Prof. K. Gopal Iyer (75) passed away in Chandigarh on 19th October 2017. He retired from Punjab University’s Sociology Department in 2002, where he had been teaching since 1978. He was not just an academic as he has been relating himself with people’s movements all over the country. His contribution to the understanding of land reforms in India after five decades of the land reforms law in various states in India is the first of its kind and has vividly described the fallacy in the conceptualisation of land reform legislations and inactive implementation of the laws across the country. He took interest in understanding the problems of rural poor and his published studies are on the bonded labour system, human rights violation of migrant workers, peasant movements, farmer’s movements, and land reforms and so on. He extensively travelled to Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and other parts of the country to understand the popular movements. He led a very simple life and he is often referred by his friends as an “organic intellectual, who lived among the people, understood their language and culture and shared their suffering with the world”. He enjoyed wide respect from progressive thinkers and among left circles. CPI (ML) Liberation pays its homage to Prof. Gopal Iyer.
