Dear Friends:
Like each year, this year, too, was alright. The start has been busy with travels and lectures. I was honoured to deliver a keynote hosted by the W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Celebration Committee at his birthplace in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The same place that he takes us to in his autobiography. I was excited to go, and it was all worth it. The beauty of that region could not be kept long hidden despite the hostile weather.
Glimpses from my keynote (source: The Berkshire Edge, Feb 26, 2024)
Besides, a request from a friend in Karnataka took me to Bangalore to deliver a talk on the Indian Constitution. There, I talked about the variants in Indian politics and how the Constitution is supplanted to serve the cause of the dominant class. The Congress Brahmins and BJP Brahmins are replacing their being within the fold of ruling class dispensation.
I am now at Harvard, working with Prof Henry Louis Gates Jr.
With Prof Gates Jr. (credit: Melissa Blackall)
Outside the office (March 2024)
Inside the office :)
Dalitality
January
My first entry for 2024 in Dalitality starts with a profile of Anand Teltumbde. He was one of the predecessors who wrote columns in media proferring an anti-caste viewpoint. His popular “Margin Speak” was read widely in the Economic & Political Weekly. The column was discontinued after his arrest.
“Teltumbde called out those who didn’t make the lives of the poor and the regular people dignified. He found value in the Marxist maxim as well as in Ambedkar and Buddha. He was equally critical of either ideology, but the attack was against the system. By saying on what he saw as the right side of history, Teltumbde battled with many diverging interests.
We often forget that his core area of expertise lies in cybernetics, which is touted in the present era as the dawn of AI. Teltimbde charted new paths into his new-age technology in 1993 when he earned his PhD from the University of Mumbai. Besides, he was an ace management student at IIM-A and a C-class executive in India’s petroleum company. He then went on to teach in the IIT Kharagpur and founded the nation’s first data science programme at the Goa Institute of Management. I have yet to come across a corporate success story like Teltumbde’s, who has returned to the roots trying to ameliorate the condition that he was born into.”
Access this piece here.
Shweta Ahire, who teaches political science at Joshi-Bedekar College Thane, writes about the 50 years of Worli Riots in Mumbai for the January Dalitality. The riots shifted the gaze of the state towards the Dalit radical movement and its political future. As the writer explains
“Studies have shown that whenever an outfit raised by the marginalised gains prominence, violence is utilised to splinter them and keep them in “their place”. Often this violence is in the form of riots. They physical violence then culminates into structural violence which has serious economic, political and cultural implications. Worli riots rocked the heart of central Mumbai exactly 50 years ago. They began in the BDD chawls on January 5, 1974, during the lifespan of the revolutionary Dalit Panthers, and altered the course of the Dalit movement.”
Read the complete article here.
Vaibhav Wankhede writes about his experiences in the corporate sector. This engaging piece exposes the inefficiency of Indian corporate houses in dealing with the diversity of experiences that India is made of.
Corporations should make caste sensitivity a part of the broder organisational training and shape it as an important part of inclusion priorities. And if this seems ornamental, then let’s adopt affirmative action and call for reservations in the private sector.
Read the article here.
Scholar Abhilash V V writes on the enduring legacy of Poyakil Appachan, the social reformer and prophet for the Kerala Dalits who advised his people to seek freedom from caste.
Appachan was an accomplished singer, poet and elocutionist, who used well-composed songs and speeches to mobilise people for society’s liberation.
His reinterpretation of Travancore’s ancient history and declaration as a prophet sparked hope among the untouchables, empowering them to reclaim both their land and spiritual authority. Upon his call to have land, many Dalits purchased land, which led to a rise in social mobility among Dalits of Kerala. Appachan was a guardian and a god for the destitute and marginalised masses.
You can access the full piece here.
February
For the February edition of Dalitality, I look at the changing Congress party. From being an exclusive club of elites to a broad brush of embracing Bahujan ideology–it is a success of the Buddhist revolution against Brahminism. The Congress party also realises that its overly technocratic focus has harmed its future plans. While the BJP, with the help of the RSS worked with actualising the constituency and converted them to be dedicated cadres.
For the Congress to have a Dalit leader is nothing short of a revolution. The party is not ideological, and its icons do not have a strong caste base, i.e, Jawaharlal Nehru, a Dattatreya Kaul Brahmin, and M K Gandhi, a Gujarati Modh-Bania. If Nehru’s community voted collectively, it would not make for an impressive turnout in national, let alone regional or district-level politics. Gandhi’s jaatwalas have found their holy waters in the BJP-RSS. In the wake of this calamity — not having a sizable number of their ideological icon’s devoted community cadres — Congress desperately needs an available source of cadres to mobilise.
