Gail Omvedt (2 August 1941 – 25 August 2021) was an American-born Indian sociologist and human rights activist. She was a prolific writer and published numerous books on the anti-caste movement, Dalit politics, and women's struggles in India. Omvedt was involved in
Dalit
Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...
and anti-caste movements,
environmental
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
,
farmers' and
women's movement
The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such iss ...
s, especially with rural women.
Omvedt's dissertation was titled ''Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The Non-Brahman Movement in Western India, 1873-1930''.
Omvedt's academic writing includes numerous books and articles on class, caste and gender issues. Besides undertaking many research projects, she was a consultant for FAO, UNDP and NOVIB and served as a Dr Ambedkar Chair Professor at NISWASS in Orissa, a professor of sociology at the
University of Pune
Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Poona, is a collegiate public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshk ...
and an Asian guest professor at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen. She was a senior fellow at the
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
The Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML) is a museum and library in New Delhi, India, which aims to preserve and reconstruct the history of the Indian independence movement. Housed within the Teen Murti House complex, it is an autonomous inst ...
and research director of the
Krantivir Babuji Patankar Sanstha.
Biography
Gail Omvedt was born in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
, and studied at
Carleton College
Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling ...
and at
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...
where she earned her PhD in sociology in 1973. When she went to India for the first time in 1963~64, she was an English tutor on a
Fulbright Fellowship
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
.
Omveldt again came to India for research in the 1970s. At that time she met her future husband, Bharat Patankar, and his social activist mother,
Indumati Patankar. After marrying Bharat, she lived with her husband and his extended family in a village called Kasegaon in Indian state of Maharashtra. She became an Indian citizen in 1983.
In the years before her death she was working as a consulting sociologist on gender, environment and rural development, for the
United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
(UNDP),
Oxfam Novib
Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International.
History
Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...
(NOVIB) and other institutions. She was a consultant for UN agencies and NGOs, served as a Dr. Ambedkar Chair Professor at NISWASS in Orissa, a professor of sociology at the University of Pune, as Asian Guest Professor at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen and as a Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. She was a Visiting Professor and Coordinator, School of Social Justice, University of Pune and a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. Gail Omvedt was a former Chair Professor for the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Chair of Social Change and Development at IGNOU. Omvedt died on 25 August 2021 in Maharashtra at the age of 80.
Activism
Omvedt worked with social movements in India, including the Dalit and anti-caste movements, environmental movements, farmers' movements and especially with rural women. She was active in
Shramik Mukti Dal
Shramik Mukti Dal (toilers’ liberation league), is a socio-political organization in Maharashtra, India. It is an organization working in eleven districts of Maharashtra, organizing farmers and toilers on issues of drought, dam and project evic ...
, Stri Mukti Sangarsh Chalval which works on issues of abandoned women in
Sangli
Sangli () is a city and the district headquarters of Sangli District in the state of Maharashtra, in western India. It is known as the Turmeric City of Maharashtra due to its production and trade of the spice. Sangli is situated on the banks o ...
and
Satara districts of southern Maharashtra, and the Shetkari Mahila Aghadi, which works on issues of women's land rights and political power.
Views
Gail Omvedt was an
Ambedkarite
Ambedkarism is called as the teaching, ideology or philosophy of B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian econonist, polymath, barrister, social reformer, human-rights advocate, and the architect of Indian Constitution. Ambedkarism includes the principles of Nava ...
scholar who contributed immensely to the anti-caste movement. Omvedt was critical of the religious scriptures of Hinduism (or what she specifically regarded as "brahminism") for what she argued is their promotion of a caste-based society.
In addition to her criticism of their purported advocacy for the caste-system, Omvedt also dismissed the Hindu tradition of venerating the Vedas as holy. In a 2000 open letter published in ''
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'' addressed to then-
BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
President
Bangaru Laxman
Bangaru Laxman (17 March 1939 – 1 March 2014) was an Indian politician. He was a member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He was President of party from 2000 to 2001 and served as a minister of state for ra ...
, she gave her perspective on the
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
:
Omvedt posits that
Hindutva
Hindutva () is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The term was formulated as a political ideology by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ...
groups foster an
ethnic
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
definition of
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
based on geography, ancestry and heritage in order to create a solidarity amongst various castes, despite the prevalence of caste-based discrimination.
[Gail Omvedt, , ''The Hindu'', 25 February 2003]
Omvedt endorsed the stand taken by Dalit activists at the 2001
World Conference Against Racism
The World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) is a series of international events organized by UNESCO to promote struggle against racism ideologies and behaviours. Five conferences have been held so far, in 1978, 1983, 2001, 2009 and 2021. Founded ...
that caste discrimination is similar to racism in regarding discriminated groups as "biologically inferior and socially dangerous".
She called the United States a "racist country" and has advocated for
affirmative action; however, she compared American positive-discrimination policies favorably to those of India, stating:
and, with respect to perceptions of "group performance", in the United States and India, Omvedt wrote:
She on occasion supported big-dam projects and GMO crops.
