A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
My father’s memorial service was last weekend. The event was wonderful, bringing together friends and family I hadn’t seen in decades. It was heartwarming to see colleagues, neighbours, Canadian family, Indian family, American family share their fond recollections of him. Continue reading Passages of death and hope
We recently received the following information from Scott Stroud (University of Texas at Austin) on behalf of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP). This prize is an exciting way to recognize the some of the many philosophical Continue reading Ambedkar Prize Established by the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP)
Unlike “progressive” Americans who embrace race, the caste reformer B.R. Ambedkar envisioned a world where race/caste distinctions were annihilated – and specifically by mixing, by intermarriage. The view of racial purity shared by the mainstream American left and right – Continue reading “The future will belong to the mestiza”
CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, PATNA Forum on International Legal History & Philosophy, 15 April 2026 (in-person) Call for Papers and Engaged Listeners About: This Call for ideas (in the form of detailed abstracts) invites scholars working in International Law, Constitutional Continue reading Forum on International Legal History & Philosophy in India, CfP
It’s hard for me to view B.R. Ambedkar as a real Buddhist, when he threw out the Four Noble Truths after getting to Buddhism by a mere process of elimination. But then, to a real Buddhist, it shouldn’t matter – Continue reading Ambedkar and the Nation of Islam as skillful means
Dr. Ambedkar, the 20th-century leader of the lowest (“Dalit”, formerly “untouchable”) Indian caste groups, might be having a moment. In my Indian philosophy class in 2019, I wanted to have a segment on modern Indian philosophy, so I introduced the Continue reading My complicated relationship with B.R. Ambedkar
It was thirty years ago, in 1995, that a then-unknown junior academic named Jeffrey Kripal published Kālī’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna. The book took a new look at the stories written Continue reading Kali’s Child at 30
This Friday, while I was taking my lunch break from work, my mother called to let me know that my father, Jayant Lele, had peacefully passed away. (I am posting this here because he was, in the last analysis, an Continue reading My last months with my father
The analogy between Indian caste and American race – an analogy recognized by Martin Luther King, among others – is important for a number of reasons. Not least of these is that when you observe how a different society handles Continue reading Annihilation of caste and race
Early in the first Trump administration, I preached the importance of disengaged Buddhists’ lessons: to refrain from anger, to remind ourselves that some things are more important than politics. I think that that was easier to do the first time Continue reading Disengaged Buddhism in the second era of Trump