Social activist, scholar Gail Omvedt dies

Gail Omvedt, a researcher, social scientist and an activist for the betterment of the marginalised in India, died after a prolonged illness in Kasegaon village of Maharashtra’s Sangli village. She was 81.

Omvedt, a Swedish American, participated in various social movements in the United States of America and was active, being in the forefront of the anti-war movement during Vietnam War.

After completing her Masters in Sociology, she joined the doctoral programme at the University of California, Berkely, a centre of Anti War progressive movements in the US. Her doctoral thesis was on 'Non-Brahmin Movement in Western India'. During the doctoral research, she studied various social movements in Maharashtra as well as the work of Phule. She also started working for the cause of Dalits, women, and other deprived classes.

She continued to stay in India and did tremendous research as well as writing on Buddha, Phule and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

As a scholar, she published her interpretation of the Sant Literature of Maharashtra, apart from depicting the Warkari tradition of Maharashtra in new light.

In 1983, she and her husband, Dr Bharat Patankar, established the Shramik Mukti Dal