National Network

Baba Amte laid to rest with state honours

Vivek Deshpande
Posted online: Monday, February 11, 2008 at 0052 hrs

ANANDWAN
(CHANDRAPUR),
FEB 10: Isliye rah
sangharsh ki ham
chune/Zindagi
ansuon me nahae
nahin/Shaam sehmi
na ho, raat ho na
dari/Bhor ki ankh
phir dabdabai na ho
(We must choose the
path of struggle, so
life shouldn't get
drowned in tears.
The evening
shouldn't get
enveloped by awe and night shouldn't be fearful. And the dawn shouldn't crack with tears
welled up in its eyes) .

Even as an emotionally overwhelmed Medha Patkar wiped her tears to sing the lines in chorus
with a group of activists, people stopped and listened. “Haath lage nirman me, nahi marane,
nahi mangane (let's use our hands to create, not beg or beat). Bharat Jodo, Bharat Jodo (Knit
India),” she called out. People raised their fists in air and echoed it.

They were paying tribute to a legendary man who had epitomised the thoughts in his lifetime
near the place where he was laid to rest. Baba Amte was cremated on Sunday with full state
honours where he had started his extraordinary life as a messiah of the poor and the
ostracised.

Amte died of leukemia on Saturday at the age of 93.

In attendance were Chief

Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh,
some of his Cabinet colleagues,
distinguished people from all
walks of life, and, of course,
thousands of his admirers and
followers.

Earlier, when vehicle carrying

Amte’s body was taken through
the main streets of Anandwan,
surging crowds jostled with each other to walk along, chanting Bharat Jodo, Bharat Jodo in
chorus with Baba's family members. And when the body was lowered into the burial pit, they
gave way to tears.

But Amte never wanted to be lost for eternity. So, he had wished a burial instead of cremation
by fire and a sapling to be planted at the spot, so he could be reborn as a tree. “That was
Baba's concept of memory garden,” says elder son Vikas. “He wanted every bit of his body to
be useful to micro-organisms after his death. Cremation by fire, he thought, was
environmentally damaging,” he added.
Decades ago, Amte had laid the foundation for India’s environmental movement when he had
fought a valiant and
successful battle against
the proposed Inchampalli-
Bhopalpattnam dam across
Godavari on the border of
Gadchiroli district and had
prevented a pristine forest
and lakhs of trees from
being destroyed.

Today, he had sought to

become a tree himself.
Years later, when Medha
Patkar launched her
Narmada Bachao Andolan
against Sardar Sarovar
Project, Amte had teamed up with her and had spent 11 years of his life as a recluse on the
banks of Narmada. And when he was being bid farewell, wife Sadhanatai watched in grim
silence. She was the one to be always with him through thick and thin.

“We have no regrets. He had

lived his life to the fullest and
did the noblest possible he
could. Yet, it would be hard to
come to terms with his death,”
said granddaughter Sheetal.
None would. After all, it's the
death of a man with a never-
say-die spirit.