The demise of Dr M P Parameswaran, fondly called MP by his numerous friends, is certainly a loss to many in Kerala and the rest of India who knew him or of him. A young nuclear engineer turned political and social activist during the second half of the 1960s, MP was immersed in building up a small organisation of writers of science called Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) into a people’s science movement.
Of course, there were forerunners like P T Bhaskara Panicker who had already opened a way for mobilising young teachers, professional experts and students. MP electrified the imagination of the youth especially in rural areas by his book, rather booklet, Nature, Science and Society. KSSP activists held over 30,000 classes during 1974-76 based on this booklet talking about the interrelationship between nature, science and society. Then followed a book on Kerala’s economy prepared by a collective for which I was invited to contribute. That set off a personal relationship that lasted half a century.
MP started as a Marxist to understand the socioeconomic problems of one’s society. But his young Marx grew into a dynamic Gandhi over time. He then wrote, lectured and acted to formulate a decentralised governance system, applying it to Kerala, to attain ‘sustainability in all spheres, ecological, economic and social’.
His party punished him with expulsion for straying away from the Marxist path. He did not rebel or complain. He worked tirelessly and published a large number of books and articles on how to translate his dream of decentralised development for sustainable living. I feel fortunate to have closely associated with him for about half a century in pursuing our common dreams...
The writer is Honorary Fellow, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum