Aajibai Banarase

Aajibai Banarase (1910 – 3 December 1983), born Radhabai Dahake, was an Indian community leader in London. ("Ajibai" is not a personal name, but an address of familiar respect by which she was generally known; she was also called "Londonchya Aajibai," or "London's grandmother", in the Marathi community.)

Aajibai Banarase
Born
Radhabai Dahake

1910
Choundi, Yavatmal, Maharashtra
Died3 December 1983
London
Other namesLondonchya Aajibai, Ajibai Banarse
OccupationCommunity leader, businesswoman

Early life

Radhabai Dahake was born in Choundi, Yavatmal, Maharashtra. She married young, to Tulshihar Dehenkar, and had five daughters. She was widowed at age 33. She remarried in 1945, to Sitarampant Banarase, an older widower with grown sons, Vitthal and Pandurang, already living in London.[1]

In London

Banarase moved to London with her second husband, and worked in his sons' boarding houses there. She was widowed again in 1950. In 1953, rejected by her husband's family and without other material support, Banarase borrowed money and bought a house in London's Hoop Lane, and she subleased rooms to Indian students. She also had a catering business; her Indian cooking was especially appreciated by homesick young Indians.[2] In time, she owned twelve houses and a fleet of cars, and by 1965 she opened a Hindu temple at her home in Golders Green, visited by Indian dignitaries while in the city.[3] She also funded a well and a temple in her hometown, Choundi.[1]

In London she was president of the Maharashtra Mandal London.[2][4] Her granddaughter, Shyamal Pitale, was president of the Maharashtra Mandal in 2019.[5]

Personal life

Banarase died in 1983, aged 73 years, in London.[6] The Mayor of London attended her funeral, to pay respect to her work in the city. A biography, Kahaani Londonchya Aajibainchi by Sarojini Vaidhya, was published in Marathi in 1998.[1] The biography was adapted into a play, Londoncharya Aajibai, by Rajiv Joshi, and toured in Great Britain in 2015,[7] with veteran actress Usha Nadkarni playing Banarase.[8]

References
  1. Vaidya, Sarojini, 1933- (1998). Kahāṇī Laṇḍanacyā Ājībāīñcī. Puṇe: Rājahãsa Prakāśana. ISBN 81-7434-075-0. OCLC 277137211.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. "Indian bonding in London". The Times of India. 22 December 2000. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  3. Geaves, Ron (2019-12-12). Prem Rawat and Counterculture: Glastonbury and New Spiritualities. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-350-09088-0.
  4. "Success At The Temple". Catholic Herald Archives. 22 September 1972. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  5. "Executive Committee 2019". Maharashtra Mandal London. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  6. "Deaths: Banarse". The Guardian. 1983-12-08. p. 26. Retrieved 2020-10-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Vinjamuri, Ragasudha (29 September 2015). "The Rich Marathi Legacy in the UK". Asian Voice. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  8. "Popular actress Usha Nadkarni in and as 'London Chya Aajibai'". Marathi Movie World (MMW). 2015-10-28. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
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