Shamnad

Shamnad Basheer (1976–2019) was an IP law scholar, activist, and institution-builder whose reach far exceeded his 43 years. An NLSIU Bangalore graduate with an Oxford MPhil, he founded SpicyIP in 2005 — India’s first serious blog on intellectual property law — and IDIA, which created pathways into elite legal education for students from marginalised backgrounds. He intervened in the landmark Novartis Glivec patent case on behalf of cancer patients and rewrote what public interest lawyering could look like in India. He passed away in August 2019 in an accident near Chikkamagaluru, where he had gone on a silent retreat.

Often, when we remember someone we’ve loved and admired, it’s through stories, little moments and vivid fragments. A conversation here, an act of kindness there. But there are some people for whom this kind of accounting never quite adds up to the whole.

So it was with Shamnad because every story wasn’t just a moment to recall, but a portal to transformation. Because with Shamnad, every interaction carried his deep belief that connection and care weren’t footnotes to change but were the very texture of it.

He built his world not through power or position, but through presence. Through listening. Through making space. Through asking what justice could look like if everyone felt they belonged.

I was lucky to know him, to be changed by him, and to share a few memories of him in this film. But like all lives lived with depth and purpose, no collection of stories can fully hold the whole.

Still, I’m grateful we tried.

Originally written for LinkedIn on 15 May 2025. View original →