Kobad Ghandy (born 1951) is an Indian
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
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
A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states.
Names
The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...
member of the underground
Communist Party of India (Maoist)
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a Marxism–Leninism–Maoism, Marxist–Leninist–Maoist banned Communism, communist political party and militant organization in India which aims to overthrow the "semi-colonial and semi-feudal In ...
in 2009. He was acquitted and released after almost a decade in jail in 2019.
Early life
Kobad Ghandy was born to Nergis and Adi. Adi was a senior finance executive in
Glaxo
GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the tent ...
. He hails from a wealthy
Parsi
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...
family in
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
. Ghandy attended
The Doon School
The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mode ...
and later
St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic, autonomous higher education institution run by the
Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on January 2, 1869. The college is affil ...
. He went to
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
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.
Return to India
Upon his return to India, he became active in revolutionary politics in
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
.
[''Indian Vanguard''. ]
Betrayal led to Kobad Ghandy’s arrest: CPI MAOIST
' He was the founding member of Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights. He spent the late 1970s and early 1980s in
Nagpur
Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...
, working as a CPDR organizer.
Party leader
Ghandy became a member of the
Central Committee
Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...
of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War
Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925.
Hi ...
in 1981.
[ When the CPI(Maoist) was formed in 2004, he remained a Central Committee member of the new merged party.][ Ghandy reportedly participated in a 2005 meeting with the Nepalese Maoist leadership in Delhi, along with ]Kishenji
Mallojula Koteswara Rao (26 November 1954 – 24 November 2011), commonly known by his ''nom de guerre'' Kishenji (), was an Indian political leader who was a Politburo and Central Military Commission member of the Communist Party of India (Ma ...
, Prachanda
Pushpa Kamal Dahal ( ne, पुष्पकमल दाहाल; born 11 December 1954), also widely known by his nom de guerre Prachanda (, ; meaning "fierce"), is a Nepalese politician serving as the current Prime Minister of Nepal. He pr ...
and Baburam Bhattarai
Baburam Bhattarai ( ne, बाबुराम भट्टराई, ; born 18 June 1954), also known by his nom de guerre Laaldhwoj, is a Nepalese politician and former Prime Minister, who presently serves as leader of the Nepal Socialist Part ...
.
Ghandy was elevated to the Politburo of the CPI(Maoist) at the 2007 Unity Congress.[ 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.][ 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''.''
]
Arrest
He was arrested in South Delhi
South Delhi is an administrative district of the National Capital Territory of Delhi in India with its headquarters in Saket. Administratively, the district is divided into three subdivisions, Saket, Hauz Khas, and Mehrauli. It is bounded by t ...
by the om 17 September 2009 while undergoing treatment for cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
.[ His arrest was made public on September 21, 2009.][ Per a statement by CPI(Maoist) the arrest had occurred after Ghandy had been betrayed by a party courier.][ Ghandy had made a visit to the guerrilla zone prior to his arrest.][ He was released from prison on bail in 2019, after serving a majority of his jail term in Vishakapatnam Central Jail.
]
Personal life
Kobad Ghandy married Anuradha Shanbag in 1977 She was also a Central Committee member of CPI(Maoist). She died of cerebral malaria in April 2008 in the jungles of Dandakaranya in Central India.
Popular culture
The character 'Govind Suryavanshi' in the 2012 Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
film ''Chakravyuh
The Padmavyūha ( sa, पद्मव्यूह) or Chakravyūha ( sa, चक्रव्यूह) is a military formation used to surround enemies, depicted in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. It resembles a labyrinth of multiple defensiv ...
'', portrayed by Om Puri
Om Prakash Puri (18 October 1950 – 6 January 2017) was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Bengali, Kannada,English, Punjabi and one Telugu film, as well as independent and art films and also starred ...
, is said to be based upon Kobad Ghandy.
See also
*Chhatradhar Mahato
Chhatradhar Mahato ( bn, ছত্রধর মাহাতো) (born 1964) is an Indian political activist and convict from Lalgarh, West Bengal. He was the convener of the ''Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee'' ( – PCAPA) dur ...
* Jagdish Mahto
References
External links
From jail, Kobad Ghandy submits paper on inclusive growth to New Delhi seminar , ICAWPI
International Campaign Against War on the People in India
20 October 2010
Letter to the Editor - Kobad Ghandy, one of the senior-most leaders of the CPI (Maoist), remembers his wife and comrade Anuradha Ghandy, the only woman in the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoists), who died in April 2008 of cerebral malaria. , OPEN Magazine
8 May 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghandy, Kobad
Communist Party of India (Maoist) politicians
1951 births
The Doon School alumni
Living people
Parsi people from Mumbai
Politicians from Mumbai
20th-century Indian politicians
Inmates of Tihar Jail
St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni
Alumni of the University of Cambridge