Memoirs of a SocialistAttingal Gopala Pillai

An autobiography with a difference, Shri Attingal Gopala Pillai’sMemoirs of a Socialist makes us realise, in more ways than one, theinscrutable intrigues of politics today. It is quite natural that in this politicalage, politicians, especially the scheming and crooked, rule the roost.And the humane, sincere and genuinely dedicated to the cause of theweak and the miserable, often find themselves high and dry. True, in anage which puts a premium on dishonesty, opportunism and defection,sincere and honest ones find themselves deftly sidelined.

Shri Attingal Gopala Pillai’s name has been a byword in thehomes of all in the southern districts of Kerala ie. in the erstwhile nativestates of Travancore and Cochin. Once a member of the KeralaLegislative Assembly (1970-76), he has been a committed socialistever since the days of PSP and late Pattom Thanu Pillai. A well-knownTrivandrum-based lawyer and a seasoned trade-unionist, he has hadan impressive and commendable track record. His crisp and pointedreminiscences of events in his personal life as well as those in our State’spolitical history take us down the memory lane: reading of Memoirs ofa Socialist is quite enlightening and rewarding. What emerges throughthem is Shri Attingal Gopala Pillai’s unique personality; loving andlovable, committed yet transparent, and ever service-minded and self-effacing.

Prof. G.N. Panikkar

Price Rs. 100/-Sahrudaya Books,Trivandrum - 695 575

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

For no less than half a century, I had been in the socio-politicalrealm of the State. I could also serve my brethren as a member of theState Legislative Assembly from 1970 to 1976.

A devout socialist as I am, I worked as the Chairman of thePraja Socialist Party (PSP) for a few years. I have never bartered thepolitical principles for any kind of personal gains. Bitter to the core hadbeen my political experiences. I had been sidelined by the carpet-baggers, opportunists, power-brokers and the fortune-seekers whocame to dominate the party. I quit electoral politics after issuing astatement that senior leaders should quit electoral politics. But nonefollowed suit.

My friends and well-wishers organised and celebrated mySathabhishekam in 2005 and brought out a souvenir to whichprominent people from many walks of life contributed articles whichbore testimony to the love and esteem they held for me. The idea ofwriting an autobiography by me was mooted in that meeting. AccordinglyI started writing and the same was brought out in two parts under thetitle Memoirs of a Socialist. This book is an English version thereof.

Among those who extended full support and lent maximumhelp, the names of late Poojanilayam Sasi and his wife Smt. PoovachalUsha, now the Managing Editor of Arthek Bi-monthly deserve specialmention here. I am very greatful to both of them. I also offer my thanksand regards to Justice K.S. Paripoornan and Thottam Rajasekharan

for their foreword and Prologue respectively to this book. I would alsolike to place my gratitude on record towards the owner and staffmembers of Akshara Offset Press, Trivandrum for executing the printingof this book neatly. I also owe my gratitude to Prof. G.N. Panikkarwho has consented to examine this book and bless this book with hisappreciation. I also thank Mr. A.N. Balan and his son Mr. B. Anand(Corpus DTP Centre, Bakery Jn, Trivandrum) for doing the typesettingand making this book ready for printing.

I was happy when I entered politics as a young idealistdisregarding my father’s (Late Adv. Thampanoor Narayana Pillai)warning. But retired from politics as an old, desperate and disconsolateman. Politics today has become a refugee camp.

Thiruvananthapuram Attingal Gopala PillaiNov. 2009 ‘Mahesh’, Sasthamangalam,

Thiruvananthapuram - 10

MEMOIRSMEMOIRSMEMOIRSMEMOIRSMEMOIRSOFOFOFOFOF

A SOCIALISTA SOCIALISTA SOCIALISTA SOCIALISTA SOCIALIST

AAAAATTINGTTINGTTINGTTINGTTINGAL GOPAL GOPAL GOPAL GOPAL GOPALA PILLAIALA PILLAIALA PILLAIALA PILLAIALA PILLAI

EnglishMEMOIRS OF A SOCIALIST

(Autobiography of Attingal Gopala Pillai)First published in Sept. 2009

Copy right :Attingal Gopala Pillai

Published bythe AuthorTypesetting

Anand Corpus, Trivandrum-14Printed at

Akshara Offset, TrivandrumPrice Rs. 100/-

FOREWORD

Justice K.S.Paripoornan(Former Judge, S.C of India)

Attingal Sri.N.Gopala Pilla, Advocate and Politician is a wellknown figure in Kerala. I had occasion to go through a good portion ofthe draft manuscript of his autobiography. It makes interesting reading.It reflects to some extent the social, political and economic condition ofthe State in general for over a period of 75 years.

Mr.Pillai was born in 1094 M.E at Attingal . He is the son ofMr. Narayana Pilai a leader in Attingal Bar, in those days. He had hisearly education at Government School, Attingal and thereafter atMaharaja’s College, Trivandrum and St. Xaviers College atPalayamcottai. He studied law at Law College, Belgaum. As a student,he was very much interested in sports.

His class-mates occupied high position in later life. To mentiona few of them, Sri. G.Bhaskaran Nair, Chief Secretary to Government,Sri. Narayanan Nair, retired Secretary to Government, Sri.NeelakantanNair, Managing Director of a Government Company, Sri. T.P.K Nair,son of late veteran politician Sri. Pattom Thanu Pillai and Mr.S EaswaraIyer who became a Member of Paliament and a doyen of the Bar etc.etc.

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Mr.Pillai enrolled as an Advocate in the T.C.High Court in 1950.He practiced at Trivandrum, Attingal etc. He was attracted by Dr. RamManohar Lohia’s speeches, the veteran socialitst. Thereafter he beganto take active part in politics and developed a passion to serve thecountry and the people. This resulted in Mr.Pillai taking more interest inTrade Union activities and he began to handle cases connected withTrade Union etc.

In letter and spirit, he became a Socialist and rubbed shoulderswith veteran politicians like late Pattom Thanu Pillai, late Sri.C.AchuthaMenon and others. He became the Chairman of the newly formed PrajaSocialist Party. The events so turned out that Mr. Pillai became anardent crusader against corruption and injustice.

It will be interesting to note that in the Legislative Assembly hemoved a private anti-corruption bill when late Sri.C.Achutha Menonwas the Chief Minister. It was perhaps the first of its kind in India.

He entered politics by about 1951 and contested the assemblyelections in 1952, 1957, 1965 and 1967. He was elected to theLegislative Assembly from Trivandrum East constituency in 1970. Mr.Pillai took the initiative in setting up the Trivandrum Railway Divisionand also was an active participant in the agitation to establish a Benchof the High Court at Trivandrum.

He was an able legislator, active politician and a crusaderagainst injustice and corruption. Mr. Pillai makes good friends and agentleman to the tips of his fingers. He has friends and well-wishers inall walks of life.

A mere perusal of his autobiography would show, to someextent, the currents and cross-currents that prevailed in this State at thetime he was in politics. The social upheavals and the extent to which aparty can play in the polity is vividly given.

It is true that the autobiography to a great extent deals with hislife from birth, his family, his studies, his career and his pursuits inpolitics.But, at the same time, it brings out a reasonable measure thetone and temper of those times, which reflected us every major eventthat took place in the State.

The autobiography makes interesting reading and will becherished by persons who love and appreciate the honest and corruptfree political life and atmosphere. I have no doubt that the various aspectsand incidents dealt with by Mr. Pillai will go a long way in appreciatingand understanding the difficulties of a honest and straight forwardpolitician.

In spite of his honest, sincere and devoted work as a politician,one wonders why Mr.Pillai did not achieve or get a top position ingovernance, which he richly deserved. It may be his fate. But, can it besurmised in such a simple fashion? It is for the people to ponder over.Probably, it is a riddle or enigma in a political career.

I wish Mr. Pillai a fullfledged happy and healthy life and successin his endeavour.

K.S.PARIPOORNAN.

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Prologue

ATTINGAL GOPALAPILLAI,

AN INDEFATIGABLE SOCIALISTThottam Rajasekharan

It is now more than six decades since India becameIndependent. Our student community now belongs to the fourthgeneration of the Independent India and as such they do not know verymuch about the struggles, sacrifices, the massacres etc. that markedthe protracted freedom movement. The figure of Gandhi is familiar tothem since his picture is printed in currency notes and his name and rolehave not been completely removed from the history text books. Forpreparing projects which form part of the curriculum some studentslook for books Nehru had written of which the magnum opus being theDiscovery of India. It is still a pity that we do not have a comprehensivehistory of our struggle for Indepedence. What we have today is thehistory which is not yet free from the controversy of being biased andapocryphal.

It is still more pathetic when we turn to Kerala. The history ofstruggle for independence in Kerala is the story of lives of a bevy ofcourageous idealists, adventurous and educated individuals and theirresistance against the administration of Travancore and Cochin, thetwo of the three kingdoms that existed before the formation of Kerala

state. The other kingdom was Malabar where there were some sporadicand isolated movement which arguably belonged to the freedommovement. A host of individuals sacrificed their lives and properties forthe movement. They are now little known to the present generation.Our present generation only rarely remember those great souls whosedream was to make freedom, democracy, secularism, equality etc. theindispensable part of Indian ethos and way of life. It was also the resultof their sacrifice that socialism was enshrined in the constitution of Indiaas our ultimate goal.

