In a country where life is so cheap and precarious, the passing away of
an 86-year-old man should ordinarily provoke little comment. But the
death of G D Agrawal, also known as Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, in
Rishikesh on October 11 this year was no ordinary death. It came at the
end of a fast that had lasted one hundred and eleven days. He had been
fasting, as he had done many times before, in the cause of his beloved
Ganga.
Read Manini Chatterjee's column
here