Communist leader Prof Kishore Kumar Theckedath passes away
Credit: X/@KapilHPatil
Mumbai: Eminent scholar, thinker, writer, teacher and Communist leader Prof Dr Kishore Kumar Theckedath—who spearheaded several agitations from the sixties to the nineties — passed away in Mumbai on Saturday night.
He was 89.
He is survived by his wife Shobha, younger son Dhananjay, also a college teacher, daughters-in-law Manjula and Deepa, and grand-daughters Alyona and Rihaana.
Dr Theckedath was a CPI(M) Maharashtra State Secretariat and Mumbai District Secretariat Member and former President and/or General Secretary of University and College teachers associations in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra.
He was jailed for 19 months during the Emergency from 1975-77
Theckedath's family originally hailed from Ernakulam district of Kerala, although he was born and brought up in Mumbai.
His father was a textile mill worker in Mumbai and his mother was a homemaker. He was born on November 8, 1936, studied in Ruia College in Mumbai, did his M.Sc. in both Mathematics and Physics, and then completed his Ph.D.
He taught in Wilson College, Mumbai, for many years until he took voluntary retirement in 1994.
He was elected the founder General Secretary of the Bombay University and Teachers Union (BUCTU) in 1966; then elected the founder General Secretary of the Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (MFUCTO) in 1975, and was also elected as the President of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (AIFUCTO) in 1987.
The last rites were held in Borivli in Mumbai which was attended by attended by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Dr Ashok Dhawale, former State Secretariat member and teachers union veteran leader Dr Tapati Mukhopadhyay, State Secretariat members Dr S K Rege, Shailendra Kamble, and Prachi Hatiwlekar, state control commission chairperson and teachers union veteran leader Madhu Paranjape, state committee members Armaity Irani, Preethy Sekhar, Chandrakant Bhojgar, Ramchandra Mhatre, and several leaders of the Party and the teachers movement.
“With his passing the Communist movement, the teachers’ movement, and progressive circles across Maharashtra and India have lost a towering figure whose influence shaped generations,” said Dr Dhawale.