Though the socialist movement was the off-shoot of the freedommovement, it gained momentum and grew into a parallel movementalong with the mainstream freedom movement. Nehru, educated underthe tutelage of such great social democratic thinkers as Harold Laskyet.al., of London School of Economics had enshrined the principles ofsocialism in the agenda of freedom movement. This apart those whopropogated the gospel of socialism included the stalwarts likeJayaprakash Narayan, Asok Mehta, Achut Patwardhan, Aruna Asifali,Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia et.al. Among them Jayaprakash and his ilkwere liberal in attitude while Lohia and his friends who received westerneducation and experience had taken the extreme line. As such theycould influence and bring to their fold the student community and theintelligentia of that time. They had their followers in Kerala also. Theprominent socialists in the Malabar region were Dr. K.B. Menon, R.M.Manakkalath, Arangil Sreedharan, M.B. Menon and Mathai and JohnManjuran. Their counterparts in Travancore area were mainly PonnaraSreedhar, Attingal Gopalapillai, N. Sreekantan Nair, K. Balakrishnan,K. Sadanandan and D. Vivekanandan. As there were many splintergroups such as ISP, PSP, SSP, KSP, RSP etc. they could not bring thepeople under a single umbrella of socialist movement. Aspirations forposition in parliament, trade unions and created internal dissenssionand as a result this movement fragmented into small pieces and ulimatelydisintegrated. The entry of Pattom Thanu Pillai into the PSP draggedthe party into the field of nasty power politics. He did not have the

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hereditary instinct by birth to lead a party on socialist path. Weatheringall storms and with dexterity and courage Ponnara Sreedhar and AttingalGopalapillai stood with PSP which had since become a sinking ship.

Among the socialists the life of Attingal Gopala Pillai is notablefor many reasons. Born and brought up in a Nair conservative familywhen a dynastic royal dispensation was in vogue in the country he wasalso not free from a feudal mindset. As such he was motivated by therule of Law, judiciary, educational system etc. that existed under theBritish rule. A brilliant student, an accomplished sportsman, a staunchcrusader against corruption and injustice, a vocal critic of themalfeasance as he was, Attingal Gopala Pillai was denied the high rightfulposition in governmental administration which he richly deserved. Hewas unequivocal and forthright in his opinion. He has no fear to air hisopinions which he thought were corrupt. He had as a result of this, somany detractors in his own party. He never harboured hypocrisy in hismind. He always stood for probity and rectitude in public life. Whilestudying for Law in the Belgaum Law College, he came under thecharismatic influence of the socialist idealogues like Ram Manohar Lohiaand Nath Pai. He realized that socialism was the only remedy and thepath for the liberation of the people of the country. He decided fromthen on to stand firmly on to the socialist path notwithstanding the hurdlesand financial difficulties he had to undergo. He fruitfully and meaningfullycompleted 84 years of his eventful life and this book is a nosegay of hisvariegated experiences in social life.

Though in this book Sri Gopala Pillai had narrated the differentphases in his life it is not an autobiography in the ordinary sense. Healways held aloft a real sportsmanspirit throughout his life perhaps sincehe was a good athlete himself. He had no personal axe to grind inpolitics. There were several occasions when he missed between lipand cup his due share because of the manoeuvrings of the schemy andwily friends in his own party. Politicians are power hungry but GopalaPillai was an exception to this. Corruption is considered a virtue inpolitics. But he always revolted against corruption.

In this book he is sharing with us the story of his untaintedpolitical life. Readers may find beautiful pearls in this to adorn theirshowcases. In this book you will surely meet a person who is the epitomeof courage and virtue, embodiment of greatness and an apotheosis ofuncomprimising principles. Really a role model worthy of emulation.

I, with profound pride and privilege present to you this story ofa man who loved and served the people with a sense of sacrifice andrenunciation.

Thiruvananthapuram

01-08-2009

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Former Travancore Kingdom

Extract from Travancore State Manual written by SadasyaThilakan T.K. Velupillai, B.A., B.L., Historian, gifted Orator and parttime Lecturer in the Law College, Trivandrum.

Travancore occupies a prominent place among the first rankingamong the Indian states. There are states with larger area, larger revenueand larger military forces. But no political unit in India presents a pictureof such continuous history and cultural tradition of substantialachievement and steady progress in the moral and material welfare ofthe people of this ancient state.

The name Travancore is the anglicised form of Thiruvithamcode,the abode of prosperity also known as Srivilavancode. Venad is acorruption of Vanavenad, the land of the celestials. As the state hasbeen in existence from remote antiquity it has come to be known byseveral other names each of which emphasise a particular fact of historyor aspect of several intent. Thus Vanchidesam means the kingdom ruledover by the descendants of the ancient Chera kings who had their capitalat Thiruvanchukulam. Dharmarajyam denotes the land of good laws,piety, truth and charity.

Travancore is richly endowed by nature with practically unlimitedresources and has evolved a typical civilisation during the period ofover 2000 years of recorded history. Indian poets of eminence havesung its praises describing the beauty of its forests and rivers, thefragrance of its sandal, the abundance of pepper and its cardamoms

and the wealth of its cococunt. The martial glory of its men and therefinement and charm of its women have evoked numberless tributes.The writings of foreign travellers are full of appreciation of the countryand its people. Here nature has spent upon the land her richest bounties;the sun fails not by day, the rain falls in dew season and an eternalsummer gilds the scene. Where the land is capable of cultivation thereis no denser population. Where it is occupied by jungle or backwateror lagoon there is no more fairy landscape (Lord Curson of Keddlestons,speech at Trivandrum, 1900 Courtesy Travancore State Manual).

Lord Connemara, another Governor of Madras compared itto Italy and called it a fairy land. Here nature is clad in her brightest andmost inviting robes. The scenery is magnificent. The field and gardensspeak of plenty, and dwellings of the people are substantial andcomfortable.

The area of the state falls within three natural divisions. The flatcoast strip or lowlands, the mountainous region on the east or thehighlands and the intervening belt of hills and valleys or the midlands.Trees grow in abundance in all parts of the state.

The coconut palm, the Kalpavriksha of Kerala gives the peoplea perennial crop and they are able to earn their livelihood with minimumof labour.

There are many towns with modern facilities and comforts oflife. Trivandrum is the capital city of the state and was the seat of theruling family. The temple of Sree Padmanabhaswamy and the palacesof the maharaja particularly Kowdiar Palace and a large number ofpublic buildings add to the beauty. Travancore is rich in natural resourcesand has immense wealth in the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms.

There are many varieties of timber trees and plants. Teak andblackwood are most important among valuable trees while sandalwoodand ebony are also found in certain places. Reeds like bamboo areused for manufacture of paper, cardboard and artificial silk. The coconuttree provides the raw material for many kinds of manufactured goods

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which are used for export as well as for local consumption. Copra andcoir occupy a prominent place in the world market.

The hills produce tea and rubber in large quantities. The firstplantation in Travancore was opened in 1899 by His Highness MaharajaSrimulam Thirunal. A considerable amount of rubber, tea, pepper, ginger,turmeric and cardamom are exported annually. Among fruits the mostcommon are plantain banana, jack, mango, pineapple and cashew.Fisheries are also of considerable importance.

The mineral wealth of Travancore is of wide variety. Kaolindeposits are being used in ceramic manufacture. Graphite, mica andmagnetite occur in certain places. Others of commercial value aremonacite, illminite zircon and cinemanite.

The Government of His Highness Maharaja Sri Chithira Thirunalstarted the construction of hydroelectric works on a very large scale.There are many rivers in Travancore with adequate supply of waterand sufficient plunge.

The Hydroelectric scheme resulted in building up of variousindustrial projects like bleaching, paper and rubber factories and anumber of textile and other industries. The people are of many racesand creeds. Hindus, christians and muslims live and work together in allmatters of general public interest despite differences in caste and faith.

The Maharaja of Travancore venerated their own religion andadhered strictly to the principles of hinduism. But they were equallytolerant towards other forms of faith and therefore the spread ofchristianity in Travancore was facilitated by the generous attitude of theruling family.

It has been said of Maharaja Srimulam Thirunal that no indianruler dedicated more energy and attention to public affairs and sanctionedmore funds for nation building activities, education, public health,improvement of communications, irrigation and industries. He had greatappreciation for the British system of Government and established thelegislative council popular assembly and a large number of municipalcouncils.

A large proportion of public revenue was spent by thegovernment in providing educational facilities like schools and collegesand as a result led to a high degree of literacy. It was during the reign ofthe last maharaja His Highness Sri Chithira Thirunal that the templeentry proclamation was issued by which entry into the hindu templeswas opened to all hindus irrespective of birth, caste or community andno restrictions were placed on hindus entering and worshiping attemples. This proclamation was hailed throughout India and the civilisedworld as a great charter of liberty.

From the earliest times the King was the head of the state. Thesystem of government which was in vogue in several states of Keralaenabled the rulers to lead the management of villages and districts tothe prominent citizens of each locality.

The kings were contented with the protection of the kingdomfrom external enemies and maintenance of law and order. The affairs ofeach locality were looked after by the representatives of the people,the smallest organisation being the Thara and a number of Tharas formedgroups called Nads. The kingdom was divided into a certain number ofNads in each of which there was a Naduvazhi or chief. The duty of theNaduvazhy was to contribute the prescribed number of soldiers whenrequisition was made by the king.

The civil Government of particular locality was entrusted toanother class of officers called Desavazhis. The king seldom interferedin details of local administration. Consequently the Naduvazhis andDesavazhis wielded considerable influence.

So did the devaswoms which were more or less independentenclaves within the state enjoying a very large measure of autonomousgovernment.

