Three legends no more: Zelliot, Panicker and Neil O’Brien

Noted American scholar Dr Eleanor Zelliot, who wrote extensively on the Ambedkarite-Buddhist movement in India, passed away on 5 June at her home in Minnesota, USA. She was 89.

Zelliot retired as a professor from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Her first book Ambedkar’s World: The Making of Babasaheb and the Dalit Movement traces the workings of a caste society and the emergence of the Dalit movement in Maharashtra. This book, based on her doctorate work, is considered an essential document for researchers and students of the Dalit movement.

Many other books followed, including From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement, The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharashtra, Untouchable Saints: An Indian Phenomenon, and An Anthology of Dalit Literature, which she edited with Mulk Raj Anand.

Eminent theatre personality and lyricist Kavalam Narayana Panicker passed away on 26 June at the age of 88. He is mainly known for his Sanskrit dramas and for bringing a native style to the theatre in Malayalam.

Panicker wrote more than 26 Malayalam plays which were performed and published. These included, Madhyamavyayogam (1979), Kalidasa's Vikramorvasiyam (1981, 1996), Shakuntalam (1982), Karnabharam (1984, 2001), Bhasa's Uru Bhangam (1988), Swapnavasavadattam and Dootavakyam (1996). He was honoured with the third-highest civilian award Padma Bhushan in 2007.

Neil O’Brien, the chairman of the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and managing director of Oxford University Press in India passed away on 24 June. He was 82.

As a leader of the Anglo-Indian community, he was the president-in-chief of All-India Anglo-Indian Association and headed the Frank Anthony group of schools, besides being an eminent quizmaster, academic and former parliamentarian – and a master printer.

As Subhasis Ganguli recounts in his homage to O’Brien, “OUP was planning to bring out a general knowledge series authored by Neil O’Brien and his son Barry. The title had been finalised – Find Out. In the briefing, O’Brien opened the challenge to the creative and production team – “As the title is Find Out, the design should represent the spirit of the title and ideally, it has to be in colour.”

Ganguli adds, “It was a huge challenge to work out the costing and choosing the right partner. As colour textbook printing was not common at that point of time, it was not easy. Presses equipped with colour printing were not interested in textbooks. Also, the costing did not work. On the other hand, presses that printed textbooks were not capable of handling colour printing efficiently.”

Ganguli states, “There came O’Brien, with his out of box thinking. He guided his team from his office like a coach guiding his team in the field. At the same time, he was protective of his team. He always inquired about our food, and if we had any problems, he would try to sort them out in his own flamboyant fashion. So the team was charged to run an extra mile for him at any point of time.”

The team at PrintWeek India salutes all three legends. It is a massive void for our generation but hopefully their work will inspire many more for years to come.

RIP.