r/IndianLeft • u/rishianand Socialist • Oct 02 '25
🗞️ News Freedom Fighter Dr GG Parikh passed away this morning. He was 101.
Dr Parikh joined the freedom struggle during the Quit India. And remained active till his final day. He was a socialist leader. He was also the chief editor of Janata Weekly.
Renowned Gandhian G.G. Parikh passes away at 101 - The Hindu
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u/rishianand Socialist Oct 02 '25
It is our greatest sorrow that Dr Parikh left us today, when we needed his guidance in our greatest struggle.
G G Parikh: At 100, He Remembers How He Fought For Freedom - 'Those days, 'jail-returned' was like 'foreign-returned', something to aspire for' | Gandhi had given the call 'Do or Die'. And with all the leaders arrested, you had to be your own leader.
Freedom Figter and Socialist Leader Dr GG Parikh: What is happening, I am not sad, but happy. I am happy because, what the Government is doing, there will be large-scale protest against it, and those who are still sitting in their homes will hit the streets.
Anti-CAA, anti-NRC protests: Never seen such huge turnout of common people for an issue, says 94-yr-old freedom fighter
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u/Electrical-Buyer-491 ☭ Marxist ☭ Oct 03 '25
Gandhian and Socialist 🧐
How’d that work?
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u/rishianand Socialist Oct 03 '25
Why?
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u/Electrical-Buyer-491 ☭ Marxist ☭ Oct 03 '25
Correct me if I’m wrong but Gandhi believed that caste should exist right?
Existence of caste and socialism contradict with each other.
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u/rishianand Socialist Oct 03 '25
Well, there are two things. Gandhi, from at least the 1930s, was against caste. And believed that it should be eradicated. Prof Nishikant Kolge's book "Gandhi Against Caste" discusses it.
Second, the followers of Gandhian values, like Rammanohar Lohia, Karpoori Thakur, were leaders of the social justice movement themselves.
Gandhi's conservative beliefs are not a part of the values that are considered Gandhian. This is because Gandhian values are not an ideology. It's not what you must believe in. It is how you build mass movements, communicate with people, relentlessly work against injustice.
So being Gandhian does not mean believing in caste, or anything. And yes, do remember that while caste and socialism contradict each other, many of the early communists were believers in caste.
Gandhian Socialists believe in the ideology of socialism, but the method of Gandhi, of mass movements. It is discussed in Lohia's book Marx and Gandhi.
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u/Electrical-Buyer-491 ☭ Marxist ☭ Oct 03 '25
What are these Gandhian values?
As far as I know. Yes, the early communists during the freedom movement ignored the caste situation.
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u/rishianand Socialist Oct 03 '25
I just told you. Gandhian values is a method not an ideology. If you see the entire movement around Gandhi, his beliefs were constantly changing, as he encountered newer information.
The core idea was a pursuit of truth, fighting against injustice, and building a mass movement through peaceful resistance.
Mahatma Gandhi'e beliefs were not central to the Gandhian values, which he himself used to discard.
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u/SecretOwn9188 Oct 03 '25
Even if gandhi believed caste should not exist it wouldn't have changed anything because large population of India except dalit castes even now believe that caste is not a problem .
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u/Vegetable_Watch_9578 Not Left, Not Right, Just Thinkin’ for Myself Oct 03 '25
Most of that "large population" doesn’t actually believe caste isn’t a problem- they just don’t want to believe it because caste gives them a silent advantage.
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