Tribute to Indian Association leading light

Reporter: Robbie MacDonald
Date published: 25 March 2014


TRIBUTES have been paid to a leading figure in Oldham’s Indian Association, who has died aged 85.

Vasumati Kunverba Sisodia, who lived in Royton and then Shaw, suffered a major stroke earlier this month and died on Thursday.

Family and relatives from India had travelled to see her in hospital prior to her death.

Mrs Sisodia grew up in a village in Gujurat and moved to Oldham in the 1960s. She was active in numerous events over the decades, within the Indian community and beyond.

Mrs Sisodia’s late husband, Jagatsinh, moved to Oldham in 1963 and became one of the association’s founding members and its first president.

Mrs Sisodia and her children followed him to Oldham in 1965. Over the years she became a key figure in the Indian Association and also in Oldham’s wider community and civic life.

She leaves four children — Vinakuvar Medtia, Hanskuvar Rathod, Bharatsinh Sisodia and Ashoksinh Sisodia.

Bhartbhai, the association’s current president, said: “My mum was focused on the community and was non-political. She had a slogan of ‘help ever, hurt never’. That’s what she believed in.”

Mrs Sisodia’s ashes will be taken to India and symbolically scattered in the River Ganges.

Mrs Sisodia’s funeral events began on Saturday morning at her home in Priestley Way, Shaw.

A ceremony was held at Hollinwood Cemetery later in the morning followed by tributes at the Indian Association Community Centre on Schofield Street, Oldham, on Sunday evening.