K.R. Narayanan, 85; Diplomat Who Became President of India
LA Times
K.R. Narayanan, a former president of India who brought a deeper meaning to the largely ceremonial position when he rose from the bottom of the country’s ancient caste system to become the first “untouchable” to hold the office, has died. He was 85.
Narayanan, who had been suffering from pneumonia and kidney failure, died Wednesday at an army hospital in New Delhi, a spokesman for India’s defense ministry announced. He had been on life support since Oct. 31.
His elevation to the presidency in 1997 — three weeks before India marked 50 years of independence from Britain — fulfilled the vision of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the founder of independent India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement.
Gandhi believed the election of an untouchable as president would mark a symbolic end of the degradation of Hindus on the lowest rung of the 3,000-year-old caste system.
Commonly used a century ago, the term “untouchables” has been replaced by the more politically correct Dalits, which literally translates as “broken people.” It applies to nearly a quarter of India’s billion-plus population.
At his inaugural, Narayanan condemned “caste-ism” and said the election of “someone who has sprung from the grass-roots of our society … is symbolic of the fact that the concerns of the common man have now moved to the center stage.”
