Death has snatched away from our midst an exceptionally versatile activist, and an extraordinary human being. Madhav Sathe personified political decency and courage like few people do. His death evokes not just an intense sadness, but another sentiment too. To paraphrase what someone said in a totally different context, after returning from Sartre’s funeral, many of us feel like protesting against Madhav’s death. I certainly do.

This sentiment might not quite match the peaceful equilibrium which Madhav so effusively exuded. But it may not be wholly inappropriate for this occasion.

Madhav was a great political activist because he spanned many divides: between the Socialist tradition and the rest of the Left, between social concerns and explicitly political agendas, between personal friendship and genuine social solidarity, between authentic tradition and emancipatory modernity, in both of which he was solidly rooted.

No issues or agendas that have shaped and reshaped the Left in India over the past quarter-century were alien to Madhav: whether human rights and civil liberties, or feminism and Dalit concerns, environmentalism and social justice issues, or popular culture and the right to a life of dignity.

Above all, Madhav was inspired by a humanist vision. And he inspired us with it too — with characteristic directness, simplicity and utter lack of conceit.

Madhav was unflinching in his commitment to humane ideals. But he was an immensely practical person, street- and worldly-wise in a special Bombay sort of way. He was determined without being obsessive, dedicated without being dogmatic, and affectionate without being sentimental.

Madhav had an approach to life based on praxis — on learning by doing. He was a quintessential activist, a mobiliser, an organiser, a fighter not just for causes, but against intellectual slovenliness, political indifference, and most of all, apathy. That’s why his death should impel us not just to grieve, but to protest, to act, agitate, fight.

— Praful Bidwai