As 78-year-old Achyut Yagnik breathed his last early this morning, Gujarat lost an eminent social scientist who was balanced and neutral to the core even though he tore apart the divisive forces with his sharp analysis, memory and knowledge.

He had just recovered from a knee replacement operation but succumbed to an internal infection at around 3 am on Friday.

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Popularly known as just ‘Achyutbhai’ to one and all, he was always available like an encyclopedia in a library for anyone to have a look.

For journalists, social science students, human rights activists and researchers alike, Achyutbhai was that ‘single window’ available for any queries about Gujarat’s history, its mercantile ethos, inherent caste tensions which gradually deteriorated into communal divide and also the tribal uprising.

Though Achyutbhai was known for his critical views on Gujarat’s society, politics and economics for decades, he became the cynosure of journalists, researchers and television anchors after the riots in 2002, especially for his sharp analysis of the rise of right-wing forces aided by the corporate sector.

Even during his sharpest criticism of the saffron brigade’s mischiefs and misdeeds, Achyutbhai never spared the Congress too for creating a conducive socio-political atmosphere for rise of the right-wing forces. He had no love lost for the Left either.

Achyutbhai’s ‘give the devil its due’ attitude towards all issues endeared him to everybody across party lines as even the hard core, foul-mouthed politicians never dared to abuse him as ‘five-star social scientist.’

But he did receive threatening calls in recent years from foot soldiers of political forces offended by his commentaries and analyses. He would be missed but remembered and cherished for a long time.