Eminent Gandhian Natwar Thakkar – the Nagaland's Gandhi passed away at the Apollo Hospital in Guwahati on Sunday morning after a brief illness.

He was 86 and is survived by his wife Lentina Ao, a son and two daughters.

Thakkar was admitted to the Apollo Hospital on September 19 following the deterioration of his health which started with high fever.

Natwar Thakkar, a Padma Shri awardee, had founded the Nagaland Gandhi Ashram at Chuchuyimlang.

His efforts to spread Gandhian philosophy and peace had earned him the sobriquet 'Nagaland's Gandhi'.

He was from Maharashtra and had made Nagaland his home ever since he had arrived in the state in 1955.

Thakkar was born in 1932 to a Gujarati-speaking family in the coastal Dahanu town of the then Bombay Presidency of British India. Today it is part of the Palghar district of Maharashtra state.

Inspired by Gandhian social reformer Kaka Kalelkar early in his life, Thakkar went to Nagaland, the North-Eastern state of India, at the age of 23 in 1955, desiring to foster "goodwill and emotional integration through voluntary social service" among the people of Nagaland, using Gandhian principles.