Google doodle marks social activist Baba Amte’s 104th birthday

Google on Tuesday honoured social worker and activist Murlidhar Devidas Amte, more commonly known as Baba Amte, with a doodle on his 104th birthday. Amte dedicated his life to serving those in need, especially those affected by leprosy. He died in 2008. The doodles, a slideshow of five images, were created by Vrinda Zaveri.

Amte was born into a wealthy family in Maharashtra on this day in 1914. He studied law and was running his own successful company by his 20s. But despite his privileged upbringing, Amte was aware of the country’s class inequalities throughout his childhood.

Later, Amte discarded his practice in order to work with the underprivileged sections of the society. His life changed after he came across a man suffering from leprosy. The sight of the man’s decaying body filled him with overwhelming fear, and confronting that fear allowed Amte to identify the “mental leprosy” that led people to feel apathetic in the face of the disease. According to Amte, the most frightening disease was not losing one’s limbs, but losing one’s strength to feel kindness and compassion.

Amte dedicated his life to the cause of fighting leprosy – he defied social stigma by injecting himself with bacilli to prove that the disease was not highly contagious. In 1949, he established “Anandwan”, or the forest of bliss, which is a self-sufficient village and rehabilitation centre for leprosy patients in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district.

Amte launched the first Knit India March in 1985, walking from Kanyakumari to Kashmir at the age of 72 to inspire unity in the country. Three years later, he organised a second march and travelled around 2,99 km from Assam to Gujarat.

In recognition of Amte’s work, he was awarded the Padma Shri in 1971. He also won the 1988 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights, and the 1999 Gandhi Peace Prize.