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No Nobel For Baba Amte: In Good Company
February 09, 2008
temporal

Baba Amte laying in a bed

Murlidhar Devidas Amte who?

He was known as Baba Amte - not because he lived to the ripe old age of 94 years young, but because he was nicknamed baba as a child.

He was a social activist and shared his passion for working with the downtrodden with Mahatma Gandhi and Acharya Vinoba Bhave. And he shared another thing with the other two. The Nobel Foundation ignored him.

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Baba Amte was born to a brahman jaagirdar family on Dec 24, 1914 and died on Feb 8, 2008.

He studied law and started a lucrative practice in Wardha, but was appalled by the poverty in his family estate in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra. He relinquished his robes and began working with sweepers and carriers of night soil. He married Sadhana Guleshastri in 1946.

After marriage he took up a formal course for leprosy treatment. First he set a camp at Warora and later started Anandwan near Nagpur, Maharashtra.

Anandwan was registered in 1951 and more land was given by the government. Two hospitals, a university, an orphanage, a school for the blind and technical wings were added subsequently. The ashram is now a self sufficient unit and more than 5,000 people are dependent on it for their livelihood.

Baba Amte also launched two Bharat Jodo — Knit India — Movements from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in 1985 and Assam and Gujarat in 1988. His aim was to establish peace and generate environmental awareness.

Baba Amte also launched the Bharat Jodo (Unite India) movements from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 1985 and Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh in 1988, with the mission of establishing peace and raising environmental consciousness.

He was a recipient of  dozens of awards including Magsasay  in 1985 and Gandhi Peace Prize in 1999. See this LINK  for some of them.

Here is an excellent write up on him: BABA AMTE'S VANAPRASTHA

PART 1 The Agony and Ecstasy of Late Youth

PART 2 Marriage and a shram ashram

PART 3 No big dams

PART 4 Homage to a fellow traveller

PART 5 Life at Kasravad 

Baba's legacy has lived on through the tireless work of his two amazing sons and their wives, who in their own ways have contributed significantly to furthering Baba's vision. Dr. Vikas Amte runs Maharogi Sewa Samiti and coordinates operations between Anandwan and satellite projects; his wife Dr. Bharati Amte runs a hospital at Anandwan and his brother Dr. Prakash Amte and his wife Dr. Manda Amte run the school and hospital at Hemalkasa.

The good attracts the good. The truism comes alive if we look at the people Mahatma Gandhi attracted in his social activist avatar - Badshah Khan (Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan - The Frontier Gandhi), Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Baba Amte to name a few.

In the verse of Allama Iqbal:

hazarON saal nargis apni bay-noori pe rooti hai
baRi mush'qil say hota hai chaman maiN deedavar paida

love people who are in awe of words. words are the sole arbiter and the final survivor. desicritic editor, slave and slave-driver.
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#1
commonsense
February 9, 2008
01:06 PM

Sad to hear about a genuinely and sincerely good man pass away...

#2
commonsense
February 9, 2008
02:11 PM

""Compassion has no utopia, party or ideology,""" Baba Amte

#3
temporal
URL
February 10, 2008
04:17 PM

this is Gandhi's true legacy CS:)

#4
temporal
URL
February 10, 2008
04:18 PM

WARORA (MAHARASHTRA): Gandhian and social worker of international repute, Murlidhar Devidas alias Baba Amte was given a state funeral at his Anandvan ashram on Sunday morning in presence of thousands of his admirers and mourners from across the state.

A 21-gun salute to late Baba Amte was given as his mortal remains were lowered in a grave near the bamboo plantation in the ashram complex amdist a solemn atmosphere, highly charged with emotions. Mourners raised slogans like "Baba Amte amar rahe" (Baba Amte will be immortal) and "Bharat Jodo" (unite India).

His wife, Sadhnatai, sons Dr Vikas and Dr Prakash, their spouses and grand children stood in grief as the nation mourned the loss.

#5
PH
URL
February 11, 2008
03:38 PM

He was one of the few men I have genuinely respected and been moved by.

#6
PH
URL
February 11, 2008
03:38 PM

He was one of the few men I have genuinely respected and been moved by.

#7
blokesablogin
February 12, 2008
12:48 AM

Their passing is to bless the world from a 'wider" plane. My grandfather was a great admirer of his and taught us about him.

#8
BARBARA QUITTENBAUM
July 30, 2008
08:51 AM

dearest baba changed my life.... that i left australia and worked as a ngo in karjat.(mahahr)for 27 years.baba and the amte family I MISS SO MUCH ...AND MY DEAREST WISH TO COME BACK AND BE ABLE TO SERVE ...THIS WONDERFUL HUMAIN PROJECT FOR THE TIME I HAVE LEFT IN MY LIFE......THIS IS MY WISH TO GIVE SOMETHING BACK TO BABAS LARGE FAMILY...BARBARA QUITTENBAUM

#9
temporal
URL
July 31, 2008
07:24 AM

India's philanthropist doctors Prakash and Mandakini Amte were on Thursday declared winners of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for their contributions to improving the lives of tribals in a remote Maharashtra village through medical care and education.

Prakash, the son of noted social activist Baba Amte, and his wife Mandakini are among the seven individuals from different countries who have been selected for this year's Magsaysay Award, regarded as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

The husband-wife duo runs a school and a hospital at Hemalkasa village in the underprivileged district of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region for the welfare of the Madia Gond tribals.

Prakash's father Baba Amte, who died in February this year, had received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service in 1985. LINK
#10
Chaitanya S
July 31, 2008
01:58 PM

Temp, thanks a lot for this post. There are many "armchair social workers" who only talk or write about the plight of the poor. Baba Amte and his immediate family are the ones who actually allowed their actions to speak louder than mere words.

The Magsaysay award is a fitting tribute to him and his son.

To me Baba Amte and Gandhi symbolise altruism in the true sense. As far as the Nobel award is concerned, I had read a long time ago that Gandhi had actually been nominated for it twice. However the British lobbied against it since they felt it would justify his movement against them.

#11
commonsense
July 31, 2008
05:10 PM

Suppose Gandhi and Baba Amte had both received the Nobel Peace Prize. Fast forward to 1973 and Henry Kissinger gets the same prize, and for peace!! Gandhi and Amte are indeed in good company.

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