My grandfather. English version

 

My Achachan (Grandfather)

My interest in Achachan was kindled by my history teacher Akbar Ali Sir in my high school at Manjeri. As he taught the class he would always say, this is not the real history. Your grandfather’s name should be in here. In all the events mentioned here he had a major role but his name is not there. Why is it so? You should not let this happen. This is not fair to your grandfather.

All of us students loved Akbar Ali Sir. He retired from the local Boys high school and then joined our school. He was very dignified in his neatly pressed white shirt and white dhoti, always smiling and very nice to all the students and he instilled the love for history in me. I particularly recall an incident in 1982. As soon as he (Akbar Ali Sir) saw me, he came rushing towards me and asked me how was the program last night. “What happened there? Tell me all about it? I’d love to hear all about it!” Seeing my puzzled expression, he continued “didn’t you go to Kozhikode? Didn’t you attend the program held in honor of your grandfather?” I said “Well, my father had gone to Calicut yesterday perhaps to attend the function”. I could sense his disappointment when he exclaimed “Oh how I would have loved to be part of it! Why would you miss such a rare opportunity?” It is then I realized he was serious about his comments about my grandfather. He was a huge fan.

I decided to ask my father about it. Over dinner at night I said “Acha who was Achachan? Akbar Ali sir says he was a great man. Was he? He was upset that I didn’t accompany you to Calicut to attend the program. What was it about?” Father said it was my grandfather’s Nooram Janma Varshika aghosham (100th birthday celebration). I probed him for more. He started saying stories about Achachan. He started with what a good father he was. When he was young during lunch and dinner, Achachan used to make small balls of rice an all curries to feed to the children. My father would never eat until he got his share from Achachan. But after he turned 3 or 4, he only saw him briefly, Achachan was busy with his work as the leader of freedom struggle and pioneering a newspaper. He stopped practicing law to devote his entire time to focus on Freedom struggle. After my grandfather was elected as its first leader when Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) was formed, Achan added that their house in Chalappuram became the first congress office. It was like a guest house he exclaimed. Many eminent personalities locally and nationally would come there and stay at the house. Achamma (grandmother) was always busy in the kitchen trying to take care of the guests. K. P. Kesava Menon in his book “Kazhinja Kalam” remembers his long stay at their house.  Achan also said there was a school next door which was used for training and briefing the youth who were interested in joining the freedom struggle.

Achan also narrated a story about Nehru’s visit to Kozhikode in 1928. Achachan was the President of Congress then and he was taking Nehru in his new Ford car to a local event. Large crowds had lined the streets to see Nehru and the car had to go through the crowd very slowly. Nehru becoming impatient, jumped out, borrowed a bicycle from one of the bystanders and rode quickly to the venue with my father who was 11 sitting on the back of the bicycle to lead the way to the stage.

These stories were always talked about at home but for some reason it never occurred to me that he is not in the history books or none of my friends knew anything about him.

Few years later, when we heard that Akbar Ali Sir was sick, few of us friends went to see him in his house. He made it a point to introduce me to his wife as Achachan’s granddaughter and then said “promise me that one day you will bring your grandfather’s name out”.  That sentence stayed with me forever.

Years went by. With other priorities taking upper hand the curiosity to know about Achachan remained in the back of my mind.

Then one day a Malayalee friend of mine who lives close by mentioned about reading Mohammed Abdul Rahman Sahib’s book and exclaimed “Do you know that your grandfather and Abdul Rahman Sahib attended the Congress session in Nagpur in 1920 and it was your grandfather that requested that Malabar, Cochin and Trivandrum be brought together as one state and to be known as Kerala and that a Kerala provincial congress should be formed not a Malabar Provincial congress? And then your grandfather was selected as KPCC’s first secretary? That means he was responsible for the formation of Kerala state” and continued jokingly “that means your grandfather was actually Kerala’s first chief minister!!!”. This comment was a huge shock for me and had a profound effect on me.

During my college years there were conversations about Achachan’s correspondence with Gandhiji and others that were missing from Achamma’s house. Correspondences with the father of the nation? Could that even be true? Even though it was hard to believe then, a few years later my brother Achuettan sent me and my siblings Gandhiji’s speech about Achachan. Gandhiji was speaking on the occasion of a function to unveil a portrait of my grandfather in Kozhikode Townhall in 1934.

Malabar has been in the vanguard of progress in this battle against the monster of untouchability. Let it be said of Malabar that Malabar counted no sacrifices too great for removing this evil of untouchability. And what could be a better and more sacred reminder for this meeting than the portrait of Mr. K. Madhavan Nair? If you were to recall the men who had died in body but are even now still living, you will discover that they are living not because of their intellectual gifts but because of virtues which you and I and every one of us can cultivate if we have the will and if we will make the necessary effort in order to cultivate them.

