Remembering Baviskar, Revisiting Cooperation

Recalling B S Baviskar’s very influential contribution to the sociology of cooperatives is a much-needed corrective in these times when markets are supposed to provide all the answers. This article looks back on this and the long-running difference of opinion he had with the National Dairy Development Board and Verghese Kurien.

The sad news of the passing of B S Baviskar (1930-2013) came rather late with a small obituary written by his long-time associate Donald Attwood. Baviskar lived a low-key life, focused on his work, and was meticulous and insightful in his research. That he was low key does not take away from the importance of his work, particularly in explaining cooperatives through the prism of society. In an era when sociological and anthropological research were looking at the caste structure, and extending the explanations of Sanskritisation and Westernisation following the influential work of M N Srinivas, Baviskar took to the unusual path of understanding cooperatives.