[Had met her only once, in Pune, at a public meeting in a hall to commemorate her illustrious father's birth centenary. Then at the informal dinner, in a small group, in a local restaurant, that followed. That must be over seven years back. Apart from my interest in his father, I was also specifically interested in securing copyright waiver for her father's 'Exasperating Essays' in order to get it uploaded on the <www.marxists.org/archive/> website. On approaching her at the end of the public event, I was directed to Mr. R P Nene, a close associate of his father. Prof. Ram Bapat was kind and gracious enough to introduce me to Mr. Nene. In dues course, the book got uploaded (See: <https://www.marxists.org/archive/kosambi/exasperating-essays/x01/index.htm>). Even before that, a short biographical sketch of his had been provided: <https://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/k/o.htm#kosambi-dd>.
Had missed the original news announcing her passing away. This morning came across the write-up by Padgaonkar.] I/III. http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/talking-terms/end-of-kosambi-era/?utm_source=Popup&utm_medium=Old&utm_campaign=TOIHP End Of Kosambi Era March 7, 2015, 12:00 AM IST Dileep Padgaonkar in Talking Terms | Edit Page, India | TOI Three generations of a gifted family leave their imprint on India's intellectual life The death of Meera Kosambi in Pune on 26 February, just before her 76th birthday, marks the eclipse of one of the most gifted families of scholars in India. Her father, Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, was internationally renowned as a mathematician, a historian of ancient India, a numismatist, a polyglot (he mastered at least half a dozen classical and modern languages) and a pioneering advocate of solar energy. As a Marxist and a tireless campaigner against nuclear weapons under the banner of a Soviet-sponsored 'peace movement', he weathered his share of shrill controversies too. No less distinguished was her grandfather, Dharmanand Kosambi, for his seminal contributions to Buddhist studies, for his research and teaching of Pali, and for his sharp insights in social and political issues of his day. He was also widely admired for his commitment to Gandhian and socialist principles. His achievements at home and abroad (notably at Harvard University) were all the more significant given his background: born in a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family of modest means in rural Goa, he built his formidable reputation as a scholar on the strength of sheer grit, hard work and an austere lifestyle. The son inherited these virtues as well. To carry forward such a fine legacy was obviously no easy task. Meera shouldered it with much grace and equanimity. She hadn't really known her grandfather. He died when she was barely nine years old. But she was in absolute thrall of her father. She dedicated her last book - Unsettling the Past, a superbly edited collection of D D Kosambi's obscure essays, unpublished letters, tributes by his friends and admirers, and articles by contemporary scholars on his contributions to various disciplines - to him. The dedication referred to him as "my ever-unattainable intellectual ideal". That this was no confession of her own intellectual prowess was obvious from the first sentence of her introduction to this book: "All my life i have lived, and lived happily, in the shadow of my father, Professor D D Kosambi." Whether her life was quite that happy is however debatable. For later in the introductory essay she writes: "Kosambi was uniformly brilliant as a scholar; unpredictably charming, generous and difficult as a person, erratically liberal and hot-tempered as a husband and father." All of this Meera took in her stride. She decided early on that she would be a person in her own right and, by that token, pursue her own academic interests to the best of her abilities. These abilities, as it happened, were considerable. After obtaining a Master's degree in English literature at Pune University, she taught the subject in the city's prestigious Fergusson College where both her father and grandfather had also been professors. She then changed course and shifted to sociology. Her doctoral thesis at the University of Stockholm was on socio-political changes in Mumbai from 1880-1980. Still later she gained proficiency in the study of gender issues and social and cultural developments in Maharashtra in the late 19th and 20th centuries. She explored the lives of outstanding Maharashtrian women social reformers - the educationist Pandita Ramabai, the litterateur Kashibai Kanitkar, the Gandhian Prema Kantak - to a great deal of critical acclaim. Also hailed were her feminist essays in social history, Marathi fiction by women authors, and her account of gender, culture and performance portrayed in Marathi theatre and cinema before Independence. Along the way, she had a long and successful stint as the director of the SNDT Women's University in Mumbai. Whether Meera Kosambi would have accomplished so much had she not remained single and not chosen to lead a rather isolated existence is hard to say. She had few friends. Her reputation for arrogance, even rudeness, was legion. Indeed, she had requested four of her friends who had rushed her to the hospital not to breathe a word to anyone about her illness. She loathed pity. Just about six or seven people were present at her cremation. It was carried out, as she had willed, without rituals. (Her only other instruction, duly followed, was to place a book on her body just before its incineration - a dog-eared copy of Roget's Thesaurus.) The Kosambi era, which left its imprint on India's intellectual life for close to a century, thus ended with a whimper. Nothing would have pleased Meera Kosambi more. DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own. II/III. