Communist leader Gour passes away

HYDERABAD: Freedom fighter and veteran Communist leader Raj Bahadur Gour passed away at a private hospital on Friday after a prolonged illness.
He was 94 and is survived by two daughters, Tamara and Clara.
National president of Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu, Gour was born in a Kayasth family of Hyderabad in 1918. He graduated in medicine from the Osmania University through the Urdu medium of instruction .Along with his close friend, revolutionary Urdu poet Maqdoom Mohiuddin, he was a pioneer of the Communist movement in the erstwhile Hyderabad state. Raj, as he was popularly known, took an active part in the Telangana Armed Struggle and fought for the cause of oppressed classes under the Nizam rule between 1946 and 1952.
Gour had joined the freedom struggle as a student and built the first trade unions in the Nizam state. He had closely worked with Telangana peasants' struggle leaders like Ravi Narayan Reddy and Maqdoom Mohiuddin and had written a famous booklet "Tricolour shall fly over" for integration of the then Nizam-ruled state with India.
He served two terms as a Member of Parliament (1952-1962 ) and remained an active member of the CPI till the very end.
As member of the Gujral Committee set up to recommend measures to guarantee a rightful place for Urdu, Gour was instrumental in ensuring that his mother tongue regained its rightful status with the establishment of the Maulana Azad National Urdu University at Hyderabad. A popular figure in literary circles, Gour was a renowned scholar and a fiery orator who could swing the mood of the public at will. He has a number of Urdu and English books to his credit.
CPI general secretary A B Bardhan described his death as "a great loss to the party".
The body of Gour will be kept at Maqdoom Bhavan, the CPI headquarters in Himayatnagar, till 11 am on Saturday before being taken in a procession to be handed over, according to his will, to his almamater , the Osmania Medical College for research purposes.