Baba Amte laid to rest with state honours

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.

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.

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