Overview
- Panikkar died on March 9 at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, with reports variously listing his age as 89 or 90 and citing age-related ailments, while some accounts noted Parkinson’s disease.
- A pillar of Jawaharlal Nehru University, he served as Professor of History, headed the Centre for Historical Studies, and later became Dean of the School of Social Sciences.
- He later led key institutions in Kerala, serving as Vice-Chancellor of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, chairing the Kerala Council for Historical Research, and holding leadership at the State Higher Education Council, which had been preparing April events for his 90th birthday.
- His scholarship included landmark works such as Against Lord and State and Culture, Ideology and Hegemony, contributions to the Towards Freedom project, and support for research tied to the Pattanam/Muziris excavations.
- Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and leading academics, including former students, lauded his mentorship and his consistent challenge to communal reinterpretations of India’s past.