Kamal Aron Mitra Chenoy, a teacher who embodied life of mind, and conscience

The image of Professor Chenoy standing with the protesting students at the gates of power remains one of the most powerful examples of what a teacher at a public university ought to be

As a teacher, he shaped the academic lives of generations of students who now teach, write, research, and advocate across the world.

Written by: Parvinder Singh

4 min readOct 12, 2026 06:30 AM IST First published on: Oct 12, 2026 at 06:30 AM IST

When I heard the news of Professor Kamal Aron Mitra Chenoy’s demise, I immediately thought of his smile, calm gaze, and powerful voice filled with conviction. For several years, he served as a professor at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory in JNU’s School of International Studies. He will be remembered as one of those who taught from classrooms, streets, courtrooms, and protest lines. With his passing, JNU has lost an embodiment of the university at its best: A place where the life of the mind and the life of conscience were never allowed to drift apart.

Chenoy’s political awakening began as an economics student at Kirori Mal College, Delhi University, where he was elected to the Students Union executive committee in 1969. He arrived at JNU in 1972, entering an intellectual universe crackling with debate: Naxalism, Trotskyism, the SFI-AISF alliance, the challenge of the Freethinkers, and the presence of formidable student leaders like Prakash Karat. He became the unit secretary of the All India Students’ Federation, learning — as he would later recall — that unity among progressive forces was not a luxury but a necessity. Then came the Emergency. Chenoy was among those forced to leave the country, not by ambition or opportunity, but by the imperative of survival and freedom. He returned as a faculty member.

My memory of Professor Chenoy is inextricable from the events that unfolded in the wake of the murder of Chandrashekhar Prasad, beloved former president of the JNU Students Union (JNUSU), shot dead in Siwan, Bihar, in March 1997. Chandrashekhar was a symbol of what it meant to be from a marginalised community and still dare to dream of justice. His killing sent shockwaves through JNU. When students marched in protest and were arrested, it was not enough for Professor Chenoy to express solidarity from the comfort of his office. I had the honour of serving as an elected member of the JNUSU when the university was navigating some of its most turbulent political waters. For those of us who witnessed it, the image of Professor Chenoy — measured, composed, never raising his voice unnecessarily — standing with the protesting students at the gates of power remains one of the most powerful examples of what a teacher at a public university ought to be. He had the rare gift of making you feel that your own thinking mattered. He pushed back when he disagreed — and he could be a formidable interlocutor — but always in ways that left you more confident in your own reasoning. For that, I will always be grateful.

As a teacher, he shaped the academic lives of generations of students who now teach, write, research, and advocate across the world. He was a three-time president of the JNU Teachers’ Association, a distinction that reflects not only his standing among peers but also his consistent commitment to institutional democracy within the university. As a longtime member of the CPI, Professor Chenoy tried to bring Marxist political economy into productive dialogue with human-rights frameworks at a time when that conversation was neither fashionable nor easy. He participated in fact-finding missions to riot-affected areas, Malliana, Hashimpura, Meerut, Ayodhya, Gujarat, and Muzaffarnagar, when the state preferred silence. He testified before the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on the condition of religious minorities in India, an act that drew sharp criticism from the Hindu Right, which he accepted with characteristic equanimity.

Farewell, professor.

Singh, head of communications, UN World Food Programme in India, was a JNUSU office bearer in 1996-97