NEW DELHI, 10 November 2005 — Former Indian President K.R. Narayanan died in an army hospital yesterday, after being admitted with acute pneumonia almost two weeks ago.
Narayanan, president for five years from July 1997, had been on life support since his admission to the hospital in New Delhi on Oct. 29.
Narayanan was the country’s 10th president, preceding President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
Born as the fourth child to Usha and Raman Vaidyar, a traditional Indian physician, Narayanan walked 16 km daily to school and suffered humiliation for failing to pay fees.
But his thirst for knowledge was so great that he reportedly used to hide in the school to listen to the lessons being taught by the teachers.
Throughout his tenure as president, Narayanan, a Dalit, drew attention to the difficult conditions faced by lower-caste communities, tribal peoples, women and other groups facing discrimination in India.
After graduating from the Travancore University with top grades, Narayanan applied for a lecturer’s job at his alma mater. But was offered only a clerical post.
Disappointed, he turned down the offer and did not even accept his degree from the university until years later when he rose to prominence in public life.
Narayanan later said all the humiliation he suffered during his student days taught him humility, a quality he always retained.
After a short stint as a journalist in The Hindu and The Times of India, Narayanan won a scholarship from the industrial house of Tatas to study in the London School of Economics where he was the favorite student of socialist economist Harold Laski.
Returning with testimonials from Laski, he met India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who made him join the Indian Foreign Service.
During his posting in Yangon (Rangoon) in 1951, Narayanan met Tint Tint, a Burmese girl and married her despite government rules that barred Indian career diplomats from marrying foreigners. This happened after Pandit Nehru waived the rules for his protege.
In 1998, the US House of Representatives honored Narayanan with their Statesman of the Year award, citing his “great respect for human rights in general, the rights of minorities in particular.”
Narayanan’s time in office was marked by one of the worst attacks against minority communities in the country in recent history, the 2002 riots that killed at least 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat.
Almost three years after leaving office, Narayanan openly criticized the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party for not doing more to quell the riots.
In a March 2005 interview to a monthly magazine that was widely publicized in the Indian press, the former president said he wanted the army sent to Gujarat in 2002.
In a country where the president’s post is largely ceremonial, Narayanan took a firm stand against the federal government on two occasions when he refused to dismiss opposition-ruled state governments.
Narayanan used to describe himself as a “working president” or “citizen president” and set several precedents.
Although his statements at times were at variance with those of the government, Narayanan held the nation together with his maturity and knowledge. He is survived by two daughters, one of them a diplomat.
