Dr Bhimrao Gasti: Kannada Prabha Personality-of-the-Year Award 2007

He turned down a Russian university’s offer of a professor’s post only to serve his people who were wallowing in poverty, illiteracy, social darkness and worse, a criminal tag.

Dr Bhimrao Gasti, who will receive the Kannada Prabha Personality-of-the-Year Award 2007 on Tuesday at Belgaum, is an M.Sc. and Ph.D. This is completely at odds with his beginnings.

A victim of several atrocities and insults as a school boy in Belgaum, he was thrown out of school and was denied entry into the hostel as he was considered a dacoit because of his Bedar descent.
After fighting all odds & completing, his studies from Osmania University, Hyderabad and proceeded to Russia for higher studies. But when he learnt that people of his community were being arrested for no fault of theirs, he landed in Yamunapur near Belgaum to lead their fight against illegal arrests.

It was his relentless fight that forced the Government to replace the criminal tag on the community with a scheduled tribe tag. He has written several Marathi bestsellers.
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