If the king was strong, things went on smoothly. A feeble reignon the other hand gave abundant opportunities for misgovernance,oppression and strife. The government of the king was personal in its

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nature and the success or failure of the administration depended on theability and integrity of the ruler from whom emanated whole authority.

Many departments and institutions came into being in the latterpart of the reign of maharaja Srimulam Thirunal. Many departmentsand institutions are described in the light of the modern standards.

The growth of legislature activity in the state and the reformsintroduced by His Highness Srimulam Thirunal and His HighnessSrichithra Thirunal in the administration and powers of the legislatureshow the history of progress in legislation in considerable detail.

Contents

Chapter

1. About my parents

2. My educactional pursuits

3. My stint as Advocate, a Social and Trade Union activist.

4. Married life

5. I am still a socialist

6. Conclusion

7. Anexures : Speaking Letters and Correspondences.

8. Eulogies

9. Ram Manohar Lohia - the sagacious socialist

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Chapter OneABOUT MY PARENTS

I was born in the Pooram Star of Medam of VernacularCalendar ( corresponding to April- May according to ChristianCalendar) of M. E. 1094. My date of birth coincides with the TrissurPooram the famous temple carnival festival jointly celebrated by theVadakkumnatha and Paramekkavu Temples. It is a spectacular showconducted in the presence of more than forty caparisoned panchydermsand in the presence of a throng of lakhs of devotees who come towitness the festival from far off places. Known as Trissur Pooram, thisis one of the highlights of Trissur which is considered as the culturalcapital of the State of Kerala. I was the second son of my parents, myelder borther being Balakirshna Pillai and two younger sisters Saradaand Sarojini.

My father was Thampanoor Narayana Pillai. He marriedLekshmy Pillai Ponnamma Pillai who belonged to Valiaveedu, an ancientfamily in Chiranyinkil. My father had his higher secondary education atthe Fort High School, Thiruvananthapurm,one of the premier educationalinstitutions in the city. He had among his class mates and who later roseto prominent positions in public life late Mr. G. Parameswaran Pillai,High Court Judge and later adorned the position of Chief Secretary tothe Government of Travancore. Another class mate was none otherthan Mr. P. Parameswaran Pillai , the District Peshkar.

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My father was a good and brilliant student. It was his ambitionto become an advocate though his financial position was so precarious.Some affluent persons came forward to sponsor his education seeingin him a talented prospective son-in-law. But highly honest as he was,he spurned all those fortunes proffered to him and decided to do theone-year pleadership which he passed with distinction. This enabledhim to pursue legal practice upto the District Court. Neelakanta Pillai,alias Potti Ammavan who was well versed in English was working inthe police headquarters of Travancore was living in Thampanoor. Heknew my father very well. Lakshmy Pillai Ponnamma Pillai who laterbecame my mother was the niece of Neelakanta Pillai. It was he whoplayed an instrumental role in my father’s marriage with Leksmy PillaiPonnamma Pillai. They were ideal couples with both of them servingeach other for building up a happy and successful family which shouldsow the seeds for a good generation and lineage. My father startedpractice in Attingal under Valiachan Kochu Krishnan Pillai as his junior.After a few years my father launched his independent practice and hehad a long stint of successful legal practice . He became a prominentVakil and earned fame and influence among his clients and public aswell. He stood as a candidate for Attingal Municipal Council election inwhich he was elected unopposed as President. In those days, the headof the political office was designated as Municipal President which isnow Municipal Chairman. The election rules prevalent at that timestipulated that anybody from outside can be elected as President bythe members. Thus my father was fielded by the members and madehim President of the Municipality. He assumed the Office of the president.He studied the rules and procedures of the Municipality and he in thecourse found that there was a provision for Rs.25 as Car Allowancefor the president per month. Taking the benefit from this provision hebought a car for the first time and drew the monthly allowance of Rs.25/-.The car allowance episode is an ample proof of my father’s sagacityand resourcefulness.

My father laid good foundation for a strong family when hepurchased 70 cents of land and constructed a house in the traditionalarchitecture with a Naalukettu and as many as 15 rooms. He also hadhis share of family problems.

My brother had just appeared for the interview for admissionto the Science College. One day he came home at night fully drenchedin the heavy rain that lashed the town. He caught fever and was laid upwith high temperature and severe body pain. Dr.Samuel who examinedhim found that he had pneumonia. Accompanying this, he developed acondition wherein he had his both legs oozing with pus. Due to this hehad to give up his studies in the Science College. His bizarre diseasewas diagnosed as due to the presence of deadbone and surgery wasthe only remedy. Dr.Kesavan Nair son of Dr. Raman Thampi who hadjust returned from abroad after completing his FRCS treated him. Mybrother recovered from the illness. He later joined a one-year dairydiploma course in Bangalore. On completing it, he was appointed asPuliyara Farm Manager by the then Agricultural Secretary. The farmwas at Chenkottai which was then a part of the erstwhile Travancore.Now this place is in Tamil Nadu. At Chenkottai he stayed with anAgricultural Inspector who was a graduate in agriculture. After the Statereorganization, Chenkottai was annexed to Tamil Nadu andconsequently my brother had the option to join the veterinary departmentof the Kerala State. He later became the Director of Dairy Departmentof the State in 1962.

In his period itself, all the district head quarters opened dairyproject units. For that purpose, he used to visit the village assistantsalso forgetting possession of the land. In 1954, when Pattom ThanuPillai minstry was ruling, Sri. P.S. Nataraja Pillai was in charge of thediary development projects and he selected my brother for higher studiesin New Zealand. When my brother was in New Zealand, my fatherpassed away and I was in jail in connection with the agitation forestablishment of a High Court bench in Trivandrum.

My brother’s marriage took place before he left for NewZealand. He married Smt. Parukutty Amma of Govinda Mangalam,

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Puthenchanthai, Trivandrum. They had only one daughter named Lalitha.She was married to Sunderasan, son of Sri. Attoor Parameswara Kurupof Aikara House, Kanyakumari Dist. Sunderasan was an ExecutiveEngineer in Matsyafed, Trivandrum. They had only one daughter namedAiswarya. While she was still in school, her mother Lalitha passed away.She is now an Engineer employed at Texas Instruments, Bangalore.She married Vijayanand, a software manager employed at Rasa MicroElectronics (India) Inc. They have a daugther named Vineetha who issix years old. After the death of Aiswarya’s mother, Sunderasan marriedRemani of Neyyoor and they have a son Aravind Sunderasan.

I have two sisters who are younger to me namely Sarada andSarojini. Sarada was married to Chief Engineer, Travancore TitaniumProducts Ltd. He was Director of India Government Small ScaleIndustries, Advisor to the Tanzanian Govt. in Africa. He was there tillhis retirement and thereafter returned to Attingal. Sarada and G.P. Nairare now no more. They had five children. Two girls Vijayakumari andSanthakumari, of which the latter is married to Muralidharan Nair ofNagaroor. Of the boys, Gopalakrishnan is no more. Mohan Kumar ismarried to Sudha. They have a son named Abhilash who is a student.Jayakumar was working in Tanzania and is now back in Attingal. He isstill a bachelor.

My second sister Sarojini was married to T.N. Gopalan Nair.He belonged to an ancient family of Palkulangara (Aiyampuram House).He was exployed at the Bhilai Steel Plant. They are both no more now.They had two daughters, Indu and Thara. Indu is married to MohanaChandran, Son of Thottavaram Puthenveetil Madhavan Pillai, a freedomfighter. Mohanachandran is running his own business in Hyderabad.They have only one son Vijesh, engineer who is helping his father in thebusiness. Thara is married to Sadanandan, son of Kollomkode K.K.S.Menon, Customs Superintendent, Hyderabad. They have only one sonArjun who is a student. Presently they are living in USA sinceSadanandan is employed there.

My father’s elder brother T.K. Velupillai was a Govt. servantand Retd. Sub-Registrar. He was settled at Kandala near Kattakadawhich lies 20 miles east of Thiruvananthapuram. He had two sons and

two daughters. Chandrasekharan Nair, the eldest son was a good actoreven during his college days and he donned the female roles in dramasand he thus earned a sobriquet of Savitri Chandrasekharan. His wifewas Sarada, daughter of R. Vasavan Pillai, a famous vakil and freedomfighter and had been the President of the State Congress. VasudevanPillai’s brother Krishna Pillai was the Diwan of Travancore.Ramachandran Nair was the second son of my Valiachan (father’s elderbrother) who died only recently. His wife Anandavally lives atThampanoor. The other two daughters ie. my cousin sisters MadhaviAmma and Kamalamma are no more now. Madhavi Amma was marriedto Krishna Pillai their eldest son Gopinathan Nair was Chief Engineerwho married Sreekumari the daughter of his maternal uncleChandrasekharan Nair. Among my close relatives I like Sreekumarivery much and she is the most beloved women of all my relatives on myfather’s side. She showered abundance of affection on me as well asmy father. She lives with her loving and affectionate husband GopinathanNair at Poojappura. Her daughter is Renu whose husband SasidharanNair, the Chief Engineer in Titanium Ltd. Renu-Sasidharan Nair couplelives in Koustubham near Medical College, Trivandrum. Renjith theirson lives in Delhi with his wife Deepa and son Sambhu. Sreekumari’selder brothers are no more. One of her brothers Ramachandran Nairwas Professor in NSS College, Dhanuvachapuram. His widow Saradaand daughter Kavya and Kavya’s husband Advocate Ratheesh areliving at Mettukada. Ravindranath the second son of Krishna Pillai-Madhavi Amma couple was the manager in the Syndicate bank. Hehad two daughters. Ganga, Yamuna. All are living a happy married life.Lalitha is living at Pandalam with her daughter Dr. Rekha. Sarojini’shusband Ramachandran Nair was Professor in the Veterinary College.IG Chandrasekharan is the son-in-law of Ramachandran.

