Maitriveer-Nagarjuna (also known as Santosh Raut) hails from Maharashtra, the heartland of the Ambedkarite Buddhist movement. Both a Dhamma teacher and a scholar of Buddhist Aesthetics and Philosophy, he has long been a thought leader and organizer within broader Asian networks of Engaged Buddhism. Following his doctoral studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Maitriveer joined the EFL University in Hyderabad as an Assistant Professor. He combines this work with his role as the Deputy-Chairman of Nagarjuna Training Institute and the co-founder of The Babasaheb Ambedkar Philosophical Society at Nagaloka in Nagpur. Founded in 1994 near the site where Dr. Ambedkar formally converted to Buddhism in 1956 along with hundreds of thousands of followers, Nagaloka is a major Ambedkarite hub connected to the Triratna Bauddha Mahāsaṅgha (TBM). Maitriveer also co-founded the National Network of Buddhist Youth. For a number of years he has actively supported the Ambedkarite Buddhist movement in Hungary among the Roma, about which a documentary was made. More recently, he has been involved in the design of the Buddhavanam project in Nagarjunasagar, a very large Buddhist Heritage site park. Currently, Maitriveer is a Research Fellow at Harvard Divinity School. He was recently interviewed about Buddhism and Social Justice by the scholar Jon Keune at Michigan State University.
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