India Will Remember Gail Omvedt Forever Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, The Wire, August 25, 2021
https://thewire.in/society/india-will-remember-gail-omvedt-forever Scholars study her books to understand the question of caste and untouchability, and also to change the caste system. She was a great Phule-Ambedkarite, who led many movements from the front. The Shudra/OBC/Dalit/Adivasi movements all over India will be indebted to her lifetime of work.
Tributes from CPI ML Liberation, Maharashtra
Rest in Power, Gail.
Social Scientist of international repute, founder member of Shramik Mukti Dal, Maharashtra, a veteran social researcher - writer on Buddha, Phule, Dr. Ambedkar, Mary. A feminist, a scholar who interpreted the Sant Literature and the Warkari tradition in a new light. A participant in Women's Liberation movement, movement of abondoned women after marriage and Aadivasi movement, she travelled extensively through out Maharashtra. She died of old age , 81, at Kasegaon, Sangli District of Maharashtra.
She will be led at rest in an institute named after her FIL who was a veteran communist Ieader.
Gail Omredt was a Sweedish American who participated in various student and other movements in the US as a student. She was on the forefront of the Anti-war movement during Vietnam war. After completing her Masters in Socialogy she joined the doctoral program at the University of California , Berkely - a centre of Anti War progressive movements in the US.
She took up studies on the Anti Brahmin movement and during her research came in close contact with Lal Nishan Party and other progressive forces in Maharashtra. She travelled and interacted extensively across an entire spectrum of the Maharashtrian society trascending class and caste barriers to write her doctoral thesis" Non Brahmin Movement- A Cultural Revolt In A Colonial Society" which is translated in Marathi. This was an extensively researched path breaking analysis of the Anti Brahmin movement. The thesis is a guide book for researchers and helped revive interest in Mahatma Phule's contribution to the Social liberation movement.
She met Bharat Patankar a doctor by learning who left his post grad studies to become a full time activist. He was a part of "Magowa " group of left leaning educated Maharashtrian youth openly siding with the oppressed. His mother was a fighting activist in her own right.
With Bharat She settled down in Kase gaon as an Indian citizen.
Bharat and Gail have travelled together in the politico- social canvas of India and Maharashtra for over 45 years.
Voracious reader, untiring traveller, Gail became a leading contributor of social causes in India for her life.
After formation of the Shramik Mukti Dal She participated in many struggles of women, peasants in the rural Western Maharashtra. She has been associated as faculty with various universities in India - as Phule Ambedkar chair in Pune University, Ambedkar Chair in Niswas, Odisha, Asian visiting professor in Nordic , Institute of Asian studies in Copenhagan, Nehru Memorial Museum and liabrary, Simla Institute etc.
She has been an advisor to FAO, UNDP, NOVIB. She carried out research on " Bhakti " under ICSSR . She has been a regular contributor to EPW and The Hindu. She has more than 25 titles to her credit. Those include Buddhism in India, Seeking Begampura, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Dalit and the democratic revolution, Understanding Caste, We will smash the Prison, New Social Movement in India besides her thesis. She has many papers, nationally and internationally, to her credit. She has spoken and has been felicitated extensively.
Prachi - her daughter and her partner Tejaswi live and participate in various movements in the US.
Me and my wife have fond memories of Gail itched in our life book. We are with Bharat and Prachi in grief. Our families are also tied politically from my father and Com.Babuji Patankar's participation in the freedom struggle. My mother has been a colleague of Indutai in Women's straggle.
On behalf on CPI ML Liberation, Maharashtra I join Com. Bharat and Shramik Mukti Dal comrades in grief and the last revolutionary salutations to Gail.
The struggle for just, equal and honorable society will continue Gail. You rest in Power.