Institute Patron Keith Bennett and Director Hugh Goodacre send messages of condolence to the comrades and friends of the Indian communist politician and trade unionist Suneet Chopra, who has passed away on 4 April, stating that he will be deeply mourned not only in India, but also in Britain, where he was a well-known student activist during the 1960s and early 1970s.

Institute Patron and Secretary mourn the passing away of Comrade Suneet Chopra

Institute Patron Keith Bennett and Director Hugh Goodacre send messages of condolence to the comrades and friends of the Indian communist politician and trade unionist Suneet Chopra, who has passed away on 4 April, stating that he will be deeply mourned not only in India, but also in Britain, where he was a well-known student activist during the 1960s and early 1970s.

Comrade Suneet Chopra passed away on 4 April. He was an Indian communist politician and trade unionist, who will be deeply mourned not only in India, but also in Britain, where he was a well-known student activist and anti-imperialist during the 1960s and early 1970s.

His political activities began in the student movement in India in the 1960s, where he was a founding member of the Students Federation of India in Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, and subsequently, in Britain, a familiar figure in the student movement in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he founded and edited the journal Afrasian, and participated in a number of communist and anti-racist organizations. On his return to India in 1972, he joined the Democratic Youth Federation of India, of which he served as vice president for a number of years, thereafter serving as joint secretary of the All-India Agricultural Workers Union and Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was an unforgettable and gifted personality, of many talents – an art critic, writer, and poet.

In his message, Keith Bennett wrote: “To my regret, I did not know Comrade Suneet personally, but in participating in a webinar together with him in solidarity with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), I was impressed by his militant passion and fervent internationalism. And without knowing each other, we had a close connection in that it was Comrade Suneet who won to Marxism our mutual comrade and friend, Hugh Goodacre.”

In his message, Institute Director Hugh Goodacre wrote: “It is hard for me to say what it means for me that Suneet has passed away, since he played such a central part in some of the most impressionable years of my life. His influence was not only political but personal. It was also permanent and enduring: he not only introduced me to the application of Marxism in my political work but was a close personal friend – he also introduced me to the woman I married, as well as to his own family.”

Full text of the message from Keith Bennett

Full text of the message from Hugh Goodacre.

  Message of condolence from the Politbureau of the CPI(M)