Sanjay Ghose - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

A newspaper article in the Deccan Herald on February 9, 2009 claimed that "(Ghose) had been killed a day after he was abducted by ULFA cadres on July four, 1997, and his body, which was never found, was thrown into the swirling waters of the Brahmaputra. The killing,... was carried out by local cadre even before the top leadership could convey to them the message not to harm him to avoid possible international repercussions."

Sixteen years after his untimely demise, both his creations, URMUL Trust and CHARKHA continue to survive and grow in the "rural development sector" - URMUL and its affiliates in the desert districts of Rajasthan, and CHARKHA in the world of development media.

An international appeal for his release carried by the leftist magazine Economic and Political Weekly, summarised his work in Rajasthan and in media advocacy thus;

"From 1986 to 1995 Sanjoy did pioneering work in western Rajasthan. He set up URMUL Trust in 1986 in Bikaner with the chief objective of empowering the local people to address their own development needs. By 1995, URMUL expanded into a network of organisations addressing the concerns of the poor in the districts of Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan. Sanjoy wrote extensively and spiritedly on development issues. He was one of the firsts to realise the need for media advocacy for the NGOs and struggle-based groups, and established CHARKHA as an interface between NGOs and the mainstream media." .

CHARKHA has instituted the "Sanjoy Ghose Media Fellowships" in his memory. This has been awarded since 2003 in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, to encourage writers, particularly women, to generate research based writings that reflect their unique perspective on the concerns of their people in a region that has known conflicts for several decades now.

In 2011, the award was targeted to women writers from the underdeveloped mountain region of Ladakh.

The Ashoka: Innovators for the Public had instituted the Sanjoy Ghose Endowment in his memory in 1998 for "building a culture of volunteerism and a sense of citizen responsibility among the youth in India's northeastern state of Assam"

The Sanjoy Ghose Memorial Trust Society was formed in the year 2000, in Majuli. The Trust has been holding memorial services every year on July 4, the day of his disappearance and suspected death.

A website in his memory was launched on the fifteenth "smriti divas" (remembrance day) on July 4, 2011 by this trust.

A bilingual film inspired by his life was made in Assamese and Hindi, which was directed by Bidyut Kotoky and produced by the National Film Development Corporation of India. The film was shot in Majuli and Mumbai. The Assamese version, titled Ekhon Nedekha Nodir Xhipare, was released on September 14, 2012. The Hindi version, titled As the River Flows, is yet to release.

In 37 years Sanjoy Ghose had packed more into life than most people do in a hundred years or more. An article in the prominent political magazine Tehelka, described Sanjoy as "The man who saw tomorrow". It ran a feature on him with the title "Sanjoy Ghose was a dogged catalyst of change. And he paid the ultimate price for it". RN Haldipur, (former director of IRMA),who served on the Board of Tribhuvandas Foundation, when Sanjoy was working there, assessed him thus "Sanjoy was a positive and tenacious votary who functioned with single-minded purpose. Instead of joining the corporate sector, he took the hard path, full of difficulties and austerity. To him work was soul-satisfying worship. Transparent in his dealings, he was a man of great integrity."