I wish to make a special mention about my cheriamma (mymother’s younger sister). Kamalakshmi Amma was married to KrishnaPillai of Chirayinkeezhu. He was in the medical service of Penag Govt.Now after retirement they came back from Penag and settled atChirayinkeezhu. Now they are no more. They had four sons. The third

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son Dr. K.S. Nair married Radha, uncle’s daughter. He was inSingapore’s Veterinary service. He came back from Singapore afterretirement and is now living at Peroorkada Indira Nagar. Of their twodauthers the elder daughter Uma is married to Sasikumar, manager inVijaya Bank. Younger daugher Dr. Kamala is Associate Professor inthe Agricultural Univeristy. Dr. Sankaran Nair is her husband. Her sonNandagopal is a software engineer working in Banglore.

Chapter Two

MY EDUCATIONAL PURSUIT

My first alma mater is the Government Malayalam School atAttingal where I studied upto IV Standard. From there I moved to theGovernment High School, Attingal. In those days, most of the teacherswere Brahmins who had acquired high educational qualifications fromMadras University. There was one under graduate teacher. He wasGovinda Swamy Iyer. The quality and standard of education at thattime was such that I still vividly remember the classes and what I wastaught by those teachers. Govinda Swamy’s son was a class mate ofmine. His name was Shivaraman. I came to know that later he tookIFS. I have heard the sad news that he was killed in a plane crash inwhich the great Atomic Scientist Homi Bhaba was also among thosekilled. Among my classmates who rose to prominence were BhaskaranNair, Easwara Iyer, M.P. Neelakandan Nair who was ManagingDirector, Forest Industries and Swaraj Mani, Chairman of Corporation.Another person whose name I do not recollect now was Conservatorof Forest of Rajastan.

My father cherished high dreams about my future. After I havepassed my school final, my father wanted me to take the Ist group inthe college. He even promised me to send me to England for higherstudies provided that I passed with a first class. In those days, thecollege hours were from 8 am to 1 pm. Iwas put up in the Nair UnionHostel. He took me to the hostel warden’s house at Rishimangalam.

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He was a retired police commissioner and known for strict discipline.My father took me to the warden to show that he had personal concernfor his son’s disciplined college life and to complete my studies properly.

In those days, the students had for breakfast kanji( gruel) andthe warden had insisted that before serving the meals, a small sample ofeach item should be taken to him for approval. This was a procedurefor avoiding complaints regarding the quality of the food served to thestudents at the hostel. He knew very well that the discipline can not beenforced unless the interests and welfare of the students are also takencare of. He wanted to remove any kind of discontentment among thestudents. He was such an honest man and well meaning as well. Hewas a friend of my father besides being one of his clients in some litigation.

In the morning it was a regular sight of the Travancore StateForce’s march to the Court maidan at Pazhavangadi. I used to watchthis and I had even to cut my classes to do so. About this time I happenedto see an advertisement for selecting cadets to the State force and Iapplied for it. My attention was completely diverted and made muchefforts to get a selection to the force. I have not only not been selectedto the force, but also lost two year of studies. How loving my fatherhad been, he took me to Palayamcotta and secured an admission tothe St. Zavier’s college there. The Principal of the college was a FrenchPriest. Father Bonacar, our Chemistry Porfessor was a German. Englishprofessor was one Mr. Stephen from Kottayam. Malayalam professorswere Messrs George and Mr. Devassy..Mr. Arul swamy was the viceprincipal and also the hostel warden. After watching me playing Footballand Ball badminton one day, he called me to his room and told me toform a football team with boys brought from Trivandrum. He alsopromised that such boys will be exempted from paying fees. There wasa best hockey team in the college. So he wanted to have a similarlybest football team also for the college. When I reached home, I foundthat a letter sent by Mr. Arul Swamy to my father had already reachedthere. Therein he had said that my father need not have any anxietyabout me and that I would pass with distinction. But required by him I

could not enrol boys for the football team and I went back emptyhanded. In the meantime our Principal Bonchav had retired and Arulswamy was elevated as the Principal of the college. Prior to theChristmas holidays a badmintor tournament was announced. I was theteam captain and Arul swamy asked me to submit a list of the membersof the team which I did. The principal then asked me to delete thename of Mr. Venkitakrishnan’s name from the list and substitute it withthe name of one Mr. Soundararaj. I knew very well aboutVenkitakrishnan’s calibre. Sounderaraj was not upto the bench mark.So I flatly refused the principal’s proposal. As the team captain mydecision was to prevail.In the tournament our team won the game. ButI was to lose something costlier. My action of refusing the principal’ssuggestion was construed as disobedience and on this charge I wasexpelled from the hostel. The principal was thus wreaking vengeanceon me. I was also detained from appearing for examination.

I could not leave the thread there. I had to pick up and seekalternatives. At that time there was a Hindu College at Tirunelveli. Thenanother problem arose. The T.C from the previous college was required.I approached St.Xavier’s college for my T.C. The principal refused togive my T.C. Thus my admission in the Hindu college stood stalled.Destiny’s ways are inscrutable. A classmate of mine Mr. Krishnan Naircame up with a suggestion, “ What about our applying for a job in theSouthern Railways? He asked. I readily agreed. We sent the application.After a few days memos came to us posting me to the Provident FundSection and Mr Bhaskaran to the Golden Rock. We also got freetickets for traveling from Thiruvananthapuram to Trichy. There I got aconvenient room for stay. I took the opportunity to prepare forexamination. I went to Palayamcottai for examination for part.I and II.For Part III examination the centre was Madurai American College.Bhaskaran told me that Mr. Balakrishnan the fire brand son of formerChief Minister C.Kesavan was a student there and staying nearby.Bhaskaran advised me to stay with Balakrishnan. Apart fromBalakrishnan, Janardhana kurup who later became a noted and

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successful lawyer in Kerala was also staying there. Two other Christianboys were also with them. I joined them as advised by Bhaskaran.

I joined the Law college at Belgaum in 1947. The college andthe hostel were situated in the picturesque place called Thaalakwadi.The period of two years at Belgaum which I spent for studying is etchedvividly in my memory. In fact these two years laid the foundation for myfuture life. There I could interact with students who had come fromdifferent places and speaking different languages. I was staying there inthe Linga Day Hostel which was very near to the college. The knownsocialists Sheraf was in the compound adjacent to my hostel compound.For the I st year batch of LLB students the first period was taken bythe Principal himself. When he called the names students should standup. The Principal asked me from which part of India I was coming. Iimmediately replied that I came from the southern most part of India.Suddenly came his comments. “ Your Ramaswamy has been promisingto visit this college. He has not come so far. So I would keep you heretill he comes”. Ramaswamy was none other than C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer,the Diwan of Travancore who was the redoubtable administratorTravancore never had seen before or after. Our principal had considerednot only Ramasway as his co-worker but also many other stalwartsand luminaries in the field of law. Our principal was a great motivatorwho said winding up the classes,” I want every one of you to play yourfull part for the independence of the country”. My salutations to ourPrincipal. All the students in the college were accomplished lawyers.Among them V.A Naik, Sreekanta Iyer et al became High Court Judgeslater. I hereby place on record my appreciation for Renganatha Raoour full-time professor. I remember a young charming youth who livedin our hostel. His name was M.R.Ranikar. He took BA (hons) andLLB with first class. I felt a special regard for him. I have made friendshipwith all my classmates who had come from Hyderabad where therewas no Law College. Most of them were sons of Lawyers. GangadharaRao hailed from Nellur. He had good proficiency in English and Teluguand he was also a good orator. Ramachandran holder of BA with Frist

Class was an expert in Ping Pong and caroms. I cannot forget Sharmaof Thindivanam and Jayaraman of Ananthapur. We are only threeMalayalees. Myself, Ramadas and N.R.Menon. Both of them weresons of lawyers. N.R.Krishan and Vaikom Narayana Pillai respectively.Then hostel boy Raman was like a Man-Friday to us ready to renderany kind of help to us. The moment we entered the college, the firstthing we would do was to read the Notice Board to see whether therewas any announcement for football tournament or to see the names ofwinners exhibited on the board. I gave my name for both football andbadminton. I had also mentioned that I had participated earlier in InterSchool Football tournaments. In the forthcoming tournament I decidedto participate and I reached the venue early in time. I had consultedabout the position of each participant. The Law College Team won thetournament. I notched three personal goals in the match. This catapultedme to fame in Thalakwad. I remember a few of my team members likeLakshmana Reddy, Forward Sathya Narayana, Jawaji andVenkitaramayya. After I st year examination I came home for vacation.I received intimation from college saying that I had passed.

College was opened for the II year. Kelkar had since retiredas the Principal and Prof Bhat had come to occupy the principal’s chair.Ootty Ramachandra passed in the first class. The girl studentsMangamba and Bissie had also passed. Bissie was the daughter of amililary officer, and she was a sociable and personable girl.

M.J. Mathen, the son of famous rationalist M.C.JosephIrijalakuda joined for the 2nd year LLB. He did his first year in Bombay.Mathen came to the college with his nose in the air and in full splendourwith cigar in his lips,European hat and with modern outfit.

It was during the 2nd year that I came to be familiar with Dr.Lohia. Lohia stayed in Sheraf’s residence.

