What began in 1956 as a mass conversion of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and 500,000 followers to Buddhism to protest caste and untouchability has grown into a community of over 8 million members today. In this hybrid event, Jon Keune (Assoc Prof, Religious Studies, MSU) will talk with an intellectual leader in the Ambedkarite community, Santosh Raut, who is currently a Fellow in Harvard University’s Buddhist Ministry Initiative, on leave from his positions as Associate Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad, and Academic Director of the Nagarjuna Training Institute in Nagpur, India.  Join us for a lively discussion of what Buddhism means and does for Ambedkarites today in terms of socio-political identity, community building, spirituality, and transnational religion.

Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies and Asian Studies Center.