Born French (1934), after graduation in Philosophy and Theology (in Sorbonne, Paris and in Gregoriana, Rome), I taught philosophy for twelve years (1958-1970) in France. My first encounter with India was intellectual, namely, through introducing in my teaching elements of initiation to some philosophical and religious Indian  traditions, mainly the Upanishads. This led me to a direct meet with the society, culture and history of India in 1967 when I had the opportunity of staying for one month in a family in Pune. I came to know about Tukaram at that time through the Prabhat Films production. This initial acquaintance prompted me to come back in 1969 for a second short stay, to study Sanskrit and Marathi and ultimately to stay for good in 1972. I was granted Indian Citizenship by naturalisation in 1978.

The first years were dedicated to field studies bearing upon attitudes and aspirations of students from deprived social sections. My concern was one of cultural anthropology. Besides a Ph. D. in social sciences of development (Paris University, EHESS, 1978), the findings led to a book focussing on the theme of ideology of poverty. Various field studies were also undertaken in the domain of grass-root processes of development, social action, migration, health action-programmes, gender studies, participatory research, marathi dalit autobiographies, women coolies. The results were published in various journals, in reports to Unesco, and eventually in books. The study of Marathi led to the translation and publication in French of documents of Marathi social history, dalit literature and oral traditions. The interest increasingly focussed, substantively, on popular oral traditions ‹such as the women¹s tradition of grindmill songs, oral myths circulating in lower social sections, social memory of marginalised communities, indigenous knowledge of traditional midwives ‹ and , methodlogically, in experimenting with alternative forms of cooperative methodologies in human sciences.

In 1982 the Centre for Cooperative Research in Social Sciences (CCRSS) was launched with the assistance of leading scholars in Pune. Its scientific objectives relate to the above mentioned domains and such issues as the right to produce a relevant social knowledge, the relevance of the discourses of the voiceless, people¹s oral traditions as  monuments of indigenous knowledge and forms of cognition, grass-root processes of communication, cooperative research as mode of communicative self-investigation. The Centre has organised international seminars on issues pertaining to People¹s Culture, Power versus Culture and Communication, Popular Culture and Cultural Action, Communication Processes, Tradition versus Modernity.

For a general presentation : see Pacquement, Jean and Pierre Lachaier, 1996, ³A propos et autour du séminaire "Communication Processes and Social Transformation" (Poona, 8-13 /1/1996) in Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrème Orient, tome 83, p. 336-346.

Some main publications : 1978, Inde: Les Parias de l'Espoir, Paris, L'Harmattan.1981, Boots of a Peasant Movement, Poona, Shubhada-Saraswat.1984, Inde: Les marginaux de l'Éternel. Idéologies de la pauvreté et identité culturelle chez les étudiants marginaux en Inde, Paris, L'Harmattan.1985, Inde: Le Développement, une impasse? Trois études indiennes, Paris, L'Harmattan.1985, Inde: Village au féminin. La Peine d'exister, Paris, L'Harmattan. 1993, Indian Peasant Women Speak Up, Bombay, Orient Longman.1994, Femmes coolies en Inde. Salariat, culture et survie en ville, Paris, Syros.1996, Stonemill and Bhakti. From the Devotion of Peasant Women to the Philosophy of Swamis, New Delhi, DKPrintworld. 1997, Le Chant des meules, Paris, Kailash.2001,The Voice and the Will, Subaltern Agency: Forms and Motives, New Delhi, Manohar.2002, Sortir de la sujétion. Essais sur la désubordination des Parias en Inde, femmes et intouchables, Paris, L'Harmattan. 2001, "Participant Report: Folklore and Creativity", Folklife The Advent Of Asian Century In Folklore, vol. 1, 5, April, pp.14-25.2001, ³Myth and Identity: The Narrative Construction of Self in the Oral Tradition of Vadar Commlunities.² Indian Folklore Research Journal, vol. 1, n.1 May:81-122.2001, ³L¹Appropriation de la figure de Sita dans les chants des paysannes du Maharashtra", in Françoise Mallison (ed.), Constructions hagiographiques dans le monde indien. Entre mythe et histoire, EHESS, Paris, H. Champion, pp. 61-94.Translations in French: Madhav Kondvilkar, Le journal d'un intouchable (1969-1977), Paris, L'Harmattan,1985. Maharashtra. Paysans et intouchables de l'Inde occidentale, Paris, Lieu Commun, 1987 Daya Pawar, Ma vie d'intouchable, Paris, La Découverte, 1990, Shanta Kamble & Baby Kamble, Parole de femme intouchable, Paris, Côté-femmes, 1991. Jayraj Rajput, Ma caste criminelle, Paris, L'Harmattan1996.

Guy Poitevin Rairkar Bungalow, 884 Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 411004. Tel. 020-5650383 Email : contact@ccrss.ws