Since good vegetarian food was not available I had experienceddifficulties in the first year. By the second year Udippi Brahmis hadopened a hotel near the college. Most of the students became its regularcustomers. The food we got from there was homely and satisfactory.Our favourite sambar ( a mixed vegetable curry) was available with the

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daily dish. In Brahmins hotels sambar is a very common variety and it isa very tasty curry for rice , iddlies or dosa.

In the college I was one of the three Secreataries elected winningmore votes than my opponents. Principal Bhat asked me how could Imuster more votes when there were only three malayalees in the college.Then I proudly said that I had three personal goals to my credit in thefootball tournament and Ramachandra who passed in first class hadwritten a poem lauding my achievement and it was put up on the noticeboard. This led me to gain some edge over my rivals. This also helpedme to gain good influence for me among the students. That was exactlythe reason why I could poll more votes in the election to the post ofsecretary. Thus I had an enviable position in the college as the sportssecretary for one year.

Chapter ThreeMY STINT AS ADVOCATE , SOCIAL AND

TRADE UNION ACTIVIST

The year 1949was an annus mirabilis as far as the malayaleesare concerned. It was in 1949 that the two kingdoms of Travancoreand Kochi were merged to form a new State called Travancore-CochinState.The Indian consititution came into force and Kerala came underone dispensation. Thiruvananthapuram was the capital of Kerala. Butthe High court was shifted to Ernakulam which lies in almost the centreof Kerala. For enrolling as an advocate one was required to pass twoselection tests of the Bar Council. After enrolment I started practice inThiruvananthapuram. I took on rent the building which belonged to thefamous Thoppil Tharavad of Vanchiyoor and made it both my officeand dwelling place. The Trivandrum District Court was the district levelapex court under which came the Trivandrum, Neyyatinkara,Nedumangad and Attingal Munsiff Courts.. Almost all cases relating toplantation disputes came to me.Mr. P.P. Wilson was the leader of thePlanatation Workers’ Union. Cases related to Dock workers also wereentrusted to me . Ramalingam Iyer was the leading advocate at thattime. He always appeared for the employers’ and other owners of theplantations. I made use of the law books available in his office libraryas reference books. Since my father dealt with only civil cases booksrelating to labour acts and the like were not with him. Ramalingam

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Ayyar invited me as his junior but I did not accept his offer. His reactionwas only in the form of an appreciation rather than an opprobrium. Hesaid, “ I know you, boy. Your are the son of the renowned ThampannnorNarayana Pillai. It was your father who made K.S.Govinda Pillai veryfamous by passing over to him all the appeal petitions that came hisway”

I could earn the friendship and kinship of a host of successfullawyers at that time. Among them are T.K.Divakaran, M.P.Menon,T.O.Cheruvathur et al. One day Cheruvathur came tomy office andintroduced Krishnan, Editor of Express Daily of which Cheruvathurwas the Trivandrum reporter. He told me that Krishnan had come fromTrissur to file an affidavit in respect of a defamation suit filed byM.N.Govindan Nair agaianstr some derogatory reference to himappeared in the column of the daily. I agreed to take up the case thoughI was a civil lawyer. The case belonged to criminal category. With thehelp of the famous criminal lawyer M.G.Kesava Pillai I filed the Vakalatagainst the defamation petition of M.N.Govindan Nair I also toldKrishnan I would not charge any fees in this case which related toNews Paper having a socialist leaning because I was also a socialist.Krishnan took bail. The cases lasted three years. Panampilly GovindaMenon was also heard as a witness in favour of M.N.Govindan Nar.His statement was also crucial. Finally the parties reached a compromiseand the case was settled. Similarly another case against the Editor ofThaniniram Daily with an yellow image in journalism came to me. In thiscase also vakalat was filed by me. Senior criminal lawyer appeared forThaniniram Krishnan Nair. In the case Krishnan Nair was finallyacquitted. All criminal cases relating to the Trade Unions led byCommunist Party leaders like Hareendran nair and Benjamin wereentrusted to me.

One day morning three persons came to my office. Theyintroduced themselves as Prabhakaran son of the celebrated poetKumaranasan, Nanthancode Bhaskaran and S.M. Noohu.Nedumangad by-election was going to be held. Then they told me that

they came to meet me only because I was a known socialist. Theyknew me as a staunch socialist. So they wanted to field me as a socialistcandidate. I politely refused the offer since I have just commenced myprofessional practice. Nanthancode Bhaskaran was finally tipped asthe candidate. If I remember correctly, congress had no candidate inthe fray. In that by-election the candidate N.N.Pandarathil, fielded bythe Hindu Mandalam was declared elected. Pandarathil was one of myclassmates and he later contested on one of two occasions as CPIcandidates and got elected from Nedumangad Assembly Constituency.

In the notorious 100-rupee counterfeit note case, one Velappanwas the first accused. I used to see this young fellow along with a gangof other youths under a mango tree in the football ground before theMaharaja Science College near the Spencer’s Junction. Velappanbelonged to a financially well off family. His accomplices were the 3rd

accused Mony Rao, an ex-employee of the Nasik Press wherecurrency notes are printed. The accused N.S.Nair was a photographer.The fourth and fifth accused Sosamma and Mariamma were sistersand were Secretarat Staff.For first accused K.G. Kunjukrishna Pillaiand G.Balagangadharan appeared in the court. Since the second accusedhad no advocate, S.Padmanabhan was appointed to plead his case.The famous criminal lawyer in Thiruvananthapuram one day called meto his office and asked me to sign vakalat for Sosamma and Mariamma.The case prolonged for a couple of months. Finally Sosamma andMariamma were acquitted. The other three were sentenced forimprisonment. It was thus proved that I was able to handle criminalcases too. This earned me much name and fame.

I had functioned as Secretary of Titanium Staff Union, Presidentof the Govt.Press Staff Union, President of Hotel Workers Union,President of Retail Ration Shops Association, Kissan PanchayatPreisident and Secretary of District Committee of PSP.

I had participated in the agitation for High Court Bench inThiruvananthapuram and courted arrest in connection with that agitation.I was lodged in the Poojappura and Attakulangara Jails. PonnaraSreedhar was also there with me in the jail.

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In the 1952 election to the Thirukochi, I was proposed as aPSP candidate by K.P.Neelakanta Pillai at the Parliamentary Boardmeeting held for this purpose. Thus my candidature from Varkala wasapproved by the Party Chairman Pattom Thanu Pillai. My name hadbecome synonymous with the place Attingal and I came to be knownas Attingal Gopala Pillai with a place name attached to my personalname. My father Thampanoor Narayana Pillai was at that time thePresident of Attingal Municipality. I was projected as the son of thatNarayana Pillai. This was an added advantage to me. The letterproposing me as the candidate was handed over to me by the officesecretary captain Joseph.

The next day I went to Attingal to seek the blessings of myfather. What my father said spontaneously was thus,” It is a thanklessjob. Make a name in the profession first, then there will be people tofollow you”. I took this as an advice. It was not a fiat from my father. Isaw my father quickly scribbling something on a sheet of paper inMalayalam and handing over it to his clerk for taking it to the Press forimmediate printing. When the printed paper came it was found to be apersonal appeal of my father to the voters of the Varkala constituency,because he was held in high esteem by the people of that locality. Itread somewhat like this, “ The candidate contesting from the VarkalaConstituency as the P.S.P candidate , Mr. Attingal Gopala Pillai is myson. And what followed was an impassioned appeal to win the heartsof the voters of Varkala. Thus I got not only the blessings of my fatherbut also his solid valuable support. That was more than enough for me.The next day he took me to each and every corner of Varkala andintroduced personally to every voter. My candidature became the talkof the town. Snow began to melt. A freedom fighter and recipient ofThambrapathra Sri. Puthenveetil Madhava Pillai quit the congress andjoined P.S.P Another congress man who followed suit was C.D.Nair.K.P.Neelakanta Pillai took me to all parts of the constituency. Anunfortunate thing happened. Some unknown hoodlums probably thehenchmen of Sir.C.P attacked Neelakanta Pillai and wounded him

grievously while he was alone going to his home in the evening. Theybroke his legs and hands and left the scene. He was immediately removedto the hospital. He recovered from the wounds soon. Undaunted, hetraveled with in the constituency even thereafter. This gave me theoccasion to see directly how the voters revered him and held him inhigh regard. A meeting was arranged in which Sri.JayaprakashNarayanan was to address. People thronged to see Jayaprakash. Butunfortunatey Jayaprakash did not turn up. Those who had workedtirelessly for me were Adv.G.Damodaran (uncle of VarkalaRadhakrishnan Ex.M.P), Thottavaram Mdadhavan Pillai, C.D.Nair,Adv Kailasam Rajamma, S.M. Noohu, Fernandez et al. There was agang of young people who had campaigned for me. In the election myrival candidate T.A. Majeed won. I was pushed to the second position.The margin was very slender. The congress party candidate was lefttrailing third. It became clear that a slight push could have ensured myvictory. Failure of Jayaprakash Narayanan to attend the meeting erodedthe enthusiasm of the followers created by the campaign. The tempowas further dampened by the fact that the star campaigner and crowdpuller Pattom Thanu Pillai could not address any of the election meetings.Sreekantan Nair stole the show by his whirl wind campaigning for T.A.Majeed. He had just come out of the gaol as a political prisoner. Hecould overwhelm the voters and make a good impact. This led Majeedto victory albeit on a slender majority. But I was not disheartened.Thereafter I resumed my practice with the same amount of vigour andoptimism.

