Eminent writer and activist Dr. Bhimrao Gasti, 67, whose indefatigable work among Scheduled Tribes in Maharashtra made him a voice of ostracised communities, died at a private hospital in Kolhapur district on Tuesday.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis lauded Dr. Gasti’s work. “His death has left the Scheduled Tribes and oppressed communities bereft of a voice. He will be sorely missed,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
According to sources, Dr. Gasti complained of uneasiness and died on the way to Pune, where his family was due to bring him for treatment. Dr. Gasti was born in neighbouring Belgaum in Karnataka and was an engineer by vocation. He strove relentlessly for the uplift of the pastoral Berad-Ramoshi community and the rehabilitation of Devadasis.
The Ramoshis were termed the ‘criminal tribe’ during the British Raj in the for rising in armed revolt in the 1870s. The colonial legal legacy ensured Dr. Gasti’s childhood in Belgaum was spent in an atmosphere of social ostracisation.
Overcoming oppression
In an interview to a vernacular TV channel in 2011, Dr. Gasti said, “Before I went to university, it was etched in our minds that our tribe existed for the sole purpose of being beaten and detained by the police. An overwhelming sense of inferiority was thrust upon us as we were humiliated by society which branded us as ‘thieves’ and ‘robbers’... I witnessed several instances where many of my community members were tortured and on occasion even shot by forces of law on the slightest suspicion.”
Dr. Gasti’s autobiographical memoir Berad, which became a best-seller in Marathi, laid bare the injustices borne by his community since the British rule. His writings and activism over four decades contributed to erasing the stigma associated with the Berad community. It also compelled the removal of the ‘criminal’ tag, which was replaced with the ‘de-notified’ one.
He said the turning point in his life was chancing upon historical classics like Robert Sewell’s Vijayanagar: a forgotten Empire (1900), and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar’s Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919) at Osmania University in Hyderabad.
He had said, “ These two books illuminated the great contribution of the Berad community throughout history and brought home the fact that we were in fact rulers and empire-builders. It was the British, in a bid to put us down, who had stigmatised us by classing us a ‘criminals’.”
Dr. Gasti travelled to the erstwhile Soviet Russia for his higher studies on an Indo-Soviet exchange programme, obtaining a doctorate in electronics at the Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University in Moscow. He worked for a while as a senior scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation in Hyderabad, but left a promising career to work for the betterment of his community.
His passion for justice drove him to back to his native Yamunapur in Belgaum, where he set up an organisation for the welfare of the Berad-Ramoshi community in Maharashtra (Sangli and Kolhapur districts), Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. He founded the NGO Utthan to provide vocational training to Devadasis.
Dr. Gasti never let political ideology colour his endeavours. He sought help from anyone — be it the Dalit Panthers or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — who was willing to aid the Berad cause.
