Dr. Santosh Raut (also known as Maitriveer-Nagarjuna) 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 in Buddhist Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Santosh joined the Department of Aesthetics and Philosophy, 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 (BAPS) 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). Santosh also co-founded two movements: the National Network of Buddhist Youth and the Buddha Festival – a festival of Buddhist arts, culture, and heritage. 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, Santosh is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Divinity School. He was recently interviewed about Buddhism and Social Justice by the scholar Jon Keune at Michigan State University.