Smitu Kothari

A very dear member of the SID (Society for International Development) family, Smitu Kothari, passed away on 23 March in New Delhi, after he suffering unexpected heart failure.

Smitu, noted Indian and international scholar, author and activist, has contributed to the SID network for over twenty years. He was actively engaged in the work of key programmes in the 1990s and 2000s: the Sustainable Livelihoods Programme, Women and Politics of Place Programme, the South Asia SID-SAN network as well as being an active member on the editorial board of the journal Development. He brought to SID his vision, his insights, friendship and solidarity. Memorably he guest edited the first issue of the journal to be published by Palgrave Macmillan on the ‘Violence of Development’ in 2004.

Most of all, Smitu brought to SID his humanity, his love and respect for people and nature and strong sense of social justice. He was deeply involved in ecological, cultural and human rights issues striving to forge collectively global alternatives to the world’s injustices. He played a unique role as an activist intellectual in SID forging links among many people on the issues he held dear. As well as his work on the ground and in network such as SID he was a noted scholar. He published articles and books that critiqued contemporary economic and cultural development, the relationship of nature, culture and democracy, developmental displacement, people’s governance and social movements.

Smitu was a source of inspiration and support to all those in SID who worked for social justice and development. He will be sadly missed. The journal Development will feature a series of essays in memory of Smitu in the forthcoming issue, Beyond Economics, volume 52 number 3.

As fellow editorial board member Sanjay Reddy noted: ‘Smitu was a person of great heart and intellect, and his loss is truly a loss for the world which goes well beyond those who knew and appreciated him.’