Editorial, A FRIEND, PHILOSOPHER AND GUIDE, in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 December 2014 issue, Vol. 10, Part 2, No. 23

A FRIEND, PHILOSOPHER AND GUIDE

of all of us liberty-lovers and rights-buffs is no more now. Justice Krishna Iyer, was all along his life, an indomitable fighter for humane socialism, an indefatigable human rights activist and a world-famous jurist. This editor very much remembers his kind and cooperative attitude towards all things progressive and gratefully recollects how he has been very much associated with the activities of the Marxist Study Forum convened by this editor and came at his own expense to Hyderabad to inaugurate a national seminar on Revolution and Socialism held by the Forum in November 1996. In his illuminating foreword to the first volume of this editor’s 'In Retrospect' [Sagas of heroism and sacrifice of Indian revolutionaries during freedom struggle] he had paid tributes to the “glorious procession of self-sacrificing spirits with radical vision and liberationist passion who lit the flame of struggle for Indian independence,” acknowledged that “our freedom from foreign rule is mainly achieved thanks to immense sacrifices and matchless acts of [heroism] by innumerable national revolutionaries. Even the non-violent movement under Mahatma Gandhi’s hegemony derived its inspiration and potential for success from the great who were tortured and hanged;” and finally expressed his parting poignant thought that “Had the succeeding Left activists, nationalist politicos and crowd of socialist pretenders kept alive a spark of the vision, mission and passion of the galaxy of revolutionaries covered in this book [Bhagat Singh and his ilk rising against all forms colonial], the merchants of money-making, seat-seeking enterprise and brokers of power would not have promoted the moral collapse and re-colonization collaboration we behold now in operation in India. India’s enemies are as much within as without.” He always lived up to the views, ideals and duties as mentioned succinctly in those lines. This editor particularly acknowledges his valuable aid in consenting to be one of our editorial advisers and contributing several educative articles for publication in this journal. We mourn his demise very much, but he lived a full and complete life and fell like a ripe fruit. As the great sloka runs: "Jaatasya hi dhruvo mrutyuh, Dhruvam janma mrutasyaca, tasmaad aparihaaryarthea na tvam Sochitumarhasi" - that way one should not worry too much and certainly 'he will be reborn' i.e. the zeal and spirit of service to humanity he cherished and displayed will always be living and his inspiration will give birth to innumerable activists for the cause of human rights and social justice and to achieve the ideal of humanitarian democratic socialism.   §§§