Later during the day Gandhiji visited the office of the Mathrubhumi, (the Malayalam daily that was started to support the freedom movement, K Madhavan Nair served as its founding managing director) and addressing it’s staff described Mr. Madhavan Nair as the soul of the Trust due to whose ceaseless effort the paper occupied its unique place in Malabar. He appealed to the staff to follow in the ideals of late Mr. Madhavan Nair, who was whole-heartedly in favor of the Harijan movement, without mental reservations or anything of the kind.

That came as a shock to me. Should Gandhiji talk about a person in such a lofty manner, he must be worthy of his accomplishments. The spark to find more about Achachan was lit inside me. I started researching more about him. Living in the United states before the advent of Google and not having access to libraries that carried materials related to Kerala’s history was frustrating. Every day I would think what I can do? Where can I get information? Years went by. One day I had a thought to write to Sabarmati Ashram and see if they have preserved any letters from people who had written to Gandhiji. I was particularly interested in correspondence between Gandhiji and Achachan. Lo and behold, they sent me many correspondences between them. Reading them I was shocked. And based on those letters and the time periods it was written, I started doing a lot of research on the internet and I found information about him on a few websites and also managed to get hold of few books that I brought with me from India which included Prof John Ochanthurath's K Madhavan Nair Janmashadabdi Smaranika and Prof C. K. Moosad's biography of K Madhavan Nair.

Karuthodi Madhavan Nair

Karuthodi Madhavan Nair was born to an ordinary family in Malappuram on December 2^nd 1882. After finishing his high school education, Madhavan Nair took his intermediate degree from CMS College in Kottayam and Degree from Maharaja’s college in Trivandrum in 1906. In 1909 he took his Law degree from Trivandrum as well. His uncle K Kannan Nair helped him with his education and his support was instrumental in K Madhavan Nair’s success. K Kannan Nair was the first editor of the Nair service society magazine published from Changanassery.

After taking a law degree from Trivandrum in 1909, he started practicing in Manjeri and moved his practice to Kozhikode in 1915. He was married to Karumathil Kalyanikutty  Amma in 1911 and had 5 children - 3 boys and 2 girls.

Formation of KPCC (KPCC yude Jananam)

He started getting active in freedom struggle from about 1915. Gandhiji became the leader of Indian National Congress in 1919. Indian National Congress under Gandhiji’s leadership had one agenda only- free India from the British. K Madhavan Nair was the leader of congress for Malabar area then. A Malabar district political conference of Indian National Congress held at Manjeri on 28 April 1920. Congress and Home rule league worked hand in hand during those days. K Madhavan Nair knew to achieve freedom it is necessary to unite all communities and they must invite everyone including the poor farmers and muslims for the conference. For support he asked his friends like KP Kesava Menon and others who were out of Kerala during that time to come and join the meeting. They went to many places in Malabar giving speeches requesting people to come for the meeting. Thousands of people took part in the conference. This meeting was extremely successful to launch a strong foundation for the freedom struggle in Malabar.

The next year in 1920, K Madhavan Nair along with other leaders like Abdul Rahman Sahib attended the Nagpur session of All India Congress Committee. He was the chief representative for Malabar at that meeting. In the Nagpur session as mentioned above, he submitted a resolution (Prameyam) asking that Malabar, Cochin and Trivandrum be brought together as one state and to be known as Kerala and that a Kerala provincial congress should be formed not a Malabar Provincial congress. The resolution was accepted with a unanimous vote.

After the successful trip to the Nagpur session, K Madhavan Nair and his fellow leaders held a meeting at his residence in Challapuram, Kozhikode on January 30^th 1921 and in that meeting Kerala Pradesh Congress came into existence. As Calicut as the headquarters 5 districts were formed. Tellicherry, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Kochi and Travancore with 100 members. He stated that a congress committee should be established in every taluk. He proposed an idea “United Kerala”(aikya keralam) which was received well by the people. He was unanimously selected as its first secretary and U Gopala Menon as joint secretary (Note: there were no President position then. The president position was only introduced in 1925 and he again was unanimously elected to be the first president and K Kelappan as the secretary).

He was arrested in February 1921 for non cooperation movement in Kozhikode, one of the first leaders in Kerala to be arrested for the Freedom struggle. And it was when he was in jail that the first KPCC meeting was held in Ottapalam. Even though he was the head of KPCC, he could not attend.

He came from Kannur jail 6 months later in August along with U Gopala Menon, Moideen Koya and Yakub Hassan. K P Keshava Menon writes about it this way.

