Activist, writer, Gujarat expert Achyut Yagnik dies at 78

The scholar-activist began his career as a journalist from 1970 to 1980. Subsequently, he was the Gujarat coordinator of the Lokayan Project of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and the general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Gujarat

Mumbai: Achyut Yagnik, intellectual, writer, journalist, social scientist and foremost expert on Gujarat’s political and social landscape, passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest on early Friday morning in Ahmedabad. He was 78.

Ahmedabad, India - December 06 - Political analyst Achyut Yagnik during an interaction with Hindustan Times at Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Thursday, December 06 2012. (Photo by Arijit Sen / Hindustan Times)

“Achyutbhai’s death is a big loss to vulnerable communities such as Dalits, tribals and women of Gujarat and India,” said Ashok Shrimali, senior member of the Ahmedabad-based SETU: Centre for Social Knowledge and Action, which was founded by Yagnik and his longtime associate, and works among vulnerable communities in western India. “He dedicated his life to creating new leadership in vulnerable communities. To him, research had to be action-based to bring about social justice and empowerment.” Yagnik trained more than 250 tribal, Dalit and women activists.

The scholar-activist began his career as a journalist from 1970 to 1980. Subsequently, he was the Gujarat coordinator of the Lokayan Project of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and the general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Gujarat. He was the founder-editor of the Gujarati research journal ‘Arthat’ for the Centre for Social Studies, Surat. He also published several books in Gujarati and co-authored ‘Creating a Nationality: Ram Janmabhoomi Movement and Fear of the Self’ with Ashis Nandy in 1995.

Yagnik was a part of many major social movements, from the Nav Nirman movement in Gujarat in the 1970s to the Narmada dam movement. “It’s very rare to have people who have a deep understanding of society and take a stand,” said former JNU professor Ghanshyam Shah, a very close friend of Yagnik. “Achyutbhai was the rarest of rare. We have lost a great source of knowledge on Gujarat and on general social and political understanding.”

Yagnik was one of the founders of Dalit literature in Gujarat. “When the Dalit Panther Movement in Maharashtra and the blossoming of Marathi Dalit literature was on in 1980-1981, Achyutbhai inspired Dalit poets to write on oppression, atrocities and assertion,” said Shrimali. “More than 80 Dalit poets contributed, and Achyutbhai published ‘Dalit Kavita’, a collection of their poetry, in 1982. It was a landmark work, after which Dalit literature in Gujarati came to be recognised by mainstream literature in Gujarat. He also inspired tribals to write in their script. Today, Gujarat has numerous literary works from tribal writers.”

Sudarshan Iyenger, Gandhian and former VC of Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad, said that Yagnik belonged to a rare progressive tradition in Gujarat. “He believed that the state has a larger responsibility in democratic societies like ours but fails to function in a pro-people and pro-poor mode because it is prone to getting manipulated by capitalists,” he said. “This underscores the necessity of struggle and community action.” Friends and colleagues said that Yagnik slowed down in the 1990s, dispirited by the country’s changing tack to market-oriented and capitalist.

Yagnik trained under political scientist Rajni Kothari, and was considered a strong pillar of Kothari’s Lokayan, a forum for interaction between activists and intellectuals on issues such as the consolidation of democracy, people’s control over natural resources, women’s empowerment and cultural plurality.

Tributes to Yagnik also poured in on social media. Ashutosh Varshney, political science professor at Brown University, tweeted, ‘Achyut Yagnik’s Ahmedabad-based organisation was my institutional base for the Gujarat-related research reported and analysed in my 2003 Yale book on Hindu-Muslim relations. I learnt a lot from him. My research would have been quite inadequate without his unwavering help and sharp insights. RIP Achyut bhai—many will miss you, including especially me.’

Writer Salil Tripathi tweeted. ‘Achyut Yagnik. We have lost one of our greatest intellectuals, among our sharpest scholars, and easily one of the most generous and kindest people I’ve known.’

In her tweet, Nikita Sud, professor of Politics of Development at Oxford University, said, ‘RIP Achyut Yagnik. Scholar, activist, fount of knowledge about Gujarat’s society, politics. Author of many books, and warm mentor to generations of scholars, inc me. My PhD research wd have been impossible without his encouragement, help. Forever grateful.’