India, Oct. 3 -- It was befitting that the last of the legendary Gandhians should die on Gandhi Jayanti. Dr GG Parikh who passed away on Thursday morning was one of those rare figures whose death at the age of 101 will be mourned not just by the grey eminences talking about a 'second' freedom movement, but also by hundreds of young grassroots workers for whom he was an inspiration, and as evidenced by many of them breaking down at his funeral in Mumbai.

Influenced by Marx as a young man, GG chose Gandhi as his ideal not only because of his disillusionment with the practice of communism in India and abroad, but because he felt Gandhi's ideology suited India far better. After his release from jail during the 1942 Quit India movement, he, a...