Messages Received from National and

International Organizations and

Friends

“It’s like saying goodbye to a man who was a movement.”

── THE TIMES OF INDIA

“The community that constitutes all of us – progressive, left, socialist, those fighting for justice, rights for the people of this country – has lost one of its important members with the passing away of Vinod.”

Kavita SrivastavaPeople’s Union for Civil Liberties

“Vinod Raina combined in himself qualities of a practitioner and a thought provider; a pragmatic lobbyist for education and a visionary. He had an obsessive concern for education, and breathed it to the last.”

Prof. Shantha SinhaFormer Chairperson of NCPCR

“A man with great insight and grand vision who brings his values and influences to the suffering regions around the world.”

Leo LinHao Ran Foundation

Taiwan

Dr. Anuradha and Kamal ChenoyJawaharlal Nehru University

New Delhi

“Vinod with his comrades paved the way for the space that we use of today for expressing our ideas. His loss is irreplaceable in the Indian and Asian people’s movements.”

“A wonderful human being, and a great friend of all of us fellow travellers in the movement! Thank you Vinod for being who you were!”

Dr. Ravi Narayan Society for Community Health,

Awareness, Research and Action (SOCHARA)

“Thank you, Vinod Raina, for all your resistances, thinking, contributions and struggles which helped to make this world a better and just place.”

Tom KucharzEcologistas en Acción

Madrid, Spain

“Educationist Vinod Raina wasn’t just an activist, but a link in the chain of thought on what ideal schooling should be.”

Sreelatha MenonBusiness Standard

New Delhi

D. RaghunandanPresident,

All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN)

“To my mind, more than all the specific contributions, important as they were, Vinod’s role as a pioneer in the social movement firmament stands out.”

“Vinod was more than someone who dedicated his life to a cause and remained consistently devoted to it, or a cherished comrade to some or a teacher to many.”

Dr. Jayati Ghosh Eminent Economist

Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityNew Delhi

“I have always admired his conviction, passion and drive to see justice for humanity and for our children.”

Urmila SarkarUNICEF India Country

Office

“We will sorely miss Vinod’s friendship, his solidarity with the struggles of the poor in the US, and his commitment to making Another World Possible.”

Jennifer CoxUS Social Forum

United States of America

“Vinod Raina will be remembered for his invaluable contribution to literacy efforts and more particularly to the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti.”

Bharat DograInstitute of Social Sciences

New Delhi

“As George Orwell once said of Mahatma Gandhi, what a clean smell Vinod leaves behind.” 

Ramachandra Guha

Writer and HistorianBangalore, Karnataka

“His unwavering social commitment, empathy with the downtrodden and relentless struggle for justice will be remembered by all those who have known him.”

Sharad Chandra BeharEducationist

Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya PradeshBhopal, Madhya Pradesh

“We mourn death of friend Vinod Raina. He was great campaigner for promoting scientific temper and was one of foremost architect of RTE.”

Shabana AzmiFilm Maker, Artist & Social

Activist

“Vinod was a person that we all loved strongly for all his fantastic qualities.”

Dr. Samir AminThird World Forum

Egypt

“A poor child in a remote village that has found an access to education may never know his name, but its impulse, progress and struggle to march ahead would sure reflect the success of the commitment and dedication invested by unsung heroes like Raina.”

S V VenugopalanIndian Bank Employees Association (BEFI)

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

“We feel the void due to Vinod’s passing, will learn to overcome it, but will not forget him.”

Dr. S. ChatterjeeIndian Institute of Astrophysics

Bangalore, Karnataka

“His humility, mild manners and smile defused many tense moments and kept the struggle floating.”

In solidarity,National Alliance of People’s Movements

(NAPM)

“I remember Vinod as one of the most loving and intelligent participants in the World Social Forum. Over the years I learned much from his insights. Thank you, Vinod.”

Dr. Teivo TeivainenUniversity of Helsinki

Helsinki, Finland

“The highest tribute that we can pay to Dr. Vinod Raina is to continue the struggle to reconstruct India’s education system on the basis of the Constitutional principles of democracy, secularism, equality and social justice!”

