Ananth

G. Ananthapadmanabhan — Ananth — was one of the most significant figures in Indian civil society of his generation. An IIT Madras graduate who gave up engineering for teaching at the Krishnamurti Foundation, he went on to lead Greenpeace India, serve as International Programme Director at Greenpeace International, and then as CEO of Amnesty International India. His final institutional role was as CEO of Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives. In his later years he stepped back from running organisations to mentor those who were, and to co-found smaller efforts with the same principled rigour. He passed away on April 18, 2026.

Ananth passed away today. I’m only beginning to understand how much I learned from him. His years at Amnesty, Greenpeace, and APPI were each an education in what it takes to build an organisation in this country that can speak its mind.

And then in these last years, rather than run one more thing, he co-founded several that drew in something he had already lived through. Like the young men from the Alcott hostel who had nowhere to go once they turned eighteen.

He was allergic to the heroic framing of this work. “What can you do alone?” was a Krishnamurti line he often returned to. He wrote years ago that collaboration is not a toolkit or a technique but a mindset you have to actively cultivate, because it is not our natural state, and the incentives will never be sufficient. It took me years to see how deeply that has shaped the way I try to think about this work.

He was also, quietly, one of the bravest people I’ve known. When illness came, he chose quality of life with a clarity most of us would struggle to find. He kept walking, thousands of kilometres through Bangalore. He kept advising when asked. He kept showing up for the people and projects he cared about, without self-pity or performance.

Thank you, Ananth.

Originally written for LinkedIn on 18 April 2026. View original →