Namdeo Nimgade (1920-2011) was an agricultural scientist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. He was born into an ‘untouchable’ family of landless bonded labourers in Sathgaon, in western India.
<p>This is the story of the first dalit to be awarded a PhD from an American university after Babasaheb Ambedkar. Namdeo Nimgade starts schooling at the late age of fourteen in Sathgaon. He has to stand on the ‘hot verandah and listen to lessons through a window’. From the Chokhamela Hostel in Nagpur, he journeys to the University of Wisconsin to study soil science in the 1950s. Serving as one of Ambedkar’s attendants on occasion, Nimgade offers a ringside view of the Ambedkarite movement. He writes with candour and humour— whether recounting his great-grandfather Ganba’s combat with a tiger or his ‘forbidden’ love for a non- dalit woman. This is an inspiring story of triumph against the odds.</p><div><br></div>
