Veteran activist, scholar Pushpa Bhave passes away4Photo© indianexpress.com

Veteran activist, scholar Pushpa Bhave passes away

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Veteran social activist, scholar, rationalist, and a stalwart of Marathi literature and theatre Pushpa Bhave passed away late on Friday night. She was 81.

Known for her tremendous contribution to social movements in Maharashtra over six decades, including the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement that led to the formation of the state, Bhave, who spent her last days in a wheelchair after her legs were amputated following aggravated diabetes, succumbed to her prolonged illness. She was cremated on Saturday morning. She is survived by her octogenarian husband Anant Bhave.

Remembered as frank and fearless, Bhave, a professor of Marathi and Sanskrit, was fondly called Pushpa Bai, by her students and on the field, where she participated and led several social movements, including agitations against the Emergency in 1975, protests against inflation alongside prominent women socialist leaders like Mrinal Gore and Ahilya Rangnekar.