Kobad Ghandy

Kobad Ghandy (born 1951) is an Indian communist activist and ideologue. He became involved in revolutionary politics whilst a student in England in the 1970s, and worked as an organizer for the civil rights movement in India. He was a founding member of the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights. He was arrested on the accusation of being a politburo member of the underground Communist Party of India (Maoist) in 2009. He was acquitted and released after almost a decade in jail in 2019. [1][2]

Kobad Ghandy
Personal details
Born1951 (age 71–72)
Bombay, India
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1983; died 2008)​
EducationThe Doon School
St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
University of Cambridge

Early life

Kobad Ghandy was born to Nergis and Adi. Adi was a senior finance executive in Glaxo. He hails from a wealthy Parsi family in Mumbai.[3] Ghandy attended The Doon School and later St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.[4] He went to Cambridge University, England[5] to pursue a course in chartered accountancy but got initiated in radical politics, was deeply influenced by the revolutionary ideology and returned to India with his course unfinished.[6]

Return to India

Upon his return to India, he became active in revolutionary politics in Maharashtra.[7] He was the founding member of Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights.[8] He spent the late 1970s and early 1980s in Nagpur, working as a CPDR organizer.[9]

Party leader

Ghandy became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War in 1981.[7] When the CPI(Maoist) was formed in 2004, he remained a Central Committee member of the new merged party.[7] Ghandy reportedly participated in a 2005 meeting with the Nepalese Maoist leadership in Delhi, along with Kishenji, Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai.[10]

Ghandy was elevated to the Politburo of the CPI(Maoist) at the 2007 Unity Congress.[7] He was placed in charge of the CPI(M) Central Committee sub-committee on mass organisations and was responsible for the production of English-language party materials.[7] He was expelled from the party in December 2021 for his anti-party statement in his book Fractured Freedom: A Prison Memoir, over charges of straying from the party line of dialectical materialism, embracing spiritualism and bourgeois idealism. [11][12]

Arrest

He was arrested in South Delhi[13] by the om 17 September 2009 while undergoing treatment for cancer.[14][7] His arrest was made public on September 21, 2009.[7] Per a statement by CPI(Maoist) the arrest had occurred after Ghandy had been betrayed by a party courier.[7] Ghandy had made a visit to the guerrilla zone prior to his arrest.[7] He was released from prison on bail in 2019, after serving a majority of his jail term in Vishakapatnam Central Jail. [15]

Personal life

Kobad Ghandy married Anuradha Shanbag in 1977[6][16][17] She was also a Central Committee member of CPI(Maoist).[6] She died of cerebral malaria in April 2008[6] in the jungles of Dandakaranya in Central India.

The character 'Govind Suryavanshi' in the 2012 Bollywood film Chakravyuh, portrayed by Om Puri, is said to be based upon Kobad Ghandy.[18]

See also

References
  1. "Sedition case: Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy gets bail". The Times of India. 16 October 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  2. "73 yr old Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy gets bail". Deccan Herald. 14 October 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  3. Tripathi, Rahul; Mohan, Vishwa (24 September 2009). "Cancer landed Kobad in police net". The Times of India. Retrieved 24 September 2009.
  4. "India's unlikely Maoist revolutionary". BBC News. 23 September 2009.
  5. "14-day judicial remand for Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy". India Today. PTI. 15 October 2009. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  6. Rahul Pandita (26 September 2009). "The Rebel". Open magazine. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
  7. Indian Vanguard. Betrayal led to Kobad Ghandy’s arrest: CPI MAOIST
  8. Punwani, Jyoti (22 September 2009). "The Kobad Ghandy I knew". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  9. "Maoist who went to school in Doon, London". Indian Express. 23 September 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
  10. CNN-IBN. Be practical, hold talks: Nepal Maoists to Kishenji
  11. Soumitra Bose (2 December 2021). "Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy suspended for 'anti-party' views | Nagpur News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  12. "CPI(Maoist) expels Kobad Ghandy, accuses him of 'spiritualism', distancing himself from outfit". The Indian Express. 2 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  13. B Vijay Murty and Karan Choudhury (22 September 2009). "Top Maoist leader arrested in Delhi". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 26 September 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
  14. Rahul Tripathi and Vishwa Mohan (24 September 2009). "Cancer landed Kobad in police net". Times of India. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
  15. "73 yr old Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy gets bail". Deccan Herald. 14 October 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  16. Kobad Ghandy (8 May 2010). "Letter to the Editor". Open magazine. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  17. "Honest reflections". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  18. "Om Puri plays Maoist Kobad Ghandy - The Times of India". The Times Of India.
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