Dr. Suraj Yengde is one of India’s leading scholars and public intellectuals.

Dr. Suraj Milind Yengde (born 1988) is an Indian researcher, human rights activist, Ambedkarist social activist, lawyer and author. He is a native of Nanded and is doing research at Harvard University in America. 

Yengde is one of India's leading intellectuals and a prominent scholar of the caste system. He is the author of the bestseller 'Cast Matters' and co-editor of 'The Radical in Ambedkar'. He always goes barefoot, and has an African hairstyle. 

He works in a United Nations initiative. GQ India magazine listed him among the 25 most influential young Indians of 2021. 

Yengade's office at the Harvard Kennedy School.  

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Malcolm X are seen in a photograph 

Academic & Intellectual 

Harvard & Oxford Scholar 

Dr. Yengde is currently a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow at Harvard University. His prior appointments were Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, a non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, and was part of the founding team of the Initiative for Institutional Anti-Racism and Accountability (IARA) at Harvard University. 

Dr. Suraj Yengde is also a DPhil candidate at the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford. 

He has studied on four continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America) and is India’s first Dalit Ph.D. holder from an African university (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg). 

Originally from Nanded, India, he is an International Human Rights attorney by qualification from India and the UK. 

Developing a Critical Theory of Dalit & Black Studies 

Currently, he is involved in developing a critical theory of Dalit and Black Studies. 

His article in Public Culture entitled, “Dalit in Black America: Race, Caste, and the Making of Dalit-Black Archives“, theorizes “sibling solidarity” through Dalit and Black archives. 

His cover story for the Caravan magazine addresses the important question of ‘Race, Caste and what it will take to make Dalit Lives Matter?’. The article explored dimensions of Dalit and Black relationships and history in the United States and India. It is the first extensive treatment of the Dalit-Black question. 

His work with the philosopher Cornel West has received global attention and calls for unity between African Americans and Dalits. 

Author & Columnist 

Award-winning Author 

Dr. Yengde is a prolific multilingual writer. He is the author of the bestseller, Caste Matters (2019) and a co-editor of the award-winning anthology with Dr. Anand Teltumbde, The Radical in Ambedkar: Critical Reflections (2018). 

Caste Matters was a bestseller named the “Best Non-fiction Book of the Decade” by The Hindu. The book’s Malayalam translation won the Kerala state award for translation. The Marathi translation is in the third edition under one year of publication. 

The book has been translated into three languages, with four more in progress. Caste Matters was a finalist for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, 2023. 

Columnist at The Indian Express

Dr. Yengde is a columnist at the Indian Express running the only caste-centric column anywhere in the world. 

He inaugurated a popular column called ‘Dalitality’ at the Indian Express, currently the only column in print media to have Dalit-centric opinions. 

In addition, he wrote a monthly column entitled “Ambedkarwaad आंबेडकरवाद ” in the Marathi language for Daily Loksatta दैनिक लोकसत्ता. 

Activist & Public Figure 

Dr. Yengde is a transnational Dalit rights activist involved in building solidarities between Dalit, Black, Roma, Indigenous, Buraku and Refugee peoples in the FOURTH WORLD project of marginalized peoples. 

His scholarship and activism won him “Dr. Ambedkar Social Justice Award, Canada” (2019), “Rohit Vemula Memorial Scholar Award” (2018), and “Jai Bhim Icon Award” (2022), “Loknete Youth Leader Bhai Vadiya National Award (Academics) (2023). 

He is a founder and curator of the Dalit Film Festival (DALIFF), and a co-founder of the Equity in Policy Education initiative started at Harvard. 

Speaker & Consultant 

Dr. Yengde has delivered over 300 lectures, keynotes at international academic conferences and seminars across the world on the issues of casteism, racism, institutionalized discrimination, diversity and inclusion. 

He has offered consultations to the government, non-governmental, corporate and university policy-making bodies on the issues of caste, diversity, human rights, social justice, refugee policy, cross-border migration and organizational strategies for campaigns and advocacy. 

*****Dr. Yengde is currently working on two manuscripts. The first, Caste, A History of the World, is under contract with Allen Lane and the second, Biography of Dr B R Ambedkar under contract with Juggernaut. Additionally, he is collating the archives of Kanshiram and Raja Dhale for book-length projects.