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Renowned Indian psychotherapist Sudhir Kakar, who is recognized for his groundbreaking research on sexuality and the Indian psyche, went away and left a lasting legacy.

His evening ritual of the cigar and vodka in the beach a 10-minute drive from his palatial traditional old Goan home in Benaulim in South Goa was a signifier of his fine, aesthetic taste. For many years since he moved to Goa, this was his regular ritual whenever he was in town. For Sudhir Kakar, one of India’s leading psychoanalysts, was busy travelling across continents, writing residencies, and being felicitated both in India and abroad.

Sudhir Kakar was someone I knew before we ever met. I used his seminal work “Intimate Relations: Exploring Indian Sexuality” (1990) as a reference when I worked on my doctorate on the androgynous incarnations of Shiva as Ardhanarisvara. More than thirty years ago, Kakar was the first Indian psychotherapist to break through with the taboo topic of sexuality. Kakar was the one who investigated the background and societal perceptions of sexuality in Indian society. In India, Kakar was largely responsible for introducing the impact of religion, social conventions, and colonial heritage on personal relationships and sexual expression.

“The Inner World: A Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India” was another significant book I mentioned. This research offered a fresh viewpoint on Western psychoanalysis while also offering a new window into the Indian psyche.
With a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Vienna, he has received numerous honors and notable awards for his works. However, there was one specific area of his writing where we agreed. And that was sexuality, gender, and Kamasutra.

He was a formidable figure in the field of psychoanalysis, but he was not without detractors. But with over 20 non-fiction works and over ten fiction novels, Kakar was able to hold his own and even win the Goethe Medal and the Order of Merit, Germany’s highest honors.

My favorite books by him are The Devil Take Love and The Crimson Throne, but Young Tagore: The Making of a Genius gave us a fresh perspective on Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

Because of his much younger wife Katharina Kakar, a highly skilled artist with a doctorate in comparative religion, I began to come to know him more over the years.

The last time I saw him and his spouse was during the second week of February at their Benaulim home. Kakar, a man with a strong build, a wide forehead, and a shock of thick, curly hair who typically wore long kurtas over form-fitting churidars, seemed like a shadow of the man he once was.

His features were keen and rather thin, yet his shock of curly hair and sharp features gave him the appearance of a Roman patrician. His complexion had darkened a few shades, and his kurta hung like a sack over his slender frame. Nevertheless, he maintained his composure and led a lively discussion about the significant batch of papers he was working on. He was not surrounded by any hint of gloom, but neither was there any smoking of cigars nor drinking of vodka.He promised to get back to me after consulting with Wendy Doniger on some advice and suggestions for my upcoming book, which was also closely associated with his work. However, what was odd was that he never returned, which was highly rare for someone who always did so and fulfilled his promise.

https://www.amazon.in/Books-Sudhir-Kakar/s?rh=n%3A976389031%2Cp_27%3ASudhir+Kakar