{ DR GG PARIKH } 1924-2025 Veteran Gandhian leader, freedom fighter Parikh dies at 101

It was befitting that the last of the legendary Gandhians should die on Gandhi Jayanti. Dr GG Parikh who passed away on Thursday morning was one of those rare figures whose death at the age of 101 will be mourned not just by the grey eminences talking about a ‘second’ freedom movement, but also by hundreds of young grassroots workers for whom he was an inspiration, and as evidenced by many of them breaking down at his funeral in Mumbai.

- Jyoti Punwani

Dr GG Parikh

Influenced by Marx as a young man, GG chose Gandhi as his ideal not only because of his disillusionment with the practice of communism in India and abroad, but because he felt Gandhi's ideology suited India far better. After his release from jail during the 1942 Quit India movement, he, along with some of the others jailed with him, founded the socialist wing of the Congress party. He practised what he preached, incorporating Gandhi’s ideals in everyday life: wearing khadi, choosing self-sufficiency by earning a living as a doctor, and giving back to society by setting up the celebrated Yusuf Meherally Centre at Tara, Panvel.