KANHANGAD:Freedom fighter and peasant leader K Madhavan died at a private hospital late Sunday night. He was 101 years old. He died of old age in a private hospital in Kanhangad, said his family.
Madhavan was the last living person to have participated in the Guruvayur Satyagraha, launched by freedom fighter K Kelappan in 1931, to gain right of entry to the Guruvayur temple for the backward classes and the Dalits, said historian C Balan.He was also one of the youngest volunteers to participate in the Salt Satyagraha under the leadership of Kelappan in 1932. A group of 32 members marched from Kozhikode to Payyannur “to show solidarity to Mahatma Gandhi”. He was 15-years-old then. On the eve of Independence Day, Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy called on him and and honoured him at his house in Kanhangad.“He was the hero of Kayyur Uprising. Though born in a feudal family, he worked towards destroying feudalism. His death is a big loss to the peasant movement of Kerala,” said Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan. The body was kept at Kanhangad Town Hall for the public to pay their last respects on Monday.Schoolchildren, political leaders cutting across party lines, and people from all walked paid homage to their beloved leader.
‘A Gandhian communist’
K Madhavan trod a lonely path within the communist movement because of his “maverick views”, said historian C Balan. “He was in favour of combining the ideals of Gandhi with Karl Marx for the emancipation of the weaker sections,” he said. But he was isolated within the communist movement. In 1962, he called for the coming together of the Congress and the Communist parties to keep communal forces at bay. Later, at the CPI national council in Varanasi, he tabled a paper urging “democratic secular parties to join hands to stop communal forces from gain ground”. The proposal got only two votes, said Balan. Today, the situation is such that the Left parties are open to such an alliance. He was able to foresee the growth of communal forces, the historian said. “It just showed Madhavan only made history, he also foresaw history in the making,” he said.
Despite his communist leanings, the freedom fighter was a thorough Gandhian. In 1948, when the CPI adopted the Calcutta Thesis, a resolution calling for taking up arms on the premise that ‘free’ India was only a “semi-colony of British imperialism, Madhavan rejected it.
Footsteps of a freedom fighter
1915: Born on August 26 to Achikanath Chirakara Raman Nair and mother Kozhummal Unnanga Amma.
1927: Joined Vijnanadayani National Sanskrit School, Bellikoth, Kanhangad.
1928: Volunteer at the historic meeting of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.
1930: Youngest member of K Kelappan’s 32-member Salt Satyagraha team that marched from Kozhikode to Payyannur; imprisoned for six months in Kannur Central Jail.
1931: Part of a team led by T S Thirumumbu and A K Gopalan that marched to Guruvayur to gain right of entry to the Guruvayoor temple for the backward classes and the untouchables.
1933: Secretary of Kasargod Taluk Congress Committee; A C Kannan Nair was the president.
1934: First secretary of Congress Socialist Party in Kasargod taluk.
1937: first secretary of Peasant Organisation in Kasargod taluk.
1938: Member of KPCC.
1939: First secretary of CPI, Kasargod taluk; Malabar committee member.
1940s: Led several peasant protests, notably the Kayyur Uprising against the British as the secretary of CPI; was living in hiding.
1948-50: Rejected ‘Calcutta thesis’, a resolution adopted by CPI calling for taking up arms; imprisoned in Veloor and Kadaloor central jails for long time.
1956: Member, state council of Communist Party Kerala.
1957: Contested as a candidate of CPI in Hosdurg assembly seat; long-time president of Kanhangad gram panchayat.
1971: Central government honours him with Tamra Patra.
2012: DLitt conferred by Kannur University
August 14, 2016: Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy felicitates him.
September 25, 2016: Dies of respiratory tract infection.