Nirmala Deshpande breathed her last

Eminent Gandhian, acclaimed social activists Nirmala Deshpande passed away on Thursday morning at the age of 79 in the national capital, New Delhi.

A nominated member of the upper house of Indian Parliament, she died in her sleep early in the morning and was reportedly suffering from fever from last evening.

Deshpande, popularly known as Didi by her beloved ones and admirers, the name doesn’t require any introduction and has been regarded the most for her deeds in her constant endeavour towards human life and secular values.

She has been a true Gandhian and is known as one of the well known flag bearers of Gandhian values in our country.

Born on Oct 17, 1929 in Nagpur, Maharastra, her father P Y Deshpande was a Marathi writer. Deshpande joined Acharya Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Padyatra in 1952. The movement had attracted admiration throughout the world as voluntary land reform movement which in great way paves the way for land reform legislation activity.

Nirmala Deshpande has been conferred with many awards including the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour in 2006 and also the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award. In 2005, she was also nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.

A Post-Graduate in Political Science, she was conferred with honorary doctorate by three Indian universities.

To spread peace and harmony, and for the propagation the message of equal respect for all religions i.e. ‘sarva dharma samabhava’ she travelled to neighbouring countries and organised inter-faith conferences in many religious places, educational institutions whether in troubled torn Kashmir or the southern most Chennai.

She had organised peace march in the after math of 2002 Gujarat violence, and many more signature campaigns whether it is for the release of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Tibet cause, Indo-Pak relation or even extremism in various parts of the country to bring peace between nations, communities and religions.

Her untiring effort throughout her life to propagate human values of non-violence is strongly visible and will be remember forever in view of keeping alive the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi.