Mumbai: Dr G G Parikh, a veteran of India's freedom struggle who donned different roles as a student leader, social worker, khadi revivalist, and a medical doctor in his long and rich life, passed away in Mumbai on Gandhi Jayanti day at the age of 100.
About Dr G G Parikh
One of the last of the Gandhians who worked with the Mahatma, Parikh was a student at St Xavier's College during the 1942 'Quit India's movement.
Influenced by Gandhi's ideas, Parikh embraced the Mahatma's philosophies in every facet of his life, embracing the principle of non-violence, allowing himself to be arrested in 1942, establishing a centre in the city in 1946 to promote khadi and village industries, promoting the cooperative movement, and remaining a staunch advocate of socialist and secular politics.
In 1969, he and his wife, Mangalaben Parikh, established the Yusuf Meherali Centre at Tara village in Raigad in 1960 to empower tribal communities.
He remained active till the end of the tenth decade of his life. In October, 2024, he attended the function to inaugurate the restoration plans for the Khadi Bhandar store in D N Road, now known as the Mumbai Village Industries Association (MVIA) of which he was the chairperson.
As a firm believer in democracy and the power of the vote, Parikh exercised his right in every election. In May 2024, he arrived a voting centre in the city on an wheelchair. He spoke to our reporter, recalling the days of his first arrest when he planned picketing at the Churchgate railway station in Mumbai and tried to stop trains from operating.
Parikh passed away this morning around 5.45 am at his home in Nana Chowk. G G, as his friends and fellow Gandhians called, had celebrated his 100th birthday in December 2024.
In a message from Sevagram Ashram, Wardha, Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, who is taking part in the Samvidhan Satyagraha Padyatra currently, said they have lost the 'Saint of the Socialists' on the jayanti of the Mahatma whom he venerated, whose values he imbibed and strived to live by.
Tushar Gandhi and Feroze Mithiborwala, who are members of the Human Bharat Ke Log, the group involved in the Padyatra for the country's Constitution, said in a statement: 'In a way, we think, Dr G G chose to leave us on the day of his own choosing, a rare happening indeed. Dr G G lived the way he chose to, and left us on the 2nd of October, Gandhi Jayanti, the day of his hero…..There is a message here for all of us……Our country has lost a true Bharat Ratna today….'
'He was among the last of the generation of the freedom fighters. His legacy will live on in his work, in his speeches and writings and in his spirit which will continue to guide us in these difficult times for our nation and the world', the statement added.
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