I started a hunger strike to press the charter of demands of theDevaswom Board employees Union. Pattom Thanu Pillai was thePresident of the Union and Adv K.P.Sankaran its vice president. I wasthe district committee president and Palkulangara Thankappan Nairwas the General Secretary. Adv.Kailasam Rajamma, AranmulaKesavan, Thiruvalla V.P.Namboodiri MLA, Vazhoor Narayana KurupMLA were the members. P.Neelakantan was the Treasurer. The charterof demands of the employees was submitted to the Devaswom President

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P.G.N.Unnithan but no reply came from him. This led to a sathyagrahaagitation. The employees pulled on with the agitation for 35 days withno let up. Ultimately the union decided to intensify the agitation bydeclaring hunger strike by me. The hunger strike continued for 20 days.The agitation was called off on the 20th day. The then labour ministerP.K.Kunju spoke to the Devaswom President and brokered anagreement. I was removed to a hotel for recuperation. There I wasvisited by N.S.S.President Govinda Menon and KocheeckalBalakrishnan Thampi . After taking rest for a few days I went to Attingalwhere I was accorded a rousing reception. Socialist leaderR.M.Nanakaleth was one of the speakers in the reception meeting.

In the 1954 by-election P.S.P in alliance with the United partiescontested the election. The National Committee held in Madras resolvedto ask Pattom Thanu Pillai to form the ministry. Pattom headed theministry in which he inducted P.S.Nataraja Pillai, A Achuthan andP.K.Kunju as ministers. On March,16,1954 Pattom ministry was swornin.

In the State Committee meeting of the PSP held in Trissur , AllIndia Chairman N.G.Gore and Karnataka Opposition Leader Sivappahad attended. After a lot of manoeuvring I was elected Chairman ofthe party. They wanted a man who would not sell the party for money.Some aspirants for the post of Chairman finally backed out. This wasthe victory of probity and rectitude that should be the hallmarks ofpublic men and politicians.

1957 General Election to the Kerala Legislative Assembly.The 1957 General Election was the first election to the Kerala

Legislative Assembly after its formation merging the three kingdoms ofTravancore, Cochin and Malabar.

The communist party formed the first government creating ahistory of sorts. The communist party came to power through ballotpaper for the first time. It was a world record. The ministry was headedby EMS Namboodiripad. Five of the independent candidates contestedwere elected. They were Ramakrishna Pillai from Chenganoor, A.R.

Menon from Trichur, Prof. Joseph Mundassery from Manalur, K.V.Koruth from Guruvayoor and V.R. Krishna Iyer from Tellissery. Thegovernor D. Ramakrishna Rao called the independents to his officeand cautioned about the danger if the communist party forms thegovernment.

Mr. K.V. Koruth then bluntly and in a rustic tone told thegovernor, “Mr. Governor, I have only one father”.

Though the governor received this as a slap on his cheek hecontinued his efforts to prevent the communist party from forming agovernment. His plans however did not succeed. On 5th April 1957 agovernment headed by EMS assumes office. His council of ministersincluded K.R. Gowri, Joseph Mundassery, T.A. Majeed, A.R. Menon,V.R. Krishna Iyer, K.P. Gopalan, T.V. Thomas, C. Achuthamenon,K.C. George and Chathan Master.

The communist ministry before long had to face a political stormin the form of a mass struggle against it. It was called the liberationstruggle. Women protestors were arrested in great number.

Chief Minister EMS invited Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehruto Kerala. The Indian Express had published a photograph whichshowed Nehru standing in the middle flanked by the Kerala ministers.Shri. R. Sankar was at the helm of the congress party and he apprisedNehru of the political situation prevailing in Kerala at that time. WhenNehru visited Kerala he was also accompanied by his daughter Smt.Indira Gandhi. When Nehru did not respond to the briefings IndiraGandhi intervened and pleaded with Nehru to say something and suggesta solution. It was an impassioned appeal. This is how she said. “Daddy,please do suggest a solution”. The liberation struggle was raging violently.In 1959, the Central Govt. though relectantly dismissed the two yearold communist government invoking the constitutional provision underSec 256. As the District Secretary of the party I did my best to intensifythe agitation. In 1957 election, I was fielded as a PSP candidate. In thecontest R. Prakasam was elected. I was pushed to the second position.Congress party was left trailing third.

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One day while my colleagues and I were sitting in our office,ex. minister Kunjiraman called over phone and wanted to speak toAppu. The man who took up the received did not know that Appu wasnone other than me. I attended the call and I was told that Kunjiramanwas coming to my office to speak something important. I told him thathe should not take the trouble of coming into my office and that I wouldpay a visit to him while on my way to Attingal. I reached his home. Hetold me that the UN Day Bar Congress President was contesting fromAttingal and that I should withdraw from the fray. Because it would bea disgrace to be routed by me in the fight.

I again met him on my way back from Attingal. I presentedbefore him the details of votes polled in the 1957 election. I showedhim that the total votes polled by me and Vasukutty together exceededthe votes polled by R. Prakasam. Thus the victory was sure shot. InUS Day Bar Congress election Kunjiraman defeated his rival candidateby 200 votes.

Parayil Shamsudeen who defeated T.A. Majeed was living inRoom No. 15 of the MLA quarters. As he was a close friend of mine Iused to stay with him whenever I came to Trivandrum.

1970 electionWith a view to forming a stable government in Kerala PSP was

also invited as an alley. I was the Chairman of the PSP at that time. Anunderstanding was reached with the ruling congress party. BharathTourist Home was the venue of the meeting. Hectic discussions weregoing on. The names of M.N. Govindan Nair and T.V. Thomas fromCPI, Baby John and T.K. Divakaran from RSP, myself and anotherperson from PSP, Syed Ummer Bafithangal, Cheriya Mammukoya andC.H. Muhammed Koya from Muslim League came up during thediscussion. After the preliminary discussion we entered into the seatsharing session. Congress party was invited for leading the discussion.The congress representatives were K.K. Viswanathan and C.M.Stephen. We started with Kasargod seat. When discussions reachedErnakulam, I demanded Palluruthy for PSP. Then K.K. Viswanathan

said that he knew who the PSP candidate for Palluruthy was. And thatPSP would fail in the seat. Then I wanted to know who then the congresscandidate was for Palluruthy. I declared that though PSP was a smallparty it is a force to be reckoned with and that it can easily ensure thedefeat of any candidate. K.K. Viswanathan did not raise any furtherargument. PSP was allotted the Palluruthy seat and I was persuaded tostand there.

When Pattom Thanu Pillai was the Chairman of PSP, P.Viswambharan and M.A. Sarojini were committee members. LaterChandrasekharan became the Chairman, P. Viswambharan was madeSecretary. Thus M.A. Sarojini was again sidelined. Now I supportedher and she became the candidate for Palluruthy. M.A. Sarojini was anadvocate. Janaki Amma and Sarojini enrolled the same day. JanakiAmma started practice under Panampally Govindan Menon. She waslater elevated as High Court judge. Sarojini was defeated in thePalluruthy constituency. I here do not wish to go into the circumstancesthat led to her defeat. She is no more now.

The seat sharing session was over. Congress furnished a list ofwinning seats and fighting seats.

In the election the coalition headed by Congress gained majority.A state committee of PSP was held under my chairmanship. We decidedto fill the vacancies in the Parliamentary board with C.K. Sreedharanas suggested by N.K. Balakrishnan. It was also decided to convene aparliamentary board at Bharath Tourist Home, Ernakulam. It is the dutyof the state committee to elect the parliamentary board. Adv. KrishnanKutty, Mannanthala Velayudhan and myself went to Ernakulam. In themeeting, myself and N.K. Balakrishnan were proposed. At this juncture,P. Viswanathan helplessly said “you are the chairman, so what shall Ido”. Then I retorted. “You can go ahead with the election and you candefeat me”. Mannanthala Velayudhan and Adv. Krishnan Kutty suggestedthe simple method of raising the hands of members. But P. Viswambharanruled out the suggestion and proposed a secret voting. The result wasin favour of Balakrishnan. He became the leader of the party in the

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assembly. I then took the stance and said, “I take it as want of confidencein me as chairman of the party, I am resigning my chairmanship”. Thesame day we returned. Adv. Krishnankutty issued a pamphlet statingthat it was P. Viswambharan and P. Madhavan Nair who defeated me.

The next day the PSP central committee vice-chairman MulkakoGovinda Reddy made a lightning visit to Trivandrum. He asked me towithdraw resignation. That day when I reached MLA hostel I had atelephone call from Nath Pai in which he wanted to have a report onwhat happened in the party. He wanted to sort out the matters.

Finally I had to revoke my decision. Adv. Krishnan Kuttyprepared the report and flew to Delhi and presented the report to NathPai. After reading the report he remarked, “the central parliamentaryboard can reverse the decision. But Balakrishnan will leave the party.Assure Gopala Pillai that he will be well looked after.” My friendshipwith Nath Pai and Ram Manohar Lohya started when I was a Lawstudent at Belgaum. Pai belonged to Talakwadi. He was also a Lawstudent there. From there he went to England after completing Bar atLaw. He came back to India and entered into active politics. He becamemember of parliament. Within a short period he could rock the parliamentand attract the attention of even Nehru. Nath Pai’s untimely death wasan irreparable loss to the socialist party in particular and the country ingeneral.

The C.Achuthamenon government came into being on 04-10-1970. P.S. Sreenivasan, N.E. Balaram and P.K. Raghavan from CPIand N.K. Balakrishnan from PSP were inducted as ministers.