Thankfully, Congress has found suitable lifesavers despite an impending ideological drought.
These are the savant Dalit leaders currently at the helm of the new Congress. Rahul Gandhi’s mind has been shaped in recent years in the company of these few Dalit minds. Barring Kharge, the rest of them do not have a public face yet but they are shaping the party’s direction, making it an Ambedkarite impulse with Buddhist ethics. Rahul’s politics is BSP and his thoughts are Bahujan-waad. He may adorn the attire of the majority, but his sensibility is approachable. He is playing a historical role of riding on the moral victory.”
Read the complete piece on this link.
Publications
I started a column series for ArtReview. Read my launch piece here.
I conclude the piece as follows:
In these columns, we will take a closer look at the Dalit artworld and how it manifests and expresses itself. It is a monumental time for Dalit artists. They are establishing their presence as equals. They have demonstrated their abilities at the Berlin Biennale, Documenta, Dakar Biennale and the African Biennale of Photography, among others, while in India they are curating each other’s works for the first time at the National Gallery of Modern Art, in Mumbai. It is incumbent upon the artworld to take notice of this and theorise this freshness.
This phenomenal work by Vikrant Bhise is from his Worli Riots collection (source: Vikrant Bhise)
I did a long-form review of Ujjal Dosanjh’s novel, The Past Is Never Dead, set in England. Its protagonist is a Chamar (Dalit) professor and the life he has as an outcaste in England. This was probably the first time a Dalit protagonist was written as a main character in fiction in the diasporic literature genre. A few autobiographies exist of Bishan Dass Bains and Kartar Chand. You will read about it in my forthcoming book.
Meanwhile, read the review of the book here.
Interviews
During my last Mumbai visit, I sat down with a fearless journalist and editor, Kamlesh Sutar. We talk about things from Maharashtra’s spiritual tradition to contemporary politics, education, and current affairs. The interview was conducted in Marathi at Lokshahi TV.
You can watch it here.
Anurag Minus Verma and I took the stage at the Kerala Literature Festival. We can watch our conversation here.
Media Profiles
I delivered a talk at the Ajay Gandhi Memorial in Hyderabad ON THE WOKENESS OF CASTE AND THE CULTURE OF UNTOUCHABILITY in 2023. From a personal exposition to the theory of wokeness, I cover these contemporary cultural dimensions in light of caste and technological interface through traditional and social media.
You can now view it here here.
The panel discussion on ‘Ashoka and India’s Past Future’ during Kerala Literature Festival 2024 is available here. I want to start a fresh conversation on Emperor Ashoka and the works he did during his reign, followed by his death. Ashoka remains a strong pillar of Indian nationhood.
In Hyderabad this past month, I attended the Hyderabad Literary Festival to discuss ‘Radical thought, Resistance and Reflections on the Nation. The talk covered diverse aspects of the Modi era and other related issues. It is available to view here.
I was invited to the panel discussion on ‘Exceptionalism & Oppression: Revisioning Caste’ at GBH News on Feb 20, 2024. We discussed issues of caste and colour that exist in modern American society to the elongated past of one’s ancestry from India to the US.
It is accessible to watch here.
Keynote by Dr. Suraj Yengde on ‘Du Bois and Ambedkar: Their Meanings of Democracy and Freedom’ at W.E.B Du Bois Legacy Festival can be watched here.
Coolidge Corner Theater (source: Internet)
The screen of ‘Origin’ was organised at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brooklyn, MA. The screening followed a discussion moderated by Senior Investigative Reporter Phillip Martin. You can read a brief review here.
My team was a finalist for an Einstein Foundation Award 2024. We did not win, but we showed an extraordinary face. Led by legal scholar and lawyer Dr Cynthia Farid, the project was highlighted on their website, The Official PLOS Blog. ‘Scholars in the Global South: Between Precarity and Persecution’ for the ‘Einstein Foundation Award.’ Read it here.
The Berkshire Edge covered the highlights of the W.E.B Du Bois Legacy Festival. The complete piece can be read here.
