Kumud Pawde

Kumud Somkuwar Pawde (born 1938) is an Indian Dalit activist. She is the first Ambedkarite scholar of Sanskrit. Her autobiography Antahsphot discusses the issue of exploitation of Dalit Women.[1] She is a founder member of the National Federation of Dalit Women.

She was born in 1938 into a Mahar Dalit family in Maharashtra. Later she became a Buddhist. She was witness to the historic Dhamma Deeksha ceremony (conversion to Buddhism) on October 14, 1956, as her parents were part of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Dalit Buddhist movement.[2][3] She studied Sanskrit at the time when untouchability was rife and Dalits faced barriers; she was amongst first Dalits to learn Sanskrit and became Sanskrit Pandita i.e. Sanskrit scholar.[4][5] She was the Head of Department of Sanskrit from Government College, Amravati, Maharashtra.[6][7]

References
  1. "Dalit Lives Matter: 8 Dalit Women Activists You Must Know About". Geetika Sachdev. Yahoo. 14 October 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  2. "Peoples Voice » when Nehru helped an Ambedkarite Sanskrit Scholar get a job". Archived from the original on 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  3. "How three generations of Dalit women writers saw their identities and struggle?". 27 December 2017.
  4. "Meet Dr Kumud Sonkuwar Pawde, Sanskrit Pandita And Dalit Activist". Kalwyna Rathod. Femina. 2 November 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  5. "The Dalit girl who became a Sanskrit Pandita: the incredible story of Dr Kumud Sonkuwar Pawde". Sagarika Ghose. The Times of India. 25 March 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  6. "EVALUATION OF DALIT LITERATURE IN INDIA" (PDF). YESUPAKU DINESH. Pune Research. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  7. "Social, Economic and Political Reverberations of Untouchability: Kumud Pawde's "The Story of My Sanskrit"". Jayasree, K. IUP Journal of English Studies. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
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