By Shyam Pandharipande, IANS
Warora (Maharashtra) : An ardent Gandhian, an impetuous social activist and a spirited environmental crusader, Murlidhar Devidas alias Baba Amte lent a new dimension to leprosy service by instilling in thousands of hapless leprosy patients a confidence to live a brave, productive life.
The founder of the world renowned Anandvan leper-rehabilitation centre in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district who died at the same place in the wee hours of Saturday, Baba also brought to centre-stage the issue of colossal environmental destruction that mega developmental projects cause in their wake through his crusade against big dams.
His fervour for social and national integrity found its manifestation in the six-month long countrywide ‘Bharat-Jodo’ (Knit-India) pilgrimage that he launched in December 1985 when the country was beset by daunting militant agitations in Punjab, Assam and other parts.
Born on Dec 26, 1914 in Hinganghat village of Maharashtra’s Wardha district, Devidas did his graduation in law from Nagpur university and started his legal pracice in Warora only to give it up soon to join the freedom struggle answering the call of Mahatma Gandhi.
Though Baba Amte earned praise globally in his later life for his phenomenal service to leprosy patients that he started by setting up the Anandvan rehabilitation centre in Warora in 1951, he drew sneers and scorn when he took to cleaning gutters and nursing the wounds of hapless leprosy patients.
Recepient of several national and international awards like Padma Bhushan, Damien Dutton, Templeton, Right Livelihood and Magsaysay for his work in the field of leprosy service, Baba left the Anandvan Ashram to his elder son Vikas and set up an abode in Kasravad in Madhya Pradesh to lead his crusade against the gigantic Narmada dam project that threatened to devour vast stretches of thick forest land and displace thousands of villagers in early nineties.
While his wife Sadhana-tai stood by him all through his tumultuous life full of untold hardships, he inspired both his sons Vikas and Prakash along with their wives, respectively Bharati and Manda, all of whom are medical graduates, to take to the life of selfless service.
Baba also started tribal and leper-service projects at Somnath in Chandrapur disrict and Hemalkasa in Gadchiroli district while constantly developing the parent Anandvan rehabilitation centre where the third generation of Amtes is engaged fully.
Even while unable to sit because of an impaired backbone for the last over four decades, Baba never ceased to work and remained mentally agile almost till the end of his life.
A connoisseur of western films – his fascination for Marlyn Monroe was well-known – a lover of books and a powerful speaker, Baba would recite long stanza of Marathi and English poems and recall names of hundreds of decades-old acquaintances and events when visitors came to meet him during his terminal illness.
Advised bed-rest in view of his multiple ailments including cardiac, Baba would insist on going for brisk walks in the Ashram premises. When fatigue overtook him during one such walk last month necessitating hospitalisation, he old IANS, “the pumping machine in my chest, that is my physical heart, doesn’t keep pace with me”.
The lion hearted man’s never-say-die spirit remaining indomitable till the end of his life, Baba inspired his elder son Vikas, who has involved hundreds of leprosy patients in incredible productive activities at Anandvan, to start some creative project for distressed farmers in Vidarbha in order to instil in them a will to fight the adversity rather than be cowed down and end life.