Interesting, great essay by Analayo. I like your question about social criticism of the Buddha during his own time, but I think it’s dangerous and misleading to try to interpolate the lives and teachings of teachers who lived thousands of years ago onto the cultural and societal ideas of our own time.
I highly doubt Jesus would have ended up in jail in this day and age, probably just would’ve ended up like any one of these people.
I honestly think any speculating at what kind of criticism the Buddha would receive if he lived in the present day is entirely useless, because there are so many interpersonal, environmental and cultural variables at stake.
Take for instance sexism. Was the Buddha considered sexist in his own time? Do we even know what he actually said? Our definitions of prejudice were different even 100 years ago and will probably be different again in another 100 years. Would his modern day perspective be different if he was born in the U.S. as opposed to modern day India? Why would modern day society accuse the Buddha of sexism particularly but not of racism or religious prejudice (because convert monks were required to take extra probationary time)?
I think about these questions too, but I tend to be cautious on drawing conclusions because I think there’s always a tendency to reconstruct history according to our own biases.