Alone among commentators, Yogendra Yadav mourned the passing away of Kishen Pattnayak, aged 74, on September 27. It wouldn’t have surprised or pained the deceased.

The man is difficult to recall and has little to show as ‘achievement’. But he has left behind a vast group of followers who are even less known than him. They continue to draw inspiration from this remarkable man.

Pattnayak was connected with the National Alliance of People’s Movements [NAPM] which agitates in favour of environment and local communities. Agitating, was how he ended a life that began in Orissa, in 1930. He was a socialist in his youth and a follower of Ram Manohar Lohia. He was elected to the parliament at a very young age, but for just one term.

Dissimilarities with other political ideologues begin there. Till he turned 60, Pattnayak refused to accept the perks and privileges of an ex-MP. He and his wife, Vani chose to have no children in order to devote themselves to public causes. Throughout an active political life, he declined several offers to ‘suitably’ settle him in some office or the other. Long before Mandal did, he discerned the need to do something about the inequities the lower castes are subject to. When he died, he left no property in his name.

As he grew older, he was drawn to the truth of India as enunciated by Gandhi. Not much of his writing is available on the net. But an idea of how he viewed the current Indian situation can be found in an an article he wrote in 2003: “… prosperity without any limit, means basically the centralizing of wealth and production. Modern technology specializes in centralizing wealth and its production. So ending inequality will necessitate a radical change in the use of technologies. The leftists of the twentieth century, the socialists and communists could not resolve this dilemma. So they met a dead end.”