It was not a school for Dalits, it was a missionary school for rich people. Food was a notion of superiority upon which they could establish their upper-ness. I remember one boy from my class hurling epithets at me describing me in public,“ Ye Suraj, usko jaha khana milta vaha chale jata hai” (This Suraj, he will go wherever he can get food) That was really hurtful for me, I remember feeling so anguished back then. My friends had their own cliques, dominant castes mostly. I didn’t even know there was a thing called after school hours where you meet up for recreational purposes. I later realised my friends would seldom hang out with me after school hours. He was a chaprasi (peon) – people often asked, “ Chaprasi ke bete ko English Medium me pada rahe ho?”(A chaprasi’s son is studying in an English Medium school?)’. He couldn’t study beyond 9th grade but made a conscious decision to make his children learn English. My father was an Ambedkarite and was devoted to the struggle. Back then, I was the only one from that slum to go to an English medium school. Suraj Yengde: I grew up in a small town called Nanded in Maharashtra where I went to an English Medium school.

He is probably the first youngest Dalit scholar to be published by a mainstream publication after Ambedkar and spoke to Evita Rodrigues (ER) about his journey and experiences with caste, and his thoughts on building an inclusive education system in India.ĮR: What was education in India like for you? How accommodative did you find educational spaces? He was recently in India to launch his book Caste Matters (you can purchase a copy here). Currently, he is a postdoc at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he is working on a project called the Initiative for Institutional Anti Racism and Accountability. He worked with the UN in Geneva after which he completed his PhD in South Africa. After spending a brief period of time at the University of Mumbai, he went on to complete his LL.M. Suraj Yengde studied law in Nanded, Maharashtra.

Suraj yengde caste matters