Veteran CPI Leader R Nallakannu Dies In Chennai At 101

Veteran Communist Party of India (CPI) leader R Nallakannu passed away in Chennai on Wednesday at the age of 101, hospital officials said. He had been admitted to the intensive care unit of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital earlier this month after his health deteriorated. He was on life support when he suffered multi-organ failure.

Born on December 26, 1925, in Tamil Nadu, Nallakannu was one of the most respected figures in India’s leftist movement. He joined the Communist Party of India in his youth and became known for his lifelong commitment to advocating for workers’ rights, peasants, and farmers, as well as social justice issues. Over the decades, he participated in numerous protests and movements against economic inequality and for land reform, often standing at the forefront of struggles in both rural and urban areas.

Nallakannu also served in leadership roles within the CPI and was widely admired for his simplicity, discipline and dedication to the party’s ideology. Colleagues and well-wishers remembered him as a bridge between India’s independence generation and newer political activists, whose political career spanned major phases of the country’s post-independence history.