk about “How Fascism Works in Non-western Democracies”. The registration link is here.
Jason Stanley recently quit his Yale professorship to go to Canada. It was a protest resignation against elite universities’ submission to the administration’s intimidation. He also had a political cause to move to Canada, “to raise my kids in a country that is not tilting towards a fascist dictatorship” he was quoted saying.
Stanley spoke to CBC Canada. You can hear him here.
The Trump administration’s early days were a straight signal and it couldn’t have been clearer. As soon as the authority muscled itself, the short players of behemoth corporate America cowed down. Somersaulting to the promises made in the aftermath of the 2020 Summer protests, corporate America withdrew.
The New York Times reported how big companies from Uber, DuPont, Live Nation Entertainment, gradually, over the years erased their commitment to the diversity and representation policy.
You can read the article, How Corporate America Is Retreating From D.E.I. here.
In the Woods
I spent nearly ten days at a Forest Monastery in High View, West Virginia. The hour-and-a-half ride from DC offered me glimpses into rural America. The Appalachian mountainous region is touted as the backward, rural, agrarian region that is Republican and conservative. One wonders what draws them to a party that is invested in harming them. An easy explanation is racism and economic anxiety. A complex and searing exploration of this question should tell us about the intermixing of new economic order, service-oriented industry and automated machines that have changed the landscape of yesteryears.
Driving through the rural parts I could spot the old, Civil War-era houses and brick blocks standing tall, many on the highway deserted by the occupants. I asked the local about the history of such houses and he suspected that once sprawling agriculture occupation might have consumed the family over rising prices forcing them to abandon the palatial house located in the picturesque fields.
The confederate flags proudly declaring their allegiance in the front yards could be seen adjacent to the regional motorways. The houses marked their political endorsement of Trump-Vance leadership in the front yard. Gazing from this window towards the capital of the country, about an hour's drive one wonders what happens to the big promises of America as a nation that insecurely promises itself each time that it is the greatest country on the earth due to the military might and protection of favoured gods.
I spent one night with a Dalit Trumpian. A retired veteran and highly educated person who identifies with Ambedkar and Buddhist ethos has reasons to hate Biden more than loving Trump. He confesses to Trump being not a perfect guy but reminds of the damages done to the country by Biden. His source is Fox News and other conservative channels. The Post and other liberal media are not his favoured choices because he had read them meticulously every day for all those years. My friend and I had amicable discussions. He defended his position. We parted but without breaking the trust of truth. His truth was his and mine was mine, we let it be with ourselves.
My phone was off during my time at the monastery. I enjoyed the time there. I learned a great deal about the Buddha’s history especially the practice of meditation that assures you freedom from suffering, and unwanted pain. But one has to work for it. Craving and attachment are two things that bring suffering to human beings. Due to our cognitive facilities, we (human beings) have invented ways to divert from concentrating on actual aspects of suffering. The many diversions we have created is a case in point. Distractions as necessities to work out boredom elongate our reason to be free from suffering.
with the veteran monk, Bhante Gunaratana at Bhavana Society
I read books on the meditation practice by Bhante Gunaratana, a 97-year-old monk who has been preaching the Dhamma–the way of life since he was ordained as a young monk in his teens. One of Bhante G’s books was on the practice of loving-friendliness, as in Metta. Some of the canonical pali language words of 2,600 years ago do not make for an easy, commercial language of English but Metta is a deeper, sincere, and kinder expression of affection and true wishes given from the heart with positive vibrations to ourselves and the world.
It is recommended as one of the meditation practices for gaining concentration, which is a second step towards penetrating deep into the self by clearing off walls of defilements. Once the mind is settled it opens for true experience. I am sending my heartfelt, abundant Metta and an infinite dose of compassion to you all reading this and beyond. May your heart be light and strong for you to sustain it further.
Publications
Dreams of My Disabled Life #1 (2008): Artwork by Balbir Krishan
I wrote on the debates of binarism. I start the piece:
There is hardly anything concrete to shape the world into binaries. Nature is multipolar. There are modes of communication that amplify through colours, palettes, smells, tastes and weather. Our senses react to variations. Diversities and multiple angles with and without axes make for an encircling life.
Binary is also the demonstration of our limitations that we are unable to explore beyond the liminal vantage. Binary is a departure from the conditioned acceptability to brave our choices.
I tell a story of an Indian American couple in Arlington, MA who are raising their child without an obvious gender identity,
An Indian parent couple, Neela and Nitin, are bringing up their child in Boston without a binary identity of gender. The parents treat the child, Akira—a name that represents an undefined identity of the gender—as a non-binary and do not want to enforce gender. When I saw Akira for the first time, I was also confused about Akira’s gender identity, but Nitin was aware to point out the non-binary gender-neutral identity.
You can read the complete piece here.
While in Cartagena I was interviewed by Dr. Francisco Javier Florez Bolivar for the Ministry of Culture’s Gaceta Magazine. The interview is published in Spanish, but it can be translated online. You can read the interview here.
‘Composition’ Artwork by Lokesh B H
Earlier I wrote on Love. I wrote from a position of misunderstanding, difficulty, longing, correctness, hope, distance, crying, and codependency…all constitute the poetic contents of living love. You can read it here.
Events
April is a busy month. I start with a keynote at Harvard University’s Annual Roma Conference on 4th April 2025. The event is hybrid. Those in the area are welcome to participate and those afar can join online. The details are here.
Afterwards, I proceed to speak in the Bay Area to mark Dr Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 12th.
TEXAS
Towards the month’s end, I will speak at another venue hosted by the Ambedkarite Buddhist Association of Texas in Dallas on April 19th. Following that, the University of Texas, Austin will have me over to deliver another talk on April 25th. Details will be updated on my social media here.
Past Events
I had the great opportunity to engage with students and faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for an alumni-funded, student-nominated lecture. When I was in the area I caught up with friends after nearly six years.
I also went to Wendell Free Library upon the invitation of Christopher S Queen. Wendell is a spaceship of the 1970s hippies who live close to nature. They are a bunch who have come from all over the place. It is in the woods and rural. One gets a sweet feeling of not belonging to America. In many rural areas, we’re ejected out of the American seatbelt only to experience the marvellous nature holding its guard without the temptations of being raped by human greed.
caught up with old-timer friends, organizers Amilcar Shabazz and Gary Tartakov
While in Amherst, I paid a visit to Sojourner Truth’s statue erected in 2002.
Books
Bhante G’s other publications can be found on the Wisdom Publications website.
Panther’s Paw Publication, an independent publishing house based out of Nagpur has another book in the market. The Village Without a Science Teacher by Sangeeta Mulay with illustrations provided by Valeriya Polyanychko. More details can be found on their Facebook page.
The agitation for the Mahabodhi Vihara is continuing with international support. London City saw a protest just today (March 30). A friend in Gaya who was at the site of dharna, Rajesh Boudh offered me glimpses of the pandals.
Other groups are organizing their protest rallies.
March
01 March – Chamar Regiment formed in 1943
20 March – Birth Anniversary of Kanshi Ram (b. 1934)
20 March – Chavdar Tank Satyagraha launched in 1927
Stay strong everyone. Until we meet next,
#JaiBhim #DalitLove
suraj