The next day Kerala Kaumudi the malayalam daily publishedfrom Trivandrum carried a report that it was Gopalapillai whoaccompanied Balakrishnan to the Raj Bhavan for the swearing inceremony. M.N. Govindan Nair and T.V. Thomas did not attend theswearing in function.

Another report that came in Kerala Kaumudi said thatsomebody tried to commit suicide in protest against my not being aminister in the government. However I could not find who the man was

sofar. After two years the two CPI ministers resigned and M.N. andT.V. joined the ministry. The congress party also decided to join thegovernment.

The PSP state committee convened at Ernakulam and passeda resolution withdrawing N.K. Balakrishnan from the ministry andproposing my name as minister in his place. A letter to this effect wasalso handed over to the Chief Minister. But C.M. did not take anyaction on this letter. He simply sat on it.

When P.R. Kurup was the chairman of PSP, the PSPrepresentative in the ministry was N.K. Seshan. The chairman askedthe minister to resign. But he did not oblige. Instead he went to Kovalamand sat hiding there. Achuthamenon even sent the police to bring him.The CM made Seshan sign the papers. Is it not intriguing that in mycase Achuthamenon did not take a similar measure? Achuthamenonministry was expanded with Karunakaran, K.G. Adiyodi, VellaiEacharan, K.T. George and Vakkom Purushothaman from Congressparty, C.H. Muhammed Koya from Muslim League and Baby Johnand T.K. Divakaran from RSP. In the assembly I sought permission topresent three following bills.1. Kerala Publicmen Enquiries Bill, 1972.2. Kerala Advocates Welfare Fund Bill3. The bill (Protection of Marginal farmers who suffered as a resultof implementation of Land Reforms Act.)

Achuthamenon refused permission to introduce the bill in theassembly. This led me to a rethinking as to why PSP should continue inthe coalition.

Notice was issued for convening a joint parliamentary party.The joint parliamentary party consisted of congress, CPI, PSP, RSPand Muslim league. In the meeting M.K. Raghavan criticised me forthe speech I made. I shot back by saying that in the whip there was nomention as to what a member should speak. In my speech I opposedthe non-confidence motion moved by John Manjuran. But the beginningpart of my speech I strongly criticised the government. That was exactly

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what prompted Raghavan to point the gun against me. An uproarfollowed and the meeting was dispersed.

During 1970-76, I was a member of the Assembly. I was proudto be so. I am still proud to belong to the assembly in which the mostseasoned Achuthamenon, M.N. Govindan Nair who was dubbed asIndian Kruchev, T.V.Thomas, Baby John, T.K.Divakaran, the eruditeand eloquent C.H. Muhammed Koya etc. were members on the rulingside and EMS, C.B.C. Warrier, M.V. Raghavan, Purushothaman Pillai,John Manjuran, Wellington, Sivarama Bharathy etc. on the oppositionside.

I was elected from the Trivandrum Ist constituency to the fourthKerala legislature while I was Chairman of the party with a comfortablemajority. Previously Sri. Pattom Thanu Pillai was elected from theconstituency many times. I must divulge some truth as this is the duty ofa representative of a constituency. Those were the days when theKanakakunnu Palace was used to be let out on rent for marriagefunction. One day I happened to attend such a function. A man who satbeside me introduce himself to me as S. Padmakumar IAS and that hewas the Chairman and Managing Director of Titanium ltd. I used topromise the job in the company to those who have passed the writtentest and selected for interview. One day two boys approached mewhen they received the interview cards. They came to my house andrequested me to use my good offices for getting them the job. I tookdown the details and promised them to do my best. The residence ofPadmakumar was very near to my house. I telephoned him and gavethe names and details of the boys. He agreed to do the needful and thatI need not bother about it. Unfortunately the boys were not selectedfor the job for reasons still not known to me.

N.E. Balaram and P.S. Sreenivasan resigned as ministers. T.V.Thomas and M.N. Govindan Nair joined the ministry. T.V. Thomas gotPadmakumar to discharge from the company for officials. Theyapproached the court for redressal. They met Easwara Iyer and soughtadvice. He advised them to file OP against the order of dismissal. TheHigh Court after hearing directed the company to reinstate the dismissedpersonnel. Of the four only one person rejoined the company.

One day I received a missive from the cabinet secretaryinforming me that I was appointed a member of the PAC for a periodof two years. It was a nine member body. In the 1975-76 period therewas a vacancy caused by the appointment of Pankajakshan as ministerfrom April 1976. The committee was to discuss instances of regularitiesand financial mismanagement and profligacy in government companiespointed out in the CAG’s audit report. Almost all government companieswere declared sick units due to the accummulated losses which moreoften than not exceeded the paid up capital of the companies. Whenthe committee takes up the business it is a rule that the MD of thecompany should also be present. The chairman would pull up the MD’sof the companies for their acts of omission and commission when theyare not able to give appropriate answers to the questions raised by thecommittee.Some National Political facts

Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru sent a letter toJayaprakash Narayan offering him the Deputy Prime Minister’s postand ministership for a few socialist leaders. The offer contained in theletter was discussed at length in the party. Then it was decided to setsome conditions before accepting the offer. The leaders had surmisedthat it was a ruse to woo the socialist leaders especially Ram ManoharLohya to congress side.

The sharp-witted Lohia placed three conditions before congress.1. The congress president and the prime minister should not be the

same person.2. The working committee members of the Congress should not be

appointed as ministers.3. The congress members should have the freedom to criticise the

party for its faults.Nehru flatly turned down these conditions.Later in 1953, Jayaprakash Narayan presented a 14 point

programme before Nehru suggesting sweeping changes in theadministration and function of government. Had these suggestions beenadopted in toto the condition of India would not have been what it istoday.

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Chapter fourMY MARRIED LIFE

The bride seeing ceremony was over. Somebody told me thatthe girl wanted to talk to me. I agreed. The first question she put to mewas “Why did you remain unmarried so long”. I quipped, “ Because Ididn’t find you”. She was Indira, then studying for ML after her Barristerexamination in England. She was the third daughter of Dr.A.N.NPanikkar. Her younger sister, Kamala was already married off. Oneday I along with Parayil Shamshudeen went to Indira’s home. Shebrought tea for us. Kamala was there. She wanted to attend her sister’smarriage before she returned to England. I understood her intentionagainst any further postponement of the marriage. And I gave her theassurance of an early marriage. It would take place soon. I insisted thatthe marriage should be a simple function. Only a dozen people wouldbe invited. There will be no invitation card. The marriage should besolemnized before the sanctum sanctorium of the Shanghumukkamtemple. Indira would also invite a few of her classmates. The marriagewas thus held in a simple and unobtrusive manner. After the marriagewe both went to Attingal and spent a couple of days there. After thatwe came back to Thiruvananthapuram and settled for a peaceful familylife. Indira is also called Baby at home. At the instance of Indira webought a second hand Hindustan New Look car. The car was boughtin her name. One day when I was returning from Attingal with some

rice after the harvest from our paddy field, another car hit on the backof my car. In the car the Muslim League M.L.A was sitting. He saidsorry for the damage and agreed to spend the whole expenses for therepair. Two sons were born to us in our wedlock. The elder son Manojis an electronics engineer who is employed in Doha, Qatar. His wifeDr. Jyothilakshmi is a dental surgeon. He has two daughters, Keerthanaand Sanjna who are both schooling in Doha. My younger son Maheshwas an engineer (mechanical) and also a software executive. He wasemployed in USA. While staying there, he developed a brain tumourand after prolonged treatment passed away at the age of 31. He was abachelor at the time of his death which took place in Trivandrum.Needless to say that it was a great shock to us. I am now residing atmy Sasthamangalam house Mahesh named in memory of my deceasedson Mahesh.

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Chapter fiveI AM STILL A SOCIALIST

I am still a socialist even after retirement from active politicsand even when I am at the edge of my life.Socialism is a light that stillleads me in my thoughts. Socialism is in my thoughts now not in action.

What was used to be done in darkness is today done in broadday light with impunity. Can you blame the sun, the great source oflight, for this. God is evenhanded and that is why Lord Krishna gave hiswhole army to Duryodhana and stood alone without any arms withDharmaputhra. God provides a level playing field for both good andevil forces. God proved that virtue alone triumphs in the end. I takealways the side of Dharma or virtue. So why should I worry if victory is

assured for Dharma.

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Chapter sixCONCLUSION

I do not wish to say more because I am not able to narrate allmy experiences coherently. It is now too late to rearrange my shuffledmemories. To put everything in a proper order is difficult now.

I am a humanist to the core and a Socialist to my finger tip. Iam sure that I have lived a fruitful life though I could not fulfil myaspirations as a socialist. I see with agony that the party comrades havechanged a lost and deviated from the right path to reach our aims andgoals. Politicians have lost uprightness and the hunger for power andposition drove them away from the cherished ethics. They have beenoverwhelmed by selfishness and narrowmindedness. To gain power,they have no qualms to resort to any skullduggery and machinations.They pull the carpet from under the feet of their friends. Selfaggrandizement has become the prime motive of the political leaderstoday.

Minister of Railways IndiaNew Delhi-110001,June 20, 1978

Dear Shri Pillai,

I am in receipt of your letter dated 7.6.1978 regarding a railwaydivision at Trivandrum.

With regards,

Yours sincerelySd/

Madhu Dendavate.

ToShri. Attingal Gopala Pillai,Advocate , Trivandrum.

No.78.EB.700/I Minister of Railways India,New Delhi- 110001,July 21, 1978.

