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Homage to Vasant Moon ‘Only death is certain, everything else is impermanent’ said the Buddha.Dear friends, Personally, I never met Vasant Moon, rather surprising but true. I went to Bombay three times, about a decade ago. Every time I went to his Office but he was not there. I went to see him when he was here on Diksha Bhoomi a few years ago. But could not meet him as he had been for dinner and did not return well past midnight. I went to his Nagpur residence a number of times. He has a most marvelous collection, which he has kept for Ambedkarite Researchers. Apart from his contribution in editing the 15 volumes of Dr. Ambedkar, I think that his greatest contribution. His wife is a literary figure too and runs a magazine "Maitarnee". She had come to our place during a literary meet at Ballarshah. Let us all participate the family members in the moment of their grief. I was told he had some mental problems and then some paralysis also. V. T. Rajshekhar mentions he is gone unwept and unsung. Perhaps, that is not all that true. His memories about his great work will be cherished by all Ambedkarites for all the times to come. His works are immortal pieces of remembrance in Ambekarites' hearts. With heavy a heart, I express my condolences. Dr. K. Jamanadas
Loss of Great Scholar! My heartful Condolences to his family members. We all know Mr. Vasant Moon for his great work of Editoring the Publication of Dr. Amebedkar's Literature's through "Dr. Amnedkar: Writtings and Speeches" He has also written a book "Vasti". This book is about his childhood and the atmosphere in Nagpur around and before Indi'a Independence and the people who were following Dr Ambedkar for their libaration. He will be always known for his work done as Editor of "Dr. Ambedkar: Writtings and Speeches". This work is for generations to come. With him, we certainly lost a great scholar.
JaiBheem.
After reading the news on website (ambedkar.org} about the sudden death of Dr.Vasant Moon, I feel we have lost a gem of our society who gave us opportunity to know about the writing and speeches of Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar. Few occasions, I had discussion with Dr. Moon about his mission to publish the work of Dr. Ambedkar. It showed his dedication to complete the great work during his life time. His personal library at Nagpur, is an excellent collection on Ambedkar and Buddhism. My heartfelt condolences to the family of Dr.Vasant Moon. Jai Bhim
B V Meshram
Dear Friends, My heartfelt condolences to the family members of Dr.Vasant Moon. It is a very great loss for our society. We have lost a great intellectual and activist of our society. He will be remembered forever, for his noble works he has done by the new generation. PRAKASH AMBEDKAR
"Mr. Vasant Moon was an intellectual who graduated from Nagpur University. Whilst employed as Govt Officer he was a staunch follower of Dr. Ambedkar. During his childhood he started to gather as much information i.e. news items, speeches on Dr. Ambedkar.Such was his devotion to Babsaheb's mission that he built a library in Nagpur as a monument. He assisted world famous writer, Eleanor Zelliot for her PH.D thesis in his library. The Govt. of Maharashtra decided to publish the writing and speeches of Dr. Ambedkar and Mr. Vasant Moon was appointed and given the responsibility of the publishing the complete works. Mr. Vasant Moon contribution is valuable and provided outstanding service to the nation. His complete work of Dr. Ambedkar gives insight into the ideas, thoughts and philosophy of the great man. I met him on numerous occasions and at one particular time he showed me the original manuscripts of Babasaheb's writing. I admired his devotion and dedication to the mission. His death is a great loss to the mission and to the nearest and dearest. On behalf of Buddhist monk Sangh and Buddhist community, we mourn the loss of great servant of the mission."
Namo Buddha
Vipassna Teacher, Dear Friends, It is with the great sorrow that I just learn the death of the great Ambedkarite Shri Vasant Moon. Moon Saheb would not only be remembered for ever for his voluminous work that introduced Babasaheb Ambedkar to the larger world but also as a man, I would rather say a valiant avant-garde, who silently and very academically, and effectively steered the dalit movement in an impending direction. Today if there is an Ambedkarite in every knook and corner of this world, -if there is any organised dalit movement, it is because of the tireless work done by Shri Vasant Moon in shaping and presenting the writings and speeches of the Baba Saheb Ambedkar to the larger world. Moon Saheb was the Moon in its literal meaning. The departure of Moon saheb is a great loss to dalits and I too would like to convey my condolences to you, his close friends and his family members. Prem Pal, Ph.D.