Controversy and criticism
Andre Beteille's criticism
Omvedt's portrayal of caste-discrimination and violence as forms of "
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
" was opposed by the Indian government
[An Untouchable Subject?](_blank)
NPR, 29 August 2001 and sociologists in India, including
Andre Beteille, who while acknowledging that discrimination exists, deeply opposed treating caste as a form of racism "simply to protect against prejudice and discrimination", describing such attempts as "politically mischievous" and "worse, scientifically nonsense".
Beteille argues (that):
Marxist critique
Omvedt was criticized for a perceived "anti-statist" bias in her writing as well as "neo-liberal" economic sympathies. Scholars have also questioned the sincerity of her claims regarding the "authenticity" of her work, writing:
[SAPs, Dust, and Hot Air: Gail Omvedt and Liberalization](_blank)
Ghadar, 1 November 1998
Works
Omvedt's dissertation was on ''Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The NonBrahman Movement in Western India, 1873-1930'' (reprint of 1976 book) (New Delhi, Manohar, 2011).
Omvedt's academic writing includes numerous books and articles on class, caste and gender issues, most notably:
* ''Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The NonBrahman Movement in Maharashtra'' (Scientific Socialist Education Trust, 1966)
* "We Will Smash This Prison!.: Indian Women in Struggle " (Zed, 1980)
* "Violence Against Women: New Movements And New Theories In India" (Kali for Women, 1991)
* ''Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements in India'' (M.E. Sharpe, 1993)
* ''Gender and Technology: Emerging Asian Visions'' (1994)
* '' Dalits And The Democratic Revolution: Dr. Ambedkar And The Dalit Movement In Colonial India'' (Sage India, 1994)
* ''Dalit Visions: the Anticaste movement and Indian Cultural Identity'' (Orient Longman, 1995)
* ''Growing Up Untouchable: A Dalit Autobiography'' (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000)
* ''Buddhism in India : Challenging Brahmanism and Caste'' (SageIndia, 2003)
* "Ambedkar: Towards an Enlightened India " (Penguin, 2005)
* ''Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anticaste Intellectuals'' (New Delhi, Navayana, 2009)
* "Understanding Caste: From Buddha To Ambedkar And Beyond" (New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2011)
* '' Songs of Tukoba with Bharat Patankar she has published (translations)'' (Manohar, 2012)
* Jotirao Phule and the Ideology of Social Revolution in India
Awards
* Honorary Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, 1964–65
* Fulbright Fellowship as Tutor in English in India, 1963-1964
* University of California Graduate Fellowships, 1964–65, 1965–66
* American Institute of Indian Studies, Junior Fellowship for PhD research in India on "The NonBrahman Movement in Maharashtra," January–December 1971
* American Association of University Women, Fellowship for research on "Women's Movement in India," January–December 1975
* Savitribai Phule Puraskar, Padmashri Kavivarya Narayan Surve Sarvajanik Vacanalay, Nashik, 2002
* Dr. Ambedkar Chetna Award, Manavwadi Rachna Manch Punjab, August 2003
* ABP Majha Sanman Purskar, 2012
*
Matoshree Bhimabai Ambedkar Award (2012)
*
Vitthal Ramji Shinde
Vitthal Ramji Shinde (23 April 1873 – 2 January 1944) was one of the most important social and religious reformers in Maharashtra, India. He was prominent among the liberal thinkers and reformists in India, prior to his independence. His grea ...
Award, April 2015
* Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Indian Sociological Society
Indian Sociological Society (ISS) is a professional body of sociologists in India. It publishes academic research journals, the ''Sociological Bulletin'' in English and the ''Bhartiya Samajshastra Sameeksha'' in Hindi language.
History
In in ...
, 2018
See also
*
Eleanor Zelliot
Eleanor Zelliot (October 7, 1926 – June 5, 2016) was an American writer, professor of Carleton College and specialist on the history of India, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, women of Asia, Untouchability, Untouchables, and social movements.
Zelliot ...
*
Forward Press
References
External links
Blogby Gail Omvedt
Profileof Gail Omvedt, UC Berkeley sociology website
of Gail Omvedt, University of Michigan website
Profileof Gail Omvedt, Sage Publication
Profileof Gail Omvedt, Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania.
* Gail Omvedt
* Gail Omvedt
published in ''The Hindu'', 20 June 1998
* Gail Omvedt
Caste System and Hinduism ''Economic and Political Weekly'', 13 March 2004
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omvedt, Gail
1941 births
2021 deaths
American sociologists
American women sociologists
Indian women sociologists
Indian sociologists
Indian women activists
Environmental sociologists
American women social scientists
English-language writers from India
Indian political writers
20th-century Indian educators
20th-century Indian women scientists
20th-century Indian social scientists
20th-century American women
21st-century Indian social scientists
21st-century Indian women scientists
20th-century women educators
20th-century American people
American emigrants to India
People from Minneapolis