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Sociologist-Meera-Kosambi-passes-away/articleshow/46389994.cms Sociologist Meera Kosambi passes away TNN | Feb 27, 2015, 03.39AM IST PUNE: Noted sociologist Meera Kosambi died in Pune on Thursday at 3pm in a private hospital after a brief illness. She was born on April 24, 1939. She had not married. Following the legacy of her historian father and her grandfather- Buddhist and Pali scholar Dharmanand Kosambi, she contributed significantly to Indian sociology, especially urban sociology and women's studies. Paying tribute to her, senior journalist Dileep Padgaonkar said, "She was a scholar in her own right. She made significant contributions to gender issues and to the understanding of the social reforms movement in Maharashtra." Kosambi retired as a professor and director of the Research Centre for Women's Studies of SNDT Women's University in Mumbai and had written several research books in English as well as Marathi. Her much-acclaimed work is on India's 19th century feminist Pandita Ramabai, whose writings she compiled, edited and translated from Marathi. She had recently authored a well-researched biographical study on Pandita Ramabai in Marathi. She was the youngest daughter of prominent historian and mathematician D D Kosambi. She did her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Stockholm and authored several books and articles on urban sociology and women's studies in India. Her books include Mahatma Gandhi and Prema Kantak: Exploring a Relationship, Exploring History, Women Writing Gender: Marathi Fiction before Independence, Feminist Vision or 'Treason against Men'? Kashibai Kanitkar and the Engendering of Marathi Literature. Pandita Ramabai's American Encounter: 'The Peoples of the United States' and Pandita Ramabai through her Own Words: Selected Works. Her writing also includes Gender, Culture and Performance: Marathi Theatre and Cinema before Independence. Meera Kosambi retired as a professor and director of the Research Centre for Women's Studies of SNDT Women's University in Mumbai and had written several research books in Marathi and English III. http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/talking-terms/kosambi-s-uplifting-idea-of-india/ Kosambi's uplifting idea Of India February 8, 2013, 10:12 PM IST Dileep Padgaonkar in Talking Terms | India | TOI Few, if any, thinkers in modern India have matched Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi's range and depth of scholarly interests. He mastered several classical and modern languages -- Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Prakrit, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Marathi, Konkani and Urdu. This enabled him to explore disciplines as varied as mathematics and statistics, numismatics and archaeology, Sanskrit literature (especially two widely-hailed works on Bhartrihari`s poetry), anthropology and ancient Indian history from many cultural perspectives. His exertions seldom failed to yield seminal insights, not least because he tested his knowledge, derived from his critical analysis of texts, against whatever he learnt during his fieldwork. Both endeavours, in turn, were undertaken within a Marxist framework. But his kind of Marxism -- free of dogmatic diktats -- made him suspect in the eyes of conservatives and liberals on the one hand and, on the other, in those of the Communist Party, the official guardian of ideological orthodoxy. But even his most strident critics acknowledged the exceptionally high standards of his theoretical pursuits. Interest in Kosambi began to flag in the years following his death in 1966 partly because Marxist thought itself underwent radical changes. The mechanical application of class relations to every aspect of life, including art and literature, religion and nationalism, gave way to subtler, more sophisticated, more open-ended approaches to the study of historical evolution. The ascendancy of such doctrines was much in evidence during the commemoration of his birth centenary in 2007. At a number of seminars held across the country and in several books published on the occasion, scholars revisited his writings to determine what was dated or flawed in them and what had endured. Missing from this corpus, however, were the personal, even intimate, accounts of the intellectual and physical journeys Kosambi undertook in his quest for knowledge: from his native Goa to Pune, Harvard, Benares, Aligarh, Mumbai and back to Pune. His daughter, Meera Kosambi, a sociologist of repute, has now filled the gap. A new book that she has edited and introduced with great verve -- Unsettling the Past: D D Kosambi -- includes Kosambi`s essays on a host of subjects -- science and solar energy, the trial of Socrates, Einstein, the decline of Buddhism among others -- two of his short stories, extracts from his correspondence with scholars across the world, tributes paid to him by such luminaries as A L Basham and Daniel H H Ingalls and analytical articles on his multifaceted research by some of the finest Indian and foreign scholars. This writer is not equipped to comment on the analytical articles except to note that all the authors are agreed on one point: while Kosambi`s might not be the last word on every discipline he engaged with, he continues to provide a benchmark that no scholar can ignore. And so do those of his writings that are relevant to India`s concerns today. Kosambi`s three essays on solar energy deserve attention for they contain powerful ideas, hitherto ignored, of how such energy can be economically sound, environmentally sustainable and, above all, socially beneficial. At the same time, his adverse views on nuclear energy merit a second look even if much technological progress has been made to ensure that this energy can be harnessed with a maximum, if not entirely foolproof, concern for safety. Significant in this regard is Kosambi's involvement in the Soviet-led peace movement. Likewise, his proposals to exploit bagasse (sugarcane pulp) which would save on fuel and fertiliser costs need to be reassessed. Mention must also be made of the services he rendered to both the Planning Commission and the defence ministry. He helped the former to formulate socially-oriented policies and the latter to develop an indigenous cipher code. He was, in the plainest of words, a true patriot. India was the land he loved most -- next only to his parents. Both were pious -- his mother a Hindu, his father a Buddhist -- while he himself remained an atheist. Moreover, while he had scathing things to say about the Bhagwad Gita, he recognised that it reflected, more than any other text, the intrinsic nature of the Indian personality. And of course he loathed attempts to harness religion for political ends. D D Kosambi, as this book vividly demonstrates, promoted a truly inspiring idea of India. DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
