Rajiv Goswami was a former commerce student at the Deshbandhu College, Delhi University student who had attempted self-immolation to protest against V.P. Singh's implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations. During Mandal commission agitation, the AIIMS intersection in Delhi had been temporarily renamed Rajiv Chowk by students in a celebration of his bravado[1].
Subsequently he was elected to position of the Delhi University Students' Union president. He gave up active politics due to health problems and set up his own business. In the years that followed he was frequently in and out of hospitals because of severe health complications dating back to his self-immolation bid.[2]
He was a resident of Gomti Apartments at Kalkaji in New Delhi. He died in at Holy Family Hospital in Okhla, New Delhi on February 24, 2004 at age 33. His death was due to complications due to his self immolation 14 years earlier.[3]
His was survived by his wife Aarti, daughter Simran (5) and son Aditya (1), father Madan Goswami (70) and mother Nandrani Goswami (62).[4]
His mother was Nandrani was one of the speakers at anti reservation protests in 2006.[5] Goswami's action in 1990 had sparked a series of self-immolations by college students and led to a formidable movement against job reservations for backward castes, as recommended by the Mandal Commission. He is considered a martyr by those against the Reservation and Caste System in India
His act of self-immolation led to larger protests throughout India.