South Asia Citizens Web

A legendary human rights activist of India, K Balagopal, General Secretary, Human Rights Forum died of a sudden heart attack in Hyderabd on 8 October 2009. He was 57.

Goodbye Balagopal, we will miss you immensely but thank you for giving us the freedom to not have to make false choices.

At first it seemed a huge, obscene lie, the news of his death. It did not seem possible - he had been busy as always the weekend before, at a human rights convention in Ananthapur, to mark 10 years of Human Rights Forum the organization he and others started in 1998. That had become a pattern almost, that he would leave for the districts in the weekends, to enquire into rights violations - land grabbing by the state or private agencies for special economic zones; hazardous open cast mining, (…)

9 October 2009
APDR is stunned to learn the sudden and untimely demise of Dr. K. Balagopal at only 52. Dr. Balagopal was one of the few outstanding personalities in post seventy India who shaped and build up a formidable voice and organisation for civil liberties, democratic rights and human rights. His insight in the theory and practice of rights movement and the issues involved was reflected in a large number of incisive and thought provoking articles. These articles contributed (…)

People’s Union for Civil Liberties
9 October 2009
The PUCL is bereaved at the untimely demise of one of our finest civil liberties activists and advocates Shri K Balagopal of Human Rights Forum, AP. For the Human Rights movement the loss of Shri Balagopal at this juncture is very severe, especially when a war is being fought in this country between the Maoists and the various States and the Central Government. His boldness, understanding and interventions were needed most in the present (…)