When Kishen Pattanayak (1930-2004) passed away 20 years ago, a small circle of friends, comrades and admirers mourned him. They recalled Kishen ji’s saintly virtues, personal sacrifices and political wisdom. People’s movements across the country — from Karnataka and Kerala to Maharashtra, Odisha, Bengal and Hindi states — remembered him as their friend, philosopher and guide, a mentor for innumerable activists. His death was hardly noticed in the “national” media except to report the passing of a former member of Parliament (and an obituary by this writer in this paper). Outside a tiny circle, he was not recognised as a political thinker. English speaking intellectuals and academic political theorists did not know he existed. They still don’t.

September 27 was his 20th death anniversary. A glimpse into the world of Kishen Pattanayak’s ideas can help us deal with the ideological void and political predicament that we confront today. It may also illustrate and take forward the debate on the “death” of modern Indian political thought.

Kishen ji belonged to the modern Indian tradition of political leaders who offered a vision for the future, an understanding of the present and a prescription for the way forward. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1962 when he was just 32. After Lohia’s death he opted out of the infighting within the Socialist Party and went on to create an ideological forum (Lohia Vichar Manch) in 1972, a non-party political organisation (Samata Sangathan) in 1980 and finally a political party (Samajwadi Jan Parishad) in 1995. Thinking, speaking and writing was an integral part of his politics.

He wrote regularly in his mother tongue Odiya but much more extensively in Hindi. He was the founder-editor of Samayik Varta (1977-2004), a Hindi monthly, and Bikalpa Bichara, an Odiya magazine. Hundreds of his Hindi articles have been collected into six volumes so far: Vikalphin Nahin Hai Duniya, Bharat Shudron Ka Hoga,........

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