South Asia Citizens Web

These photos of the memorial meeting for Praful Bidwai were taken by Mukul Dube at the India International Centre in New Delhi

As a humanist, Praful was passionate about the concerns of the people of his homeland; as a pacifist he was an internationalist to the core. In the sudden and untimely demise of Praful, the world’s democratic, secular and progressive movements—especially those in India and Pakistan—have lost one of their most ardent campaigners.

Praful was an extraordinary human being, always deeply committed politically, starting with his days as a student at Bombay I.I.T. and also the least dogmatic and sectarian left-winger that either of us ever knew. He embodied the vision of an essentially modern Left, the Left as a secular, rationalist force, a champion of democracy in the modern world, and as opposed to the authoritarianism and repressiveness of ostensibly “leftwing” regimes as to capitalism’s wide-ranging subjugation of humanity and of nature.

I remember Praful from his pre-journalist days - the IIT days, the Magowa days - days when we were closest. This is a Praful who is not very well known and today I would like to speak about him.

INTOLERANCE THROUGH THE YEARS: 1934 to 1975 to 2015By Anil Nauriya Day Against Intolerance - 25 June 2015 The 25th and 26th of June mark not only the declaration of the internal Emergency at the behest of the Indira Gandhi regime in 1975. June 25 is also the day in 1934 when a lethal bomb was aimed at Mahatma Gandhi and his cavalcade by Hindu conservative and orthodox elements in Pune when he was on his anti-Untouchability tour. For some years, especially from 1977 onwards, (…)