Other Features
Anurag Minus Verma engages in conversation with Atul Bhosekar on a podcast about Buddhism. This podcast is an excellent education to learn about the influence of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent and its wrong appropriation by Brahminical forces. Atul is a senior researcher of Buddhist caves in western India. His continuous work and scholarship have created a groundswell of interest in preserving the Buddhist sites and recovering them from the undue influences of the Brahmin and their faiths.
Eminent sociologist Sumeet Mhaskar writes a promising piece on the Cotton textile workers and Mumbai for The Sakal. Sumeet is a scholar of the labour history of Bombay, and he has documented it through his scholarship and dissertation, which span over two decades. Sumeet ranks among the rated labour historians of India.
Lead researcher and professor of management and marketing at the University of Melbourne, Hari Bapuji, has contributed to some of the cutting edge research on the intersection of market and caste. his pioneering work has produced some of the finest research in the discipline. This article is another of his commendable scholarship, wherein he educates the managerial staff about the various social stratifications that contribute to inequities in societies, such as caste. This needs to be understood before making any decisions.
‘What Managers Everywhere Must Know About Caste’ published in MIT Sloan Management Review here.
Shocking revelation of separate wards for Dalits in Indian prisons. Watch the discussion panel on the NDTV, which was joined by petitioner Sukanya Shantha. This is a harrowing reality of a parallel world that is constituted of the social outcastes in prisons. The report can be accessed on this link.
Sociologist Suryakant Waghmore’s review of Joe Lee’s excellent book on Lal Begis, an underground religion of the Dalits in North India, is a good endorsement.
You can read the review here.
In History
January
1 January: Bhima Koregaon Battle Victory Day
3 January: Birth Anniversary of Savitribai Phule, the first women teacher in India
8 January: Buddhist Flag Day
9 January: Dr Ambedkar Roundtable Conference
14 January: Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada Vidyapith Namvistar Day
15 January: Death Anniversary of Namdev Dhasal, a founder of Dalit Panther
31 January: Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar started ‘Muknayak’ newspaper
February
2 February: Death Anniversary of Subhedar Ramaji Maloji Sakpal, father of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
5 February: Hindu code bill was introduced in the Indian parliament by Dr. Ambedkar
7 February: Birth Anniversary of Ramai Ambedkar
7 February: Death Anniversary of Lalai Singh Yadav
23 February: Birth Anniversary of Gadge Maharaj
Celebrations / Announcements
The most awaited ‘Origin’ has finally been released with a positive reception worldwide. It is now available on online OTT platforms such as Apple, Google Play, Prime, YouTube, Fandango.
the reviews are out and wide. some of the platforms who interviewed me are posted here for further consideration from a diasporic, South Asian perspective.
The Hollywood Reporter did a fantastic review of the film and more.
But many of Origin’s most indelible characters weren’t played by professionals. Dalit scholar Suraj Yengde, who escorted Wilkerson through India’s caste system during her research, plays himself on the big screen, partly because of his natural charisma and partly because, in Origin’s commitment to authentic casting and the continued realities of caste stigmatization, it was difficult to find actors willing to out themselves as Dalit.
It can be read here.
I Am Hip-Hop Magazine’s review can be read here.
Joel Lee, who sounds like a north Indian radio host, has finally published his book. Deceptive Majority is a great anthropological study of a sub-community constructed during colonial times.
Jesús F. Cháirez-Garza’s book on Ambedkar and his movement against untouchability, Rethinking untouchability: The political thought of B. R. Ambedkar is out now. Published by Manchester University Press, this book will be an excellent read for those interested in the topic.
Recent Events
11 to 14 January: Kerala Literature Festival 2024, Kozhikode Beach, Kerala.
28 January: Hyderabad Literary Festival, ‘Radical Thought, Resistance and Reflections on the Nation’, Dr Reddy’s Atrium, Hyderabad
4 February: ‘PANORAMA: Origin’ discussion with Dr. Suraj Yengde
17-18 February: India Conference at Harvard 2024| ‘Ask me anything with Dr. Suraj Yengde’ | Harvard Kennedy and Business School
20 February: Exceptionalism & Oppression: Revisioning Caste| GBH Studios
21 February: W.E.B Du Bois Legacy Festival. Keynote by Dr. Suraj Yengde on, ‘Du Bois and Ambedkar: Their Meanings of Democracy and Freedom.’| Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, Massachusetts
That is all for now. I have a DPhil dissertation that is due soon, and so is a manuscript. I managed to submit the complete draft to the publisher earlier this week :)
#JaiBhim #DalitLove
suraj