Dear Friends:
It was a long gap. I had many deadlines to attend to and accommodate research trips. I briefly visited India to attend the Constitution Convention organized by the Government of Karnataka and returned to resume the research work. The book manuscript is now with the publishers. My dissertation is at its editing stage.
I was in Trinidad doing research among Indo-Trinidadians.
I was invited to deliver a keynote at the Dr. Ambedkar birthday celebration hosted by Dalit students at Columbia University.
Dalitality
May
For the May edition of the Dalitality, I take up a case study of two students, Ravi and Sreerag, who have been suffering from unstable employment opportunities despite having degrees and work experience. The government has not added jobs. ‘Government has not added jobs but graduate degrees and skills don’t mean job stability.’ India ranked 164 in the ILO data of regular employees in the workforce. Read the article here.
April
I reconsider what these elections mean to us that is torn between the righteousness of the right-wing and an emerging social justice liberal agenda. I propose an Ambedkarite politics.
"Ambedkarite politics is currently the only one with the potential to push back against the old agenda played out on the chest of voters. This is best represented in the formula of poverty and progress on the one hand and religion and economy on the other."
With Ambedkar now a central figure in the political battles, it seems the message has been well received by the political class.
You can read the piece here.
March
Not many have understood Mayawati or the BSP, creating difficulties in deciphering the telltale signs of Indian politics. India should be grateful to have a charismatic leader like her, despite the casteist regime in media, politics, business and other important sectors controlling institutions. BSP has created an ideal, democratic experience in a land that enquires about caste before establishing a relationship.
Access the complete article here.
Aarushi Punia looks at the potential interlinkages between Palestinians and India's Dalits. She writes:
What is common to both Dalits and Palestinians is extreme racialised discrimination, humiliation and segregation at the hands of the ethno-national state, which privileges a group with fictive ethnic roots. Both upper castes (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas) and Zionists assert scriptural authority, genetic superiority, and cultural supremacy through the state.
Read the complete piece here.
In Maharashtra and across the country, the shepherd community that falls under the backward class category hold important keys to power. The current Chief Minister of Karnataka state also hails from the community. A scholar from the same community, Anand Kshirsagar, is now at the University of Chicago studying for his degree in public administration writes for the Dalitality. "For Maharashtra's Dhangars, the road to ‘Begampura’. You can read the article here.
Publications
Our project 'Caste in Canada' was recently completed. Prof. Anne Murphy and I worked on the project for over three years. Despite the covid limitations, we managed to deliver the results. Please see more about the project here.
We also wrote an article for The Conversation, ‘How caste discrimination impacts communities in Canada’. Please find the complete piece here.
Vikrant Bhise, Chaityabhumi: Assembly of Parinibban of Great Being, 2023, oil on canvas, 183 × 244 cm.
For my ArtReview column, I cover Vikrant Bhise’s exhibition at the Anant Art Gallery in Noida. Taking an inspiration from the Dalit art field, I write:
Vikrant has curated the social story of contemporary India. Chaityabhumi: Assembly of the Parinibban of Great Being (2023) refers to the site in Mumbai where Ambedkar was cremated and is visited by over a million visitors from across the world over the two days in December that mark the anniversary of his death. At the centre of the painting is the marketplace, a sea of humanity. On the horizon is a verdant forest, as Vikrant replaces concrete jungles with an ecological embrace of the congregation, paying homage to the Sangha of the Buddha, who is pictured, hovering above a stall, centre-right. Like many of his recent works it is suffused with the ambience of a cerulean blue. It’s a guarantee of his politics. Blue is a metaphor of the large, expanding, common sky, roofed over the homeless and destitute. As such it is also a call for the revolution of the oppressed.
The full article is available here.
I was asked by a Guyanese editor, Stabroeknews, to write a column on Indian elections. I chose to profile Mayawati, detailing her stature and presence in politics. Find the piece here.
Media Profiles
My talk at the Du Bois Research Institute at Harvard University, where I am currently a fellow, ‘The Dalitality in Du Bois and Ambedkar: Color, Class and Caste’, was live-streamed on YouTube. It can be watched here. It is among the most trending videos of the Institute.
The conversation on ‘The light of Kabir, Buddha, Ravidas and Ambedkar’ with Linda Hess, Prahlad Tipaniya and Suraj Yengde held at Havard Univeristy's Divinity School is accessible here.
The Kempe Gowda Bengaluru Airport is a site to experience. I made a vlog. You can access it here published on my YouTube channel.
I attended the commencement ceremony with Sunaina Pamudurthy, a comrade of the Equity in Policy Education Initiative that some of us launched a few years ago at Harvard Kennedy School. Our aim is to increase SC, ST, and OBC representation at the Kennedy School and other prestigious universities. Our first batch consisted of two Dalits and two OBCs.
Thus, we attended to cheer for them. Here is the video. The Palestine cause took center stage at the commencement ceremony, with students refusing to align with the University's pushback. You can access the coverage of that event here.
For our HKS graduate EPE fellows, please see here.
Media Profiles
Daily Loksatta's feature of my work is posted on Facebook. It can be accessed here.
Other Features
Bengali politics is fraught with the leftists and liberal-minded Bhadraloks–the dominant castes union of mostly Brahmins and Kayasthas. Subhajit Naskar, in his article, writes, ‘West Bengal politics has to be De-Brahmanised’, ‘Dalit aspirations get dismissed daily.’ Read this piece here.
Harsh Mandar writes a moving piece for a Scroll.in about his trip to Auschwitz. Access the complete piece here.
