Social activist Swami Agnivesh dies at 80

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 11 

Social activist and reformer Swami Agnivesh, who spent a lifetime opposing slavery and bonded labour, died on Friday just ten days short of his 81st birthday on September 21.

Doctors at the Delhi-government run Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences said he was under treatment for cirrhosis of the liver and was on ventilator support after multi organ failure. Agnivesh eventually died this evening of a cardiac arrest.

Born Vepa Shyam Rao on September 21, 1939, in an orthodox Brahmin family of Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, Agnivesh went on to make Haryana the chosen land for his political activism. His tryst with politics began with a struggle for Haryana’s fair share when the state was being separated from Punjab. Agnivesh also went on to spearhead ‘Total Prohibition’ in Haryana besides working for remunerative prices for farmers’ produce and within a few years, found himself becoming part of Jaiprakash Narayan’s call to oust then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The later leader was arrested during the Emergency and jailed for 14 months. His political career started after 1977 when he was elected to the Haryana Legislative Assembly, went on to become Education Minister in the cabinet of then Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.

A rare politician, Agnivesh, while still being minister, protested against his own government demanding a judicial enquiry into police firing in the Faridabad industrial township that killed 10 workers. He was asked to go, and that led to Agnivesh going on to devote his life to the abolition of bonded labour as the founder of

He founded the Bandhua Mukti Morcha (BMM or the Bonded Labour Liberation Front) in 1981, an organisation he was still heading when he died.

Earlier in life, Agnivesh served as lecturer in management at St Xavier’s College in Kolkata and for a while practiced law as a junior to Sabyasachi Mukherji who later became the Chief Justice of India.

In his student days, he also joined the Arya Samaj and began a life-long relationship with it before becoming a full-time worker in 1968.

Swami Agnivesh won the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award) in 2004.

The demise of Swami Agnivesh is a huge tragedy. A true warrior for humanity&tolerance. Among the bravest that I knew,willing to take huge risks for public good.Was brutalised in Jharkhand by a BJP/RSS lynch mob 2 yrs ago. Liver got damaged. RIP Agnivesh jihttps://t.co/SapzPnRznC

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) September 11, 2020