 

V R Menon writes

Mapilah Lahala

It was when he was in jail that Mapilah Lahala (muslim rebellion) broke out in Ernad Taluk. It was painful to know that when he returned from jail, he could not spend any time with his wife or children even though he had not seen them for 6 months.  Risking his life, he went to various areas in Eranad Taluk to talk to the Muslim leaders to stop the violence. He succeeded to do it in some places however in other places the violent atrocities against Hindus continued. He also met with and consoled the members of Hindu families who suffered painful and devastating effects of the violence. Probably a very difficult period in his life. My father has mentioned many times that Maplah Lahala had a very painful affect on Achachan both physically and mentally.

Refugees from Mapilah Lahala started pouring into Kozhikode seeking help from K Madhavan Nair and other leaders. He did not hesitate to dive deep to help the refugees. A congress relief committee was established under his leadership. His house which was the Congress office then became the Relief committee office as well and all the operations for the relief was conducted from there. Money started pouring in from all parts of India as Gandhiji himself requested people to contribute. Relief camps for 25,000 people were established in various places where food, clothing and essentials were provided It clearly shows his spirit of service and sacrifice and made me very proud of him.

 

(From K.P.Kesava Menon's autobiography)

Removal of untouchability in Kerala

K. Madhavan Nair with other congress leaders fought hard to remove the caste system and untouchability in Kerala. They formed the Kerala anti-untouchability committee to eradicate this bane of the Hindu community. He with others, worked tirelessly to let lower caste students into Zamorin’s college, Kozhikode; organized scores of events to encourage inter-dining upper and lower castes; and fought for accessibility for lower castes to public places including temples. The roads in front of Tali temple in Kozhikode were closed for lower castes until K Madhavan Nair along with other leaders decided to walk in front of the temple with a close friend, Mr. C. Krishnan, a successful thiyya lawyer at the Madras high court and other members of lower castes and removed a decree from the bulletin board prohibiting lower castes from walking on the road in front of the temple. This incident encouraged the lower castes to walk on Tali Temple road from then on.

In 1924 March 15^th, K Madhavan Nair was selected as the director of Kerala untouchability Committee. On March 30^th Vaikyom Satyagraha began. Lower caste people were banned from entering the temple or walk on the roads and public spaces around the temple.  The fight was to let everyone use the roads and public places and to let lower caste people into the temple. As the people who were protesting were facing many hurdles, a delegation which included K Madhavan Nair was sent to meet Gandhiji in Juhu, Bombay to ask for assistance. A 20-page letter titled Vaikom struggle signed by K Madhavan Nair and Kurur Namboodiripad was handed over to Gandhiji. They invited Gandhiji to come for a visit to Vaikom to support the endeavor. Gandhiji agreed and gave his full support and it was following the meeting with him that an upper caste pedestrian walk (Savarna Jatha) was arranged from Vaikom to Trivandrum. They met the Princess of Travancore and submitted a petition to open the temple to the public. Gandhiji visited Vaikom on March 8th 1925.

After the success of Vaikom they turned their attention to Guruvayoor. A similar satyagraha was arranged in Guruvayoor temple to let the lower castes into the temple. Even though Kelappan, one of the congress leaders went on a hunger strike for 12 days, the Zamorin who owned the temple did not concede to their demands. Gandhiji then stepped in to handle the matters. A referendum committee was formed. Rajagopalachari, Kasturba Gandhi and Urmila Devi came to assist with the referendum and I was proud to read that K. Madhavan Nair was made the Director of Referendum. In spite of being sick after his arrest for Salt Satyagraha and jail term, he still took up the job which was extremely painful for my grandmother who was worried about his health. 

After the referendum was done, they went to Pune to meet Gandhiji. There were many correspondences between him and Gandhiji during Guruvayoor Satyagraha. Gandhiji talked about the Guruvayoor referendum and its success to the press under the leadership of K Madhavan Nair

Unfortunately, his name is missing from the history of untouchability movement in Kerala and both Vaikom and Guruvayoor satyagraha. This deeply affected me.

Janmi Kudiyan Law (Landlord-Tenant law) in favor of the Kudiyans (Tenants)

On November 6^th 1926 K Madhavan Nair was elected to the Madras legislative council. The Madras government offered him the position of a minister.  Mr. K. Madhavan Nair declined stating that he wanted to focus his attention discharging duties of the President of KPCC as the freedom movement was gaining momentum. He knew he could do not do full justice to both the roles as the congress president and as a minister for the Madras Government.  While in Madras assembly as the representative from Malabar, he fought to alter the Janmi Kudiyan Niyamam (Landlord-Tenant Law) . On January 29^th 1927 presided by the governor of Madras, a Janmi Kudiyan Round table conference was held for 4 days. Not happy with the outcome in that meeting he argued incessantly at other occasions to change the law and even wrote a letter to Jawaharlal Nehru who was the ICC president then stating that he would resign his position in the assembly if no action is taken to help the kudiyans (tenants). Due to his untiring work a bill supporting the Kudiyans was passed on October 15^th 1929. He received many accolades at that time for the hard work he did for the bill. However it is not mentioned in Kerala history.

