Well-known human rights activist and former professor of physics at Vadodara’s MS University Professor J.S. Bandukwala died at his residence in Vadodara on Saturday morning.
He was 77 and is survived by a son and a daughter. He was living alone.
Former chief of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Prof. Bandukwala had been suffering from diabetes and cardiac ailments.
He had also served as the president of the MS University Students’ Union in 1981 before he joined the teaching job.
In 2002, his house was attacked by rioters. A vocal critic of communalism, Prof. Bandukwala strived for peace and communal harmony in the city. As an activist, he was very vocal about ghettoisation of Muslims and other marginalised sections of society.
He fought against the ghettoisation of Muslims when the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) proposed to relocate some slums in the city.
In a letter to the State Chief Minister in 2018, he called the relocation apartheid against the minorities, who, according to him, were being forced to live in certain pockets in the city.
As a human rights activist, Prof. Bandukwala always raised his voice against communal elements in all communities and strived to work for harmony and an inclusive society.
He also promoted education among the minority community in the city.
