Researcher, author Gail Omvedt passes away
She co-founded Shramik Mukti Dal along with husband and activist Bharat Patankar
Researcher, author and one of the intellectual voices of the Bahujan movement Gail Omvedt passed away on August 25. She was 81.
Omvedt was an American-born Indian scholar who authored books on Dalit politics, women’s struggle and anti-caste movement. She also participated in various people’s movements in the country, including the one for the rights of people displaced by to Koyna Dam.
She co-founded Shramik Mukti Dal along with her husband and activist Bharat Patankar. The couple’s daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter live in the U.S.
As a college student in the U.S., Omvedt was part of the anti-war movement there. She visited India during her doctoral research work to study social movements here and studied the work of Mahatma Phule. Her thesis was on ‘Non-Brahmin Movement in Western India’.
After deciding to live in India, her association with veteran social worker Indutai Patankar led to her studying and participating in women’s struggles in the country.
Omvedt authored over 25 books, including In Colonial Society – Non-Brahmin Movement in Western India, Seeking Begampura, Buddhism in India, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Mahatma Phule, Dalit and the Democratic Revolution, Understanding Caste, We Will Smash the Prison and New Social Movement in India.
She was the head of the Phule-Ambedkar Chair in Pune University, department of sociology; professor at Institute of Asian studies, Kopenhegan; Nehru Memorial Museum and Library at New Delhi, among others.
The last rites will be conducted on August 26 at Kasegaon in Sangli district.
Courtesy: The Hindu
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