Bernard Bate (Barney to all) was a profoundly gifted scholar of Tamil language and an anthropologist. He was currently a Humanities Fellow at Stanford-- while being the HoS of Anthropology at Yale-NUS in Singapore. His sudden passing has left all of us who knew him and admired him and loved him in profound shock. He was 52. This is a great loss. Just a few days ago, he gave a wonderful talk at Berkeley on Tamil oratory.
Barney visited CM often and he commented with glee and I know that he liked the spirit and style of our work. Here is a tweet that captures his spirit well.
Yo, #TedCruz, I got your #NewYorkValues right here!
— Bernard Bate (@BernardBate) January 15, 2016
We will miss him. Our hearts go out to his family and friends.
Thanks for sharing news of this video. I am stunned by Barney's sudden death. It was comforting, sad and inspiring to see and hear him speaking with characteristic eloquence in English and Tamil at Berkeley, just a short while ago --and sharing his exciting work on Subramanya Bharati and the birth of Tamil modernity /oratory/political discourse.