OBITUARY : P. Govinda Pillai

With the passing away of Comrade P. Govinda Pillai (1926–2013), we have lost one of the leading Marxist intellectuals of India, who made his mark in a wide variety of intellectual fields and disciplines from Marxist aesthetics to the history of science. PG, as he was affectionately called, was also instrumental in shaping the public opinion in Kerala through his work as a journalist, cultural and political activist, orator and teacher, who could make even the most abstract of concepts simple and comprehensible to the common man. His simplicity, openness and frank demeanour endeared him to all sections of the population, and he had a very large circle of friends that cut across political, cultural and economic boundaries. He was one of the few intellectual leaders who was accessible to young people and was always sensitive to their ideas.