‘Nagaland’s Gandhi’ Natwar Thakkar dies at 86

The mortal remains were being taken to his workplace in Nagaland’s Chuchuyimlang town. The last rites are likely to be performed on Monday.
Natwar Thakkar
Natwar Thakkar

GUWAHATI: Well-known Gandhian Natwar Thakkar, who was called by his admirers “Nagaland’s Gandhi”, died of old age ailments at a Guwahati hospital on Sunday morning.

He was 86 and a recipient of the Padma Shree award. His wife, Lentina Ao, also a Gandhian and Padma Shree; son Aotoshi and two daughters were by his side when he breathed his last. Aotoshi said Thakkar
died at 7:10 am at the Apollo Hospital in the city.

“He was recovering but suddenly his BP started dropping and later, the kidneys failed,” Aotoshi told TNIE.

The mortal remains were being taken to his workplace in Nagaland’s Chuchuyimlang town. The last rites are likely to be performed on Monday.

Thakkar had fallen ill on September 9 at Chuchuyimlang and was hospitalised in Nagaland’s commercial hub Dimapur. On September 19, he was shifted to Guwahati.

The Naga Hoho, which is Nagaland’s apex tribal organisation, has mourned the demise.

“The loss is irreparable. It will be difficult to find a person like him among the Nagas. Till his last, he had been working very hard to bring peace and development to Nagaland,” Naga Hoho chief Chuba Ozukum said.

The Gandhian was chosen as a member of a committee, constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for the countrywide year-long celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Thakkar, who hailed from Maharashtra, came to Nagaland in 1955 at the age of 23 and made the state his home. He was the founder of Nagaland Gandhi Ashram and two institutes – National Institute of
Electronics & Information Technology and Mahatma Gandhi Academy of Human Development. The social worker’s relentless efforts to spread Gandhian philosophy and peace in the insurgency-ravaged state had earned him the sobriquet Nagaland’s Gandhi.

When he came to Nagaland, the Naga insurgency movement was getting strengthened. Those days, the militants viewed every non-local in Nagaland as a “spy” of “India”. They threatened him to leave the
state but he was least perturbed. He kept himself busy by assisting the locals in various development and
income-generating activities while the locals appealed to the militants not to harm him. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had encouraged the Gandhian to keep staying in the village and continue with his work. Nehru also allotted funds to promote his initiatives.

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