People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

No. 40

October 03, 2004

1904

Was born in Mavilayi, Cannanore District.

1923

Became schoolteacher in an elementary school.

1926-29

Participated in Congress activites.

1930

Joined a satyagraha and was jailed. Became full-time political worker.

1931

Participated as a Captain of the volunteers, in the Guruvayoor Temple-entry Satyagraha.

1934

Joined Congress Socialist Party, founded in Kerala. 

1936 

Led unemployed jatha from Cannanore to Madras-600 miles on foot.

1937-38

Participated in workers’ struggles and militant peasant agitations.

1939

Joined Communist Party.

1941

Escaped from Vellore Jail.

1946-47

Jailed and spent Independence Day in prison.

1948-51

Jailed under preventive detention; case in Supreme Court.

1951

Elected President of AIKS.

1952

Elected to Lok Sabha and became Leader of the Communist Party in Parliament. Elected subsequently in 1957, 1962, 1967 and 1971, Parliamentary elections.

1952

Visited China and the Soviet Union, attending the 19th Congress of the CPSU.

1957

Participated in the Samyukta Maharashtra and Mahagujarat movement. Arrested in Gujarat.

1958

Went to Punjab to aid the peasants in the anti-betterment levy struggle.

1959

Led the struggles of Amravathi peasants in Kerala and went on prolonged hunger strike.

1960

Led peasant jatha in Kerala demanding land reform.

1962

Jailed by the Congress government.

1963

Led peasants against eviction and police terror in Keerithode, Kerala.

1963

Among the 32 leaders of the National Council of the CPI who walked out.

1964

Participated in the Seventh Congress of the CPI(M) elected to the CC and PB in which position he remained till his death.

1965-66

Jailed by the Congress government.

1970

Gave leadership to the militant hutment dwellers struggle of agricultural labour in Kerala where scores died in police firings and goonda attacks.

1972

Participated in the Kerala surplus land struggle and was arrested.

1975

Arrested under MISA and later released.

1977

Visited Cannanore district to oppose police-Congress repression.

March 22, 1977

Died in Trivandrum Medical College hospital after a severe stroke.