Celebrating Friendship: A collective tribute to Smitu Kothari

This article recalls the personal and professional contributions of Smitu Kothari to social justice. Kothari died in March 2009 after suffering a stroke. He could celebrate life while working closely with the harsh realities of injustice. He was a global citizen and yet also a man of his community, whose greatest love was to sing, to cook, and be with his family and friends. One of Kothari's weaknesses, was that he was passionate about too many issues and wanted to give his all to all of them, a physical impossibility at the best of times, and in the process did not always manage to fulfill what he promised. Grassroots resistance to development was central to Kothari's intellectual and political work.