Kobad Ghandy


Kobad Ghandy is an Indian communist politician 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. A politburo member of the underground Communist Party of India, he is jailed since 2009.

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. Ghandy attended The Doon School and later St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He went to England 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. He was the founding member of Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights. He spent the late 1970s and early 1980s in Nagpur, working as a CPDR organizer.

Party leader

Ghandy became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India People's War in 1981. When the CPI 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, Prachandra and Baburam Bhattarai.
Ghandy was elevated to the Politburo of the CPI at the 2007 Unity Congress. He was placed in charge of the CPI Central Committee sub-committee on mass organisations and was responsible for the production of English-language party materials.

Arrest

He was arrested in South Delhi om 17 September 2009 while undergoing treatment for cancer. His arrest was made public on September 21, 2009. Per a statement by CPI 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.

Personal life

Kobad Ghandy married Anuradha Shanbag in 1977 She was also a Central Committee member of CPI. 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 film Chakravyuh, portrayed by Om Puri, is said to be based upon Kobad Ghandy.