Liverpool, UK Bodisatv moon saheb was great scholar of ambedkar movement.his death cause great loss.i had attend his funeral which has taken place in ulhasnagar. i m also living ulhasnagr.his funeral was attain bymany schliars and politician. raja dhale andotehrs peaplea wrere also there. Chandrakanth We mourn with a heavy heart the demise of Mr. Vasant Moon. May his soul Rest in Peace in Heaven. Ravi & Promila Dear all, Death of Vasant Moon is an irreparable loss of Ambedkar's movement. He had singlehandedly organised the Writings & Speeches of Babasaheb Ambedkar. Vasant Moon, though a Govt. officer, with his mammoth collection of works of Dr.Ambedkar, was specially invited by Govt. of Maharashtra as a Special Officer on Duty for the publication of Writings & Speeches of Dr.Ambedkar. He definitely was the undisputed authority on the sourcing of literature of dalit movement. Vasant Moon had started collecting books on dalit movement since his school days. He used to buy old books from weekly Burdi market, the market which was very close to Patwardhan High School where he did his schooling at Nagpur. There was hardly any resercher of dalit movement who could do his/her research without Vasant Moon. He was associated with Wamanrao Godbole (the man whom Babasaheb gave the full responsibility of organising the Buddhist conversion of 14 October 1956) during the historic Buddhist conversion ceremony at Deeksha Bhoomi led by Babasaheb Ambedkar. He was associated with the Samata Sainik Dal during his youth. Vasant Moon will be remembered by the dalit literary world for long long time to come.
Salute to this great man!!
Dear Members, Brother Vasant Moon - no more, he was 72. He survived three heart attacks. This fourth one severe one. He had close contact with us. We donated 160 complete sets to public libraries, renowned universities: Cambridge, Oxford and LSE, House of Commons, many other institutions of eminent authority of social history and next plan to donate to the British Museum. There are 126 sets still available for distribution or donation. How can we forget he stayed with us in London, whenever I visited Mumbai, I visited him. The Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations honoured him with the Bhim Ratna in 1993. A simple man with high dedication to Babasaheb's work cannot be easily replaced by anyone. He told me and I observed the pain and trouble he was going through in bringing out the complete works of Babasaheb. His home is like an incredible Ambedkar Museum Library, with many thorough research papers. On 6th December 2001, Volume 17 was released by the Governor of Maharashtra and 1000 copies were already distributed for review. Due to some errors and one speech printed 3 times, Maharashtra Govt. stopped the sale of the same volume, until the corrected volume is reprinted. Volume 18, 19 and 20 are already gone through proof reading by Moon saheb and in the manuscript form. As confirmed by Mr. Prakash More, Director of Maharashtra Govt.'s publication Dept., all remaining volumes are in the printing process and will come out in short time. Mr. Hari Narke currently working on Mahatma Jyotiba Phule will take over remaining task of Vasant Moon. These complete work of Babasaheb already translated in some regional languages and will be translated in all major regional languages. Maharashtra Govt. is also working on CD-ROM and with help of the World Bank - project of complete work of Babasaheb on Digital Library. For the last 13 years, Director Prakash More has been working very hard. Due to his perseverance and sole dedication of Vasant Moon, we have seen these monumental publications. Prakash More will be serving for a further 7 years in his current post. He will have served longer than any other person in his post. We express our heart-felt appreciation for his untiring service. We wish him every success in bringing out the publications of Babasaheb and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. As reported many Ambedkarites joined him in his last journey and paid their tributes with deep sense of appreciation, with devotion in their hearts and tears in their eyes. We too, join with them extending our deepest condolences to sister Minaxi Moon and her family. May brother Vasant Moon attain Nibbana. Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu.
