Gail Omvedt takes caste to global audience that was fed only by brahminical perspective

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wooWhen only one person shares your morning messages and updates, it can be safely assumed that that person was the center of many people’s lives and interests. Getting such approval across the board is rare. Gail Omwait, an American-Indian scholar, prolific author, public intellectual, researcher, activist and founder of socio-political movements, is one of them.

Gail Omwait passed away on 25 August 2021 at 10 am in his village Kasegaon, Sangli, Maharashtra at the age of 81. Omwet was born on August 2, 1941, in Minneapolis. She attended Carleton College and went to the University of California, Berkeley to earn her doctorate. She was one of those American scholars who tried to locate her archives for an international audience with genuinely oppressed people who were otherwise fed only by a brahminical, elitist perspective.

Omvet first came to India in 1963 and then came back in 1970 to research his PhD dissertation. His dissertation “Cultural Rebellion in a Colonial Society: Non-Brahmin Movements in Western India, 1873–1930” was presented in 1973, eventually published as a book with vigorous praise from social justice movements in India.

Peace movements emerged in the West in the 1960s and 70s. The new culture of soul searching and freeing it from the web of consumerism and imperialism was trying to find solutions elsewhere to find the true meaning of life. The war became the focus of a new generation of activists fighting against nuclear weapons, ethnic and color violence, with touches of the former communist struggle. University and college campuses in America did not give up and dare to face the might of the Empire, its police and the capital.

This approach of visiting and learning from other cultures gave rise to the famous hippie culture. While the western world was trying to learn different traditions from India and grasp the mostly brahminical view of the Indian past, there were honorable exceptions who chose to study the real, ideal and people’s India as opposed to the India of the privileged castes.

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make india your home

Gail, as he was affectionately called by his friends and colleagues in India and abroad, took up a teaching position in San Diego after submitting his PhD dissertation, but the distance between his home and his beloved country, India It was becoming impractical. She eventually decided to settle in India in 1978 and eventually married a Shudra caste activist, Marxist, Phuleite Dr. Bharat Patankar. Omwait gave up his US citizenship in 1983 to become an Indian.

Gail was a household name for Dalit and activist rights activists of the 70s, 80s and 90s. I grew up listening to him and another American scholar, Eleanor Jelliet. A white woman can be seen speaking Marathi fluently and addressing rallies, seminars, conferences, as well as publishing major texts and offering public comments in newspapers, magazines, as well as in the academic world. The theory of movements for. A multilingualist thinker, Gail gave the necessary assurances to the anti-caste, workers, environmental and women’s rights movements.

Like most workers, my father knew him and was amazed by his work. They had a mutual interest in the power of BAMCEF (All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation), labor movements and literary and cultural movements. They will bump into each other at BAMCEF conferences.

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Huge Body of Research, Anti-Caste Writings

The list of books written by Gail is vast. He wrote poignantly about caste, workers and peasant movements and social movements against religion. He also wrote books on the most important thinkers of the anti-caste world – Phule and Ambedkar – as well as combining archival research, ethnographic commentaries, journalistic reportage, biographical notes and intellectual history.

For mainstream publishers in India, texts on Dalits were mostly directed and published by Gail. Dalit and Democratic Revolution: Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit Movement in Colonial India And Ambedkar: Towards an Enlightened India Ambedkar profiled. Buddhism in India: Challenge to Brahmanism and Caste Buddhist revivalism offered an anti-caste substance and contrasted flavors with Brahmanism that opposed Buddhism’s open, liberal and universal social approach. Her contribution to India’s feminism and women’s movement is significant. We will break this prison: Indian women in struggle was a milestone in which she assessed the forms of feminist movements.

The most famous treatise of Gayle in recent times was Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anticaste Intellectuals Which literally overturned the aristocratic paganism of Indian crybabies at the European Renaissance. Putting aside these traditional ups and downs, Gayle put the modernist revival in the hands of Dalit and Shudra intellectuals – Chokhamela, Janabiya, Ravidas, Kabir, Tukaram, who existed before or during the famous European Modernism. This lesson shook me from inside. As soon as I started consuming it, a spark ran all over my body.

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‘Our Gail’, a trusted friend

Gayle’s writings were clear and accessible. He wrote on a topic in a clear and concise manner. His books are indispensable for the students and the public to know more about India and its past. Almost taking the responsibility of filling this gap, Gail prepared a scholarship in English. His vast list of Dalit and Shudra caste allies, networks of comrades and movements and their leaders are proof that Gayle was a trusted friend. With her husband, she co-founded the Shramik Mukti Dal (Workers Liberation Party) and has been a regular invitee and advisor to various movements across the board.

Whenever the Dalit movement faced challenges posed by Brahminical actors or foreign individuals, Gail responded quickly and offered a nuanced perspective of the Dalit response. During the famous World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, Gayle was fortifying the fort against the misguided fears of the Indian government.

Gail Omwat was the most influential US ambassador to India, receiving numerous awards, fellowships and professorships at national and international institutions. She became a role model for Western scholars in how to write, intellectualize, and bring scholarship to the masses. She can be seen leading a movement on the streets as she teaches in classes or gives advice to international bodies.

Omvedt represents a generation of scholarship and activism that combines diverse ideologies to fight oppression. One could hug Buddha, Phule, Ambedkar, Shahu, Marx and still not break each other’s heads. Looking back, it sounds like a delicious combination. Today’s generation will have to work very hard to develop a similar mix.

Gail is survived by her husband Bharat Patankar, daughter Prachi, son-in-law Teju and granddaughter. He is immortal in our memories. The community will not forget the grateful contribution of an unrelated, distant alien becoming “our gale”.

Suraj Yengde, writer caste matters and an associate at Harvard University, currently in Tuscany, Italy. He tweeted @surajyengde. Thoughts are personal.

(Edited by Prashant Dixit)

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