In History
March
1 March: Self-respect movement started by EVR Periyar
2 March: Kalaram Mandir Satyagarh by Dr. Ambedkar
10 March: Death Anniversary of Savitribai Phule
13 March: Samata Sainik Dal was formed
15 March: Birth Anniversary of Saheb Kanshi Ram
20 March: Mahad Satyagarh
April
11 April: Birth Anniversary of Jyotiba Phule
14 April: Birth Anniversary of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
14 April: BSP was founded.
May
20 May 1845- 5 May 1914: Iyothee Thass, one of the pioneers of anti-caste Buddhist tradition in Tamil Nadu.
6 May: Death anniversary of Shahu Maharaj
6 May: Swami Achuthanand Jayanti
15 May: First publication of Annihilation of Caste by Dr. Ambedkar
27 May: Death anniversary of Ramabai Bhimrapo Ambedkar
Things to look out for
ANNOUNCEMENT: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Dalit Studies, The University of British Columbia.
You can apply here.
Vijay Prashad’s Untouchable Freedom: A Social History of a Dalit Community is out with LeftWord. I had the pleasure of writing an introduction for this book. The book can be purchased here.
Celebrations
I was honoured to receive the ‘Tarun Tejankit Award 2024’ by Daily Loksatta (accepted by my mummy).
Recent Events
5 April: 12th Annual Roma Conference | Confronting State Violence Across the Globe | Panel: Suraj Yengde, PhD | Facets of State Violence across the Globe | Thompson Room at the Barker Centre | Cambridge, MA
8 April: The Light in Kabir, Buddha, Ravidas, Ambedkar | Linda Hess in conversation with Suraj Yengde | Harvard Divinity School, Garvin Room, Swatrz Hall, 45 Francis Ave, Cambridge, MA
11th and 12th April: Wildlife Conservation Society Conference, Bronx Zoo
13 April: 133 Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Birth Anniversary Celebration. Key Speaker: Dr Suraj Yengde | Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Bust 309 Lehman Library, 420 W, 118 ST Columbia University, New York
14 April: Equality Day 2024 | Speakers: Dr. Suraj Yengde | 280 Grove Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302
Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Univeristy's Journalism School also attended the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Birth Anniversary Celebration at Columbia University.
Dr Ambedkar International Mission honoured me at the Jersey City Council event held on 14 April, 2024
17th April: The Dalitality in Du Bois & Ambedkar | Color, Class, Caste | A colloquium with Suraj Yengde | The Hiphop Archive at the Hutchins Center, 104 Mount Aubuen Street, Floor 2, Cambridge
18 April: Caste in Policymaking | Ambedkar Jayanti Lecture Week | Rubenstein 429, Harvard Kennedy School
#JaiBhim #DalitLove
suraj
What do you make of the news which was published a few months back proclaiming that “ontario” believes their current set of ‘human rights code’ covers and provides protection against potential forms of discrimination based on caste? I have lived here for 2 decades, courtesy of a biological casteist savarna family who has busied themselves with serving their white & chinese owners/masters for the past 40 years. There is no anti-racism here, there is no anti-colorism here, there is no anti-casteism here. We are all human-shaped livestock to be herded around by whites & fair-skinned christians. We likely have a greater quality of humanity at our first breath than at our final breath given that this white supremacist society is engaged purely in the performative theatrics of privilege & property, neglecting to implement any basic religion/spirituality independent of capital. I don't believe that the ‘human rights code’ has any positive impact on my life at all, instead it seems to serve as a blueprint for white supremacists, chinese authoritarians (such as those one might encounter in singapura), as well as brahmincal patriarchy which informs them about the latest guidelines to follow so as to ensure minimal liability/accountability/responsibility when implementing their bigotry. I have personally, independently approached several supposed offices, organizations, etc. when faced with insurmountable traumatization through attempting to study, work, exist as a peaceful, non-violent student of Buddhadhamma. At each and every attempt, the only outcome was further traumatization. I am reminded at each and every attempt at asserting my humanity, that I am a n***** in a white world, and that I should “know my place”. Nobody in this nation of tens of millions has the slightest concern for what I have been through, and I am sure that I am not the only individual who has found their attempts to study, work, exist peacefully completely decimated whilst every form of organized bigotry on the planet feeds voraciously at the poisoned, rotten, corpse-filled troughs of capitalism. Their ‘human rights code’ means nothing when it is trivial to subvert any office, organization, or institution through filling them with white supremacists, ensuring that nothing is ever documented, investigated, nor publicized. We suffer our trauma and, if we are lucky enough to survive, slink away to hide from everyone because all they have for us is death through some means or another. Their ‘human rights code’ is worth less than their used toilet paper, their society is perpetually trapped in the petty, pathetic, pointless popularity contests they played in high school. I think this may merely be a way for them to attempt to exert some domination over the savarnas who are otherwise turbocharging the economy here while gleefully ignoring any responsibility towards anti-racism, anti-colorism, anti-colonialism, perhaps connected to recent assassinations. They are paid to participate in the stuntshow of humanity orchestrated by white supremacists, there is no concern towards addressing the rotten corpse of a country that this country has always been.
As my sincere & genuine attempts at attaining an education through the implementation of traversal of The Noble Eightfold Path, regardless of challenges, have completely failed, I am today completely ostracized & totally isolated. I have no job, no career, no family, no friends, not a cent in my name, nothing. Regardless, I can easily view all of the worldly material wealth offered to us through acquiescing to capitalism as worthless if they prevent a traversal of The Noble Eightfold Path and feel not a moment of remorse or regret towards that which I do not need for the attainment of Nibbāna. It makes me doubly proud to see all of those who have been oppressed through caste attaining an education at all of the places where savarnas have also reached, but without a solid, stable, and reliable commitment to humanity.
I take all of your dukkha, past, present, & future.
I give to you all of my joy & happiness.
Jai Bhim
✊🏾🙂🤎