Rajiv Goswami (12 June 1971 - 24 February 2004) was a commerce student at the

Deshbandhu College Deshbandhu College ( hi, देशबंधु कॉलेज) is a college established in 1952 and affiliated to University of Delhi. Deshbandhu College was established in 1953 by the Ministry of Rehabilitation, as a memorial to freedom fig ...

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

who came into prominence when he attempted

self-immolation The term self-immolation broadly refers to acts of altruistic suicide, otherwise the giving up of one's body in an act of sacrifice. However, it most often refers specifically to autocremation, the act of sacrificing oneself by setting oneself o ...

on 19 September 1990 to protest against Prime Minister

V.P. Singh Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008), shortened to V. P. Singh, was an Indian politician who was the 7th Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda. He is India's only prime minister to ...

's implementation of the

Mandal Commission The ''Mandal Commission'' or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educa ...

recommendations for job reservations for backward castes in India. Goswami spearheaded a formidable movement against the Mandal Commission and his act of self-immolation led to larger protests and a series of self-immolations by college students throughout India. During Mandal commission agitation, the

AIIMS The All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is a group of autonomous government public medical universities of higher education under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare , Government of India. These institutes ha ...

intersection in Delhi was temporarily renamed by students to Rajiv Chowk in a celebration of his act. Subsequently, he was elected to position of the Delhi University Students' Union president. He later gave up active politics due to health problems and started his own business. In the following years he was frequently in and out of hospitals because of severe health complications resulting from his self-immolation bid. He was a resident of Gomti Apartments at Kalkaji in New Delhi. He died on 24 February 2004 at the age of 33 in Holy Family Hospital

Okhla Okhla is a suburban village located near Okhla barrage in the South East Delhi district of Delhi near the border between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Its nearest industrial area called commonly as Okhla Industrial Area (OIA) or Okhla Industrial Est ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. His mother, Nandrani Goswami, was one of the speakers at anti reservation protests in 2006.

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Rajiv Goswami attempting self immolationThe man who sparked anti-Mandal agitation
2004 suicides Suicides by self-immolation Reservation in India Presidents of Delhi University Students Union People from Delhi Suicides in India 1971 births Student politics in India {{India-activist-stub

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