The Gandhian Bapa who toured Madras for the uplift of Dalits

Bapa (seventh from right in the second row from bottom) with students of Industrial School at Kodambakkam. The school was shifted to another location and came to be known as Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya. (Source: Special Arrangement)

To many, the seven-decades-old Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya on Venkatanarayana Road at T. Nagar in Chennai may seem an ordinary school. But the purpose of its establishment and, more importantly, the person after whom it is named has a prominent historical relevance.

Opened in 1947 and named after Amritlal Vithaldas Thakkar (fondly called Thakkar Bapa) at the insistence of Mahatma Gandhi, the establishment carries on the legacy of the Father of ‘Harijans’, as Thakkar Bapa is known: the uplift of the oppressed.