Dr. Claude Alvares

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Well before ever meeting Claude when he visited the Shri AMM Murugappa Chettair Research Centre to meet Dr. C V Seshadri, many of us were familiar with his writings. The Illustrated Weekly of India was where many of his powerfully written pieces would appear. Claude wrote insightful pieces on Walter Dewaram, Verghese Kurien and MS Swaminathan. He wrote about the Green revolution and the milk revolution and opened the eyes of many readers to the true cost of these massive movements. All this happened almost 30 years ago. It is ironic that most of the people he wrote about (negatively) moved on to become heroes of modern India.

Claude was amongst the first scholars to write about an India, free of a colonised mindset. To propose and fight that Indian tradition and culture was not just equal but superior to what the colonial west keeps trying to impose on us. In a more recent article he has taken this fight to the social science research paradigm. You can read the full article at:  http://www.typewriterguerilla.com/2011/06/a-critique-of-eurocentric-social-science-and-the-question-of-alternatives/

Claude’s response to his critics is equally good to read.  http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/16663.pdf

Claude is a deeply caring person with a terrific memory. During his first visit to MCRC in the mid 80’s I had to drive him to the IIT campus. He happily jumped on to the backseat of my motorbike and we had a good chat. He was going to meet with members of the PPST group. We met up again 20 odd years later and he still remembered that motorbike ride. That meeting was about producing a book on Dr C V Seshadri, a work that is still in progress.