C. Gautam
Dear friends, With the death of Vasant Moon, we have lost a great activist and intellectual of Ambedkar's movement and the Buddhist revival in India. He also knew that nothing is permanent, as he expressed in his own reaction to Babasaheb's death in 1956.... I'm glad we could have the book publication in time! metta, gail Dear friend, With heavy heart I join you all in mourning the sad demise of Mr. Vasant Moon. As Gail put it, I always found him a quintessential Ambedkarite who went on doing his work quietly despite his indifferent health and many personal inconveniences he suffered in recent years. I was privileged to be in contact with him in these days. No doubt he will be remembered for ever for his work that introduced Babasaheb Ambedkar to the larger world. Anand Dear friends, I am sad to hear this tragic news. My heartfelt condolences to his near and dear. I understand there were still some Ambedkar materials to be published. When are those unpublished materials scheduled to be published? Who knows what will happen to these valuable treasures if and when the Sangh Parivar returns back to power in Maharashtra. Shouldn't we try to get all of the remaining Ambedkar literature published as soon as possible. If some private funding will expedite the publications, we should know about the same. Perhaps we may be able to make some collection towards that purpose.
Regards, My heartfelt Condolences to his family members. Benjamin I mourn the death of Vasant Moon. His research library at Nagpur would be the place to look for all sorts of information on Untouchable, Dalit, Depressed Classes, etc. However, his stroke several years ago took him out of the circle of researchers, and he could not even answer questions about his autobiography, Vasti, published in English as Growing Up Untouchable. Eleanor Zelliot Last year during Feb.-March, I was in Bombay visiting key friends and I went to see Vasant Moon. We grew up in the same neighbourhood in Nagpur. He was 10 years senior to me.He recognised me after 10 years gap and in spite of his paralysis.We had 2 hours discussion. His wife Minakshi Moon is also related to my cousin. She was mostly directing and helping his talk. But I did not think that he would go that fast.We discussed about the remaining volumes to be published. He told me that 3 more volumes are ready in Marathi on "Dr. Ambedkar's Writings and Speeches". I urged him to drop all the load and relax. Take some younger scholars under him and guide them. His wife told me how she attends the State Government Meetings with him and guides him.But Physically he looked OK. Well, people above 50 are on the borrowed time and we have to keep that in mind constantly. That includes all of us-seniors,elders. TO KEEP BABASAHEB'S MISSION ALIVE. HE PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE THROUGH PUBLICATION OF ALL HIS LITERATURE. NOW THE BOOKS ARE BEING TRANSLATED INTO ALL INDIAN LANGUAGES. ITS IMPACT IS POSITIVE, ENORMOUS,AND PERMANANT. NOBODY CAN DENY THAT.HE WILL BE ALWAYS REMEMBERED FOR THAT. Perhaps I may write you tomorrow about the glimpses of his personal life in our neighbourhood. We all should join in sending condolences to his family.
in the mission, Dear friends, I was saddened by the Heavenly journey of our beloved ,dedicated ,scholar,Ambedkrite and above all a decent human being. I had the previlige of spending time with his wife -Meenakshi and children at his bandra residence for few days during my visit to Bombay in mid 1980;s He also gave me a audio-cassaett recorded speech of babasaheb Dr.Ambedkar. Of course ,his contribution in publications of Baba,s 16 volume and one seperat volume of Source material on r.Ambedkar and movement of untouchable Vol #1; are some of his greatest contribution in maintainig and preserving our heritage. Will some Bombaywala friends or Nagpuria send/convey my heart felt condolenses to his wife and children? I will be very indebted to them. He will be always in our heart and mind, Dr.Berwa This is indeed a sad occasion. Mr. Moon will remain a legacy and his work on publisihng Dr. Ambedkar's writings and speeches will be cehrished forever. Jai Birdi I offer my homage to Upasaka Vasant Moon.Though I never met him physically, I once had a telephonic conversation with him. Our community owes him a lot for his contribution in collating and publishing literature of Babasaheb. About the ongoing debate over the issue of GRADED INEQALITY, I have few words to write.As rightly pointed out by Babasaheb, in India, we do not have ineqality but graded ineqality.One caste is superior to another and inferior to some other caste. Caste is a notion. There is a need to bring notional changes, like conversion to religion other than Hinduism. Even the caste men in the lower stratum of caste division do not interact. There is a marked absence of ' SOCIAL ENDO-OSMOSIS'. However, in the recent years, we are successful in bridging gap between two castes, for example, growing communication between various Dalits all over the country, use of Buddhist terms, nationalisation , nay Internationalisation, of Babasaheb's thoughts are testimony.
Persons can be changed by education. Let us educate
all whoever comes in contact with us.
