Dilip Hota (1946-2025)–Physically no More

Bharat Patankar

Our Comrade in arms, Dilip, left this earth physically on August 12th 2025, to remain with us in our memories–as an important participant of people’s movements in India for abolition of exploitation and oppression based on caste, gender, class, race, community, etc. He was active in the movement since his student days. He was a very enlightened student during late nineteen sixties. Right from his student days up to his passing away he remained committed to the movements of the oppressed.

The late sixties was a period in the history of humanity during which youth all over world rebelled against all established social norms, cultural practices, political understandings, ways of expressing oneself through the medium of arts, men-women relationships, etc. There also was revolt against the theoretical methods of understanding society, history, sociology, political science, philosophy, economics, etc. This generation started doing the critique of various theories claiming to be revolutionary up to that point of history. Youth, which had wide range of lucrative opportunities and plenty of assured futures to lead economically luxurious life, came out on new roads to change the society. Dilip was part of this generation. He and hundreds of us in those days had a dream of liberated humanity. And many of us along with him remained committed to this dream. Now with his quitting from the physical presence we have to go ahead with this dream by carrying his commitment and determination with us.

After the early participation in the movement in Kolkata as an organiser and playing a leading role in running the movement magazines, he moved to the mining areas to be a part of the mine workers movement around Meghatuburu area in Jharkhand. Myself and Gail (my life companion) visited this area and stayed with the activists there. We had long discussions during our stay which included the critique of the contemporary movements and theoretical understanding on which those movements are based. We agreed about the necessity of doing positive critiques of the established understanding about nature of state in India along with the critique of the dominant mode of production and nature of socio-economic formation in India. We also agreed that a holistic approach towards the abolition of caste, gender and class exploitations at one and same time have to be built into all movements. An article written by myself and Gail, “Bourgeois state in the post-colonial social formations” and our articles on the caste system formed the basis of these discussions. This played a crucial role in bringing us closer and created common ground on which we could start working together. Anne was, of course, part of these discussions. I think Xavier Dias was also part of many of these discussions. Originally from Mumbai, he grew up in Dadar area, which used to be a part of textile mill workers area too. After this ‘get-together’ and trying to understand each other’s viewpoints, along with coming together for movement campaigns Dilip and us started continuous communication and discussions thorough letters.

After this, from around the mid-80’s, Dilip started participating in Shramik Mukti Dal’s yearly conferences for reviewing previous year’s work and deciding next year’s programmes. Jogin Sen Gupta, Gouri Dey, Dilip, Anne and some others from Kolkata and some friends like Sitaram Shastri from Bihar, a few activists from Delhi, etc., also came for these conferences. In the early 1990’s, when Anne shifted base to Mumbai, Dilip also moved here and started working with the Mumbai and Dombivili groups of Shramik Mukti Dal. During this period I was also working in the Mumbai working class movement along with the movement of the drought affected in rural areas. Dilip was a major contributor in our meetings with his sharp ideological rigour and theoretical understanding. He started giving more time for running our regular monthly magazine, “Shramikancha Asud” (Toiling People’s Whipcord). Partly he was also doing important work of co-ordination with other groups/mass organisations, like I was. For this he used to travel to Khandesh area visiting Com. Vaharu Sonawane, Thagibai, Roopsing, Hirkana, etc. leading activists of Shramik Sanghatahana. He would also visit south western Maharashtra activists like Sampat Desai, Dhanaji Gurav, Jayant Nikam, Gail, Indutai Patankar, K. J. Joy, Nagmani Rao, Gouri, etc.

During the past some years his health was not very good, but he still used to communicate with various Comrades and expressed his urge to work in the movement in a meaningful way as before–but his health did not cooperate. And now he has left us for good. Salute to the memories of Dilip, which will always inspire us to do meaningful work for realising a society with Liberated Humanity.

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 11, Sep 7 - 13, 2025