THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Communist theorist and scientist M P Parameswaran passed away on Tuesday. He was 91.
Born in Thrissur in 1935, he completed his engineering degree from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, and joined the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai.
He also worked as the assistant director of the State Institute of Languages in Kerala. He obtained a PhD in nuclear engineering from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in 1965.
During his tenure as the director of the Kerala Institute of Languages, he played a crucial role in designing the layout for the Malayalam keyboard for typewriters.
A nuclear engineer, writer and educationist, Parameswaran was one of the founding members of the progressive outfit Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP), which was established in 1962. Later, he became a full time activist of the science movement, which was popular in the state, bringing about a change.
Following the success of the Parishad, he took the initiative to establish a science movement at the national level through initiatives such as Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha and AIPSN.
He served as the convenor of the National Organising Committee of the Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha and played a crucial role in establishing the All India People's Science Network (AIPSN), a network of science organisations and movements across 25 states in India.
In his career as a nuclear engineer, he also authored more than 30 books related to science, covering topics such as radioactivity, atomic science, astronomy, mathematics, political science, social science and ecology.
In 1962 and 1964, he won national awards for Books for Neoliterates and Basic and Cultural Literature, respectively. Parameswaran won an award for children's literature in 1982.
An intellectual and thinker, his ideas drew him towards communist ideology. He was also a member of the Communist Party of India for more than three decades.
However, in 2004, following the release of his book Nalam Lokam-Swapnavum Yadharthyavum, which discussed decentralised democracy and challenged conventional Marxist thinking, he was expelled from the party.
The book sparked a debate and controversy within the Communist Party in the state and was viewed as a rejection of Marxist principles. Later, in 2008, he authored another book, Janakeeya Sasthra Prasthanam.
