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Kamaltai, who heads the Shri Dadasaheb Gavai Charitable Trust, has built a reputation in and around Vidarbha region as a social worker and a renowned educationist
Dr Kamaltai R Gavai, mother of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai. (X)
Dr Kamaltai R Gavai, mother of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, is all set to be the chief guest at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) centenary Vijayadashami celebrations in Amravati on October 5.
On the surface, this may look like a routine city-level programme and a part of the Sangh’s larger outreach. However, with the CJI at the peak of the judiciary, the optics of his mother sharing an RSS stage are unmissable. The participation also reflects Sangh’s layered network across social spectrum.
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Kamaltai, who heads the Shri Dadasaheb Gavai Charitable Trust, has built a reputation in and around Vidarbha region as a social worker and a renowned educationist. The RSS insists that she has been invited purely in her personal capacity owing to her contribution to society.
Yet, the fact that her son is the country’s top judge lends the event a resonance far beyond Amravati. J Nanda Kumar, head of the Sangh’s intellectual wing Prajna Pravah, will deliver the keynote speech at the gathering, hosted at Srimati Narsamma Mahavidyalaya Maidan in Kiran Nagar.
Kamaltai’s presence also echoes a historical moment and a legacy. According to documents accessed by News 18, in1981, during the Tritiya Varsh Shikshan Samapan Samaroh in Nagpur, CJI Gavai’s father had also attended an RSS function.
Four decades later, the Sangh once again draws a Gavai family member into its orbit—this time as part of its Shatabdi Varsha, a year-long mobilisation to mark 100 years since its founding.
The Gavai family has long carried a layered legacy in Maharashtra’s socio-political landscape. RS Gavai, former governor and a stalwart of the Republican movement, often critiqued social hierarchies and the Gurukul system while also appearing on public platforms alongside RSS functionaries. In 1969, he was photographed addressing a major event with senior Sangh leaders—a reminder of how politics, ideology, and social currents in Maharashtra often intersected in unexpected ways.
That continuity now comes alive in Amravati. Rajendra Gavai, Kamaltai’s eldest son and a Republican Party of India leader, has said he and his party will “stand by whatever decision” his mother takes regarding the RSS invite.
For the Sangh, the invitation is part of a calibrated outreach. Its centenary calendar is massive as more than one lakh Hindu Samaj Sammelans, thousands of symposiums, and nationwide door-to-door programmes are going to be organised. By bringing respected community figures like Kamaltai onto its dais, the RSS seeks to stretch its centenary canvas beyond traditional affiliates and political leaders.
What might have been a routine and an extension Vijaya Dashami Utsav in a Vidarbha city has, with one invitation, acquired national undertones. The shadow of the CJI’s chair looms over an otherwise local celebration, just as the memory of his father’s quiet presence in 1981 now finds a full-circle echo.
About the Author
Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has covered Naxa…Read More
Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has covered Naxa… Read More
Amravati, India, India
September 30, 2025, 10:18 IST
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