THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Commemorating the fourth death anniversary of eminent historian A Sreedhara Menon, noted historian M G S Narayanan said on Wednesday that Menon’s unrelenting stance on political parties made him stand out among Kerala’s historians.
After presenting the fourth A Sreedhara Menon Keralasri Samman to historian, academician and author T H P Chenthasseri, MGS, who is currently the director general of Centre for Heritage Studies in Thripunithura, recollected instances when Menon had to lock horns with the EMS Government in 1967.
“He was unservile and an uncompromising genius. He had the guts to maintain his honesty,” said MGS.
The state government had asked Menon to write a book on ‘The History of the Freedom Movement in Kerala’ in just three months as a part of 20 years of independence. However, later Menon was asked to complete the book in consultation with E M S Namboodiripad. Defiant over the government’s attempt to censor his work, he later published it with the help of a private publisher.
MGS further added that Menon also had many rivals in the teaching fraternity. Pointing out the erudite knowledge of Menon, he said there was a time when history lecturers in Kerala were solely based on the notes made by him.
Criticising the present-day historians, who, according to him, fall for political whims and tantrums, MGS also observed that the biggest crisis faced by research fellows of history in Kerala are “historians sans backbone”.
In a special lecture on ‘Politics and Aesthetics of New Media’, following the presentation of the award, noted social commentator and academician T T Sreekumar said that monopolies such as Facebook and Twitter were giving the general populace a platform, at the price of the users’ private information.
“Today we are often ignorant victims to unabashed snooping by corporates working for governments across the globe,” said Sreekumar.