When Volontariat was created in the sixties, as an association (registered at the Registrar Office of the Territory of Pondicherry in 1966), a Board of Directors was made with various personalities of the town.

To take the lead of the association, Miss Suzanne Siauve, a researcher at the French Institute of Indology, Pondicherry, a friend of Madeleine and board member of Volontariat, proposed the nomination of his friend and colleague, Pandit Bhatt.

He was a scholar, a specialist in ancient texts written in Sanskrit. With its founder, Professor Jean Filliozat and Suzanne Siauve, he was the main driving force behind the development and the international reputation of the Institute.

Very religious Hindu and practicing, he checked, in the Hindu texts, that there was no objection to his participation, as a Brahmin, in a charitable action, within a group that welcomed, yesterday as today, disabled people without distinction of caste or religion.

He devoted himself in the development of Volontariat, insuring a daily presence, in the evening after his work at the Institute, until his retirement he took in Chennai, in the family of one nephew, he housed near the temple in Mylapore.

He was appointed Honorary President of Volontariat, for life, thanks to the great service rendered during all these years.

He passed away on July 18, 2009, at the age of 88 in Chennai, away from his intellectual (French Institute) and affective (Volontariat) centers. Mr Bhatt sorely missed and, primarily, to Madeleine with whom he shared a lot.

He has shown to everyone that the concern about other people’s well-being is not a question of caste or religion.