Madhu PrasadAll India Forum for Right to Education

(AIFRTE)Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

“For a person to accept the possibility of the future and for making it changing with the context and supreme to its previous modus operand, Dr. Vinod does deserve an honorable goodbye.”

Yerramalla Manasa ShantaTERI University

New Delhi

“A comrade who was so integrally involved in his local work, yet also put in all the hours – and suffered all the travel inconveniences – so that he could contribute to the international movement in any number of ways.”

Dr. Patrick BondCentre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-

NatalKwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

“Dr. Vinod Raina was a steadfast, militant internationalist, devoting his entire life to the liberation of the oppressed of the world, fighting till his last breath. He is the model for us to emulate.”

Dr. Tiejun WenRenmin University

China

“I learned so much from him and will treasure forever the many times we spent together discussing, working, and trying to create a better, just, and more humane world. ”

Dr. Eduardo C. TademAsian Center, University of the

PhilippinesThe Philippines

“There was a flower there was a bird

There was a song in lips of the bird

There was honey in the flowerBees were dancing on the flowerThe flower is gone and bees rest

The bird has returned to the nest

── Vinod has returned to the nest.”

Mohiuddin AhmadCommunity Development Library (CDL)

Bangladesh

“A comrade who was clear in his partisanship towards science, towards knowledge and its free access, towards the values of democracy that shuns the poisonous influence of sectarian and fundamentalist politics.”

Dr. Amit Sengupta Delhi Science Forum

Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA)

“He was a wonderful, wise, warm and witty man. Will be very much missed by several movements across the world.”

Alex WilksAvaaz

Bristol, UK

“I learnt a lot just by listening to him at meetings and various discussions on RTE. We must all continue to work tirelessly and remember him not just for his work but for the person he was.”

Sriranjini VadirajActivist

Bangalore, Karnataka

“It is very rare that we have such a person amongst us fighting for the cause of the downtrodden and the marginalised. Vinod Raina’s ideas and memories will guide People’s Science Movement of India for a long time to come.”

Dr. C. P NarayananMember of Parliament, Rajya Sabha

“Vinod was a special human presence that carved a space of hope in this almost hopeless world. That space shall not be closed.”

Muto IchiyoAsian Peace Alliance

(APA)Japan

“His passion for making society as a whole to come to an adequate understanding of the nature of technology is unequivocal and contagious.”

Kwok-Ming MaDepartment of Cultural Studies

Lingnan UniversityHong Kong

“A gentle soul and an inspiring activist. A real loss to the Peoples Science Movement in India.”

Dr. B EkbalUniversity of Kerala

“A very soft-spoken and in real sense a democratic in nature. Apart from his knowledge he also enthuse activists with his lucid voice and always approachable.”

Vinaya Malati HariBGVS, Maharashtra

Pune

“His equanimity, perhaps, or his empathy or his reflexiveness, were what I looked at in him for inspiration.”

Dr. Giuseppe Caruso Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights

University of HelsinkiHelsinki, Finland

“I share the very deep sadness of all comrades at the passing of one of India’s finest education activists, the main architect of RTE, a charismatic leader of literacy and people’s science movement, and for me a fine comrade and friend on more than 30 years.”

Harsh ManderAman Biradari

“Vinod is my comrade, my teacher and my friend. Long live revolution, no matter here it is a long way to go, we will continue to fight for equity and justice.”

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury EquityBD

Bangladesh

Dr. Siu-leung Li Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan

UniversityHong Kong

“We lost a most respectable and admirable intellectual, teacher, activist who fully devoted his knowledge, time, and energy to and for the underprivileged.”

“Sh. Raina had a progressive mind and contemporary thoughts on education which he articulated persuasively and eloquently. His amiable demeanour and effervescence always struck me.”

Jagmohan Singh Raju Joint Secretary & Director General

Department of School Education & Literacy Ministry of Human Resource Development

New Delhi

Dr. Marcos ArrudaInstituto Políticas Alternativas para o Cone Sul

(PACS)Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“I believe that Vinod IS forever, and IS even before he came to this Earth. As the Wise Ones have taught us along history, only our body perishes.”

……And many many more messages from Dr. Vinod Raina’s

friends, comrades, and fellow activists all over the world.

A book in memory of Dr. Vinod Raina will be published

by BGVS very soon.