Janmi- Kudiyan (Landlord-Tenant) Round table conference participants

Mathrubhumiyude Janayithavu (Father of Mathrubhumi Newspaper)

Many leaders including Moidu Moulavi, V R Menon etc have commented that K Madhavan Nair was the life blood and heart and everything of the newspaper Mathrubhumi. It was under his leadership that the Newspaper was registered with him as the first Managing Director.

There is one part of Mathrubhumi’s history that many do not know about. To buy a building and the press machine for Mathrubhumi, the founding directors needed Rs. 20,000 in 1923. They could raise only Rs. 12,000. The rest of the money was given by K Madhavan Nair from his own savings. He wanted the newspaper to start at any cost free of debt.  However, over the next 5 years the paper did not do well and got into a debt of Rs.13,000. It came to a point where they would have had to sell the buildings and the press. K Madhavan Nair again bailed the Newspaper out by pawning everything he had (which included his land, house and wife’s jewelry) for the money. While giving a check to the then Manager Mr. Krishnan Nair he requested that the interest be paid every month otherwise he cannot pay his children’s school fees.  Achamma was with him and V.R. Menon in Mathrubhumiyude Charithram Vol 1 has said that he saw her wiping her tears moving her face away from them, my father and his older brother who were small kids then, was with him. It was painful to see that the Mathrubhumi website and the Wikipedia page mentions none of this even though many associated with Mathrubhumi have mentioned that he was the father of Mathrubhumi and was involved from its inception till his death.

Salt Satyagraha

Moithu Moulavi a great freedom struggle leader states that even though Kelappan was the leader heading the Salt Satyagraha, all help was done by K Madhavan Nair and he even made financial contributions to the cause. K Kelappan writes that it was the speech Madhavan Nair gave that motivated the youth to march with vigor and enthusiasm. Even though K Madhavan Nair had health issues he walked with them to Payyannur with great fervor. When Kelappan was arrested on May 12th and sent to jail, K. Madhavan Nair was made the leader of Salt Satyagraha on May 17^th in the KPCC meeting held in Payyanur and he included many other protests along with the banning of salt; like burning of foreign clothes, picketing shops that sell foreign goods, make people sign a document that states that they will buy only goods made in India, encourage everyone to weave and wear Khadar clothes, banning liquor etc. He even inspired women and children to take part in these projects.  On July 9^th he was arrested along with a few others and sent to jail for his involvement in these activities. Again, none of this is mentioned in the history books of Kerala that we studied including the chapter about Salt Satyagraha.

He was a prolific writer too. He wrote poetry in many magazines, contributed articles regularly to Mathrubhumi and also wrote the book Malabar Kalapam, an eye witness information about the Moplah Lahala (Muslim Rebellion) that happened in 1921. During Gandhiji's visits to Kerala, he used to translate all of Gandhiji's speeches instantaneously. He even translated Gandhiji's autobiography " My experiments with truth". Mathrubhumi published his translated version on May 24th 1928.

K Madhavan Nair passed away at the young age of 51 on September 28^th 1933 due to cancer. My father was just 16.

After finding out so much about my Grandfather I started feeling very sad. Sometimes tears swelled up in my eyes when I read all the information, how could historians choose to ignore someone who had sacrificed his career, his family, his savings sometimes even his reputation to serve the nation before the age of 51? Then I knew why Akbar Ali Sir was so adamant that I know more about my grandfather and let others know about him too.

Same article was translated into Malayalam and was published in Janmabhumi Newspaper (In Malayalam). You can read it here: Click

Indebted to Janmabhumi for doing so.

Recently Mathrubhumi published a few articles about him including one written by Shashi Tharoor. Thanking Mathrubhumi for recognizing his contribution.

1) https://www.mathrubhumi.com/features/features-1.5441861

2) https://www.mathrubhumi.com/print-edition/kerala/kpcc-first-president-k-madhavan-nair-1.5392857

3) https://www.mathrubhumi.com/books/features/centinary-of-first-kerala-political-imprisonment-k-madhavan-nair-u-gopalamenon-moideen-koya-1.5438371?fbclid=IwAR0_0ty_xjkNGW6FZRnsjm3lVfpEl-dp45-FFigcPxPCr3oX00SbrhiHN3c

4) ഓർക്കാം ആ കൈയൊപ്പുകൾ, ശശി തരൂർ......

https://www.mathrubhumi.com/features/politics/100-years-of-kpcc-1.5395804