Click to play videoNew Delhi: Jyoti Basu was the last leader alive among the Marxists navratnas. Basu's death also heralds the end of an era for India's Marxists.
Among the other Marxist stalwarts are some illustrious names like EMS Namdoodiripad and AK Gopalan.
EMS Namdoodiripad, who became the world's first elected communist chief minister, when Communist Party of India won a landslide in 1957 Kerala election.
EMS was largely responsible for acquiring and distributing land from the wealthy to the poor and for Kerala's 90 plus literacy rate. He was also the first Indian communist to feature on the cover of Time magazine.
Another communist stalwart from Kerala and the man whose name the present headquarters of the CPI-M bears, AK Gopalan, was India's first Opposition leader.
Arrested many times during British Rule, AKG was inspiration for Kerala's communist to fight oppression by feudal landlords. AKG was even more popular than EMS.
From Neighbouring Andhra come two big communist leaders. They led the rebellion of peasants against the Nizam of Hyderabad in the late 1940s. Puchalapalli Sundaraiah and Makineni Basavapunnaiah organised the Telangana rebellion, a revolt which resulted in many landlords being driven out and their lands and distributed among the poor peasents.
P Ramamurti was the founding member of the Communist Party in Tamil Nadu. A freedom fighter and ardent trade unionist, Ramamurthy became the first general secretary of the CPI-M's trade union wing the CITU in 1970.
Another trade unionist of prominence from Maharashtra was BT Ranadive. BTR served as CPI general secretary till 1950 and was one of many prominent communists jailed during the war with China. He later joined the CPI-M.
Pramod Dasgupta was an organiser par genius, and one of the founders of CPI-M.
He was the man responsible for ensuring CPI-M's victory in successive elections despite the Emergency in the 1970s.
Before Basu, the last lamp to dim, was the lone sardar (Sikh) Harkishen Singh Surjeet.
The man who once famously gave his name in court as London-tod (break) Singh, when apprehended by British authorities was known for his uncompromising fight against communalism.
As CPI-M general secretary Surjeet was instrumental in forming anti-BJP coalitions in the 90s and ensuring left support for UPA1.
With Basu, gone are the days of CPM's old guard, of men who discarded their upper class backgrounds to champion the cause of India's poor.
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