With Metta, Dear friends, Sad demise of Mr.Vasant Moon is a big loss for all of us. His name and role as the OSD of the committee for publication of the writings and speeches of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar will remain as a milestone in the progress of propagation of Ambedkar thoughts. Nobody else could have done the job better than late Mr. Moon. He was a brilliant scholar and intellectual. His book in Marathi 'Phule-Ambedkar sanshodhanatlee Pradushane' ( Pollution or aberration in the research on Phule Ambedkar), exemplify his Ambedkarite approach in detecting the mistakes by the other great scholar, Prof.Y. D. Phadke. Perhaps because of his commitment to the monumental task of getting the work of Babasaheb published , he remained very busy nearely for two decades otherwise, we would have benifited more in terms of books written by him. Vijay Sonawane Vasant Moon: Ambedkarites fail to recognise greatness of honest intellectual By V.T. Rajshekar, Editor, Dalit Voice Brother Vasant Moon was our esteem DV family member and a great admirer of our work for two decades or so. In our recent Editorial Note (DV March 16, 2002 p.4) we had expressed our sorrow on Moon and our prediction came: Brother Moon died unwept, unsung, unhonoured — perhaps even unnoticed. We had several times expressed our desire that Vasant Moon deserved "national honour" by Ambedkarites. But none bothered to take note of our anguished cry not even the Maharashtra Ambedkarites. Dies a sad man: Vasant Moon's fate reflects the situation of Ambedkarites and Ambedkarism in India. (DV Edit March 16, 2000: " Sunset on Dalit World"). Babasaheb said "Untouchables are not Hindus and never Hindu". But today almost 100% of the Untouchables, children of Babasaheb, have been made Hindu by the ruling brahminical forces made to kill their own brothers, Muslims. Wat are our Dalit leaders doing? Where are our Ambedkarites? Vasant Moon, like Babasaheb, died a sad man. Hey day for racketeers: Lot of fakes and frauds are coming up. Racketeers are having a hey day. Our people rush to petty politicians. But profound scholars, intellectually honest, die unnoticed like Vasant Moon. Our people, children of Babasaheb are after power and wealth. We too will meet the fate of Moon. This will be the fate of all honest intellectuals. Loosing VASANT MOON is indeed a great loss for our movement, cherukuri. Terribly sorry to hear of the demise of Vasant Moon. We met in the office of ratnakar gaikwad around 20 april 1992 in pune.After we left the office together,from 5.30 pm to 10.30 pm spent the whole evening in his company.took him to Army Officers Mess and we had a couple of drinks.(those were the days!?)Then treated him to dinner in one of the simpler restaurants in pune camp....seekh kababs and chicken biriyani,the works...He used to tell me I am a spendthrift(kharchik). He narrated his travails in collecting the material and having it published.The obstructionist attitude of the government,the system.Said he wd like to write a volume about how he got all the stuff published.Dropped him to sadashiv peth and came back to pune cantt. Perhaps the autobiography covers much ground. Therafter we met as friends a few times. A talented person.Great guy.Tremendous bodhisattva spirit. He leaves behind his relatives,many many friends and admirers.And a nation in debt.
Anicca vata sankara p.s.If you wish you may observe 2 minutes silence in front of the pc. Dr. Omprakash Bedekar ‘Only death is certain, everything else is impermanent’ said the Buddha. For us, nonetheless, it is great sadness that Vasant Moon is no more with us. MAY HE ATTEND NIBHHANA, Saddhu Saddhu, Saddhu! To me Vasant Moon was a rear and true breed of Ambedkar Thought and Mission. It was my great privilege when he paid a courtesy call to me at my office in London. He had then just completed 1or 2 Vols. I saw in him great simplicity. In 1999 I had a long telephonic talk with him. Among other things I told him that we are establishing the ‘Ambedkar Memorial Lecture’ at the Manchester MetropolitanUniversity. He was overjoyed. Subsequently we invited him to be the first speaker but due to his declining health it was not possible for him to come. He dedicated his life to immortalise Babas’s life and Mission in print at the cost of his own health and life. Such a dedication, unparallel indeed! I could summarise him in just two words “AMBEDKAR BHUSHAN”. My heartfelt sympathy to his family. May he attend Nibbhana. Sadhu, Saddhu, Saddhu.
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