Dear Shri.Pillai,

Please refer to my interim reply dated 20th June, 1978 withreference to your letter dated 7th June, 1978 regarding my commitmenton formation of a Railway Division at Trivandrum. I stand by mycommitment, which was also reiterated in my Budget Speech for 1978-79. It was because of difference, cutting across party lines amongst thepeople of the various areas in Kerala that I have not been able to fulfilthis commitment immediately. A Railway Division must have a reasonableminimum route kilometrage to be operationally viable. As a result ofvarious pulls and counter pulls in the Kerala region, we have not beenable to secure agreement on a scheme that will bring under TrivandrumDivision a route kilometrage of 600 to 700 , all in Broad Gauge, asrequired by operational considerations. To make a beginning however,I had suggested setting up of a Transportation Division covering ShoranurTrivandrum section,which could later be developed into a full-fledgedDivision by adding to it more route kilometrage. As this scheme has notapparently found favor with the people of Kerala, I have written to theChief Minister of Kerala requesting him to have a discussion with allthe concerned interests with a view to evolving an agreed alternative.Further action in the matter will be taken immediately after we hearfrom the Chief Minister of Kerala.

With regards,Yours sincerely

Sd/-Madhu Dendavate

Attingal Gopala Pillai,Advocate, Trivandrum (Kerala)

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Raj Bhavan,Itanaga- 791111,September 28, 1991.

My dear Gopala Pillai,

I do not know who is to blame. We have no contact with eachother for several years now.

You know perhaps, I have become the Governor of ArunachalPradesh since March last. Chandra Sekhar, as Prime Minister, wantedto show respect to an old colleague and almost forced me to take upthis office. So I am here. The place is very nice and the climate suitsme.

I write this letter for a purpose. The bearer of this letter,E.Subramonaiam, is the caretaker in my Raj Bhavan. He looks afterme very well. I am all alone and I need company. But he is compelledto go home on leave and I do not know how I shall manage.

He needs leave to go home because his younger brother atTrivandrum is involved in various troubles including harassment by hisown father-in-law, who is in a vatage position as he works with theIGP. He has to face legal battles.

I do not know how you are placed. But I will be happy ifthrough you he gets proper advice and assistance to get over hisdifficulties.

With my greetings,

Yours sincerelySd/

(Surendranath Dwivedy)

Shri. Attingal Gopala Pillai,Advocate,Sasthamangalam,Trivandrum, Kerala State.

Raj Bhavan,Itanagar – 791111,Janurary, 9,1992.

My dear Gopala Pillai,

Your letter of November 5 reached me today. There was postalstrike. All letters were delayed.

I am sorry that you made an effort to meet me at Coimbatorebut failed.That is none of my fault. I have hoped that the treatmentwould continue for about 4 weeks, but after examining me and seeingmy medical report they thought that intensive oil treatment would notbe suitable for me. They gave me only oil applications for 10 days. SoI had to come back to Arunachal Pradesh earlier than scheduled. I alsolost a chance of meeting you after many years.

It is far way off, from extreme south to north-east. The expenseswould be too much. There is a train from Trivandrum to Guwahati.That may take 3 nights./ It is a long way. I do not know whether it ispossible to undertake a journey for such a long trip, but if you decide tocome and let me know the train in which you would be travelling and itspossible date and time of arrival at Guwahati, I may make arrangementsto bring you here to Itanagar, which is to be covered by road fromGuwahati. I assure you, your stay will be very comfortable and youwould be visiting a very beautiful part of our country.

With my good wishes,Yours sincerely,

Sd/( Surendranath Dwivedy)

Attingal Gopala Pillai,Advocate,9/2558 , Sasthamangalam,Trivandrum, Kerala State.

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Janatha Party,Sardar Patel Bhavan,7,Jantar Mantar Road, P.B.No.709,New Delhi- 1100013 South Avenue Lane, New Delhi 11,September, 12, 1978.

My dear Shanti Bhushan,

Enclosed please find a Memorandum received from themembers of the Trivandrum Bar Association.

I shall thank you to consider their request for constitution of abench of the High Court of Kerala at Trivandrum.

Yours sincerely,

Sd/Chandra Sekhar

ToShanthi Bhushan,Minister of Law, New Delhi

Copy toSri. Attingal Gopala Pillai, MLA,Advocate, Trivandrum

I am glad to learn that you are celebrating the 84th birthAnniversary of Attingal Gopala Pillai, Advocate on 11th May 2003 atThiruvananthapuram. Due to old age, I am not able to attend the function.

I knew Sri. Gopala Pillai since my Law College days in Belgaumin 1945-47. He is an affectionate friend and always jovial. He had awide circle of friends because of his sociable nature. He always keepstrack of his old friends. It is a remarkable quality. He is very optimisticand has a positive attitude to life. He was politically active and ledmany campaigns.

I am happy , he is till healthy and active and young even at 84.I wish him a long healthy and happy life and hope he will hit the century.

I wish the function all success.

With regards,

Yours sincerely,Sd/

(A Gangadhara Rao),Former Judge ,

28th April, 2003. High Court of Andhra Pradesh

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Justice S Padmanabhan,Forder Judge, High Court of Madras,Sankara Vilas, New No.4.

I am delighted to note that Sri Gopi and you have constituted acommittee to celebrate our friend affectionately called Attingal.

Attingal Gopala Pillai became close to me in the early 50s justlike Sri. Gopi and yourself. I remember having advised him to go andpractice at Attingal under his father late lamented Mr. Narayana Pillai.However, he had come to the conclusion that he was tailored to be apolitician. He then began to take active part in politics. He joined thePraja Socialist Party under late Mr. Pattom Thanu Pillai. He then becamea member of the Legislative Assembly and thereafter Chairman of thePraja Socialist Party. In fact, there was an occasion when there wereonly two members of the party eligible to be nominated to the ministryand one of whom was Attingal.

Sri. Gopala Pillai has been and continues to be a good friendfor all, particularly towards me he has a lot of affection. Just like you,he too would telephone me from Trivandrum and be in touch with me.Whenever, he passed through Madras, he used to call on me. He is asoft-spoken friend.

I recall those happy days when we used to play Tennis in theDistrict Court. Gopala Pillai and Gopi were good Tennis players. Atthat time Mr. Mathew, who was the Additional District Judge liked toplay only singles and I had to keep ready Gopi, Gopala Pillai and lateKesavan Nair ( for the purpose of identification, I may be permitted toadd the word iodine).

District Munsif Kovoor Eipe and you, used to be spectactorsentertaining everybody with jokes. These were the days when all of ushad a very good time at Trivandrum Bar Association. That was awonderful time which will not again return. Even though it is nearly 45years since I left Trivandrum Bar, I have always treasured pleasant

memories of our association. I wish that we will have the pleasant privilegeof celebrating the centenary of Gopala Pillai.

I am herewith enclosing a cheque for Rs.1001/- towardscelebration.

With regards,

Yours sincerely,Sd/

S.Padmanabhan

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Major General (Retd) SANKARAN NAIRChairman& SARASWATHY NAIRErswhile Senior Reader Maitreyi CollegeDelhi University Founder Member & Manager

Our Appu Chettan,

Loads of good wishes on your attaining Satabdi and the relatedcelebrations. Appu Chettan to all of us relations (he is my father’s dearsister’s son), hence my first cousin) deserves what he has achieved andaccolades that his friends, well-wishers and relations have showeredon him. A selfless well meaning person, who cares for other people,Attngal Gopala Pillai led a clean public life. No part of his culture andvalue system to be cunning or scheming. We all love him, continue tolove him.

One thing I remember of his younger days was that he was agood sportsman. A sports person has certain distinct qualities. AppuChettan possesses those qualities and many of them manifested in hispublic life. He has been a well-wisher of ours and always encouragedme and Saraswathy ( my wife) to doing well in our respective careersand life.

It is a pity that we could not be present for the celebrations.Though belated, here are all our sincere and affectionate good wishesfor a continued long, healthy and propserous life.

Yours affectionately,

Sankaran & Saraswathy.22 November, 2003.

Dr. M. Thangvelu, M.D,Former Principal, Medical College, Trivandrumand former Regional Director of WHO for South East Asia

On this pleasant occasion, it is indeed a delight to rememberthe selfless dedication of this remarkable social leader, Attingal GopalaPilllai, setting on record as a selfless social leader, a doyen amongst ourleaders, a selfless contributor towards Development of any social welfareactivity of the depressed and disadvantaged.

While conveying great appreciation of his leadership I join withthousands of his admirers in praying for his continued leadership in theensuing century. Pray to almighty to grant this wish of many of hisrelatives and friends.

M.Thangavelu.

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M.R.RAYAKAR1153, Gajlatha Arcade,Sykes, Extension, Kolhapur

COMMON CIVIL CODE

These days we hear a lot about Common Civil Code applicableto all Indians. This is particularly pronounced prior to elections becausethe candidates are concerned with gaining votes under any circumstances.The Common Civil Code is an idea which looks nice on paper but it isvery difficult to implement.

Apparently, the politicians are guided by the facts that in Indiawe have a common Criminal Code, which involves the Indian PenalCode and the Criminal Procedure Code. But this criminal activity relatesonly to those people who have committed an offence and such peopleare less than one in two thousands. But the Civil code will be applicableto all the Indians and therefore the results of applying Civil Code willhave to be considered very critically.

Amongst the Hindus, we have now a legislation. But previouslythere was no written legislation. The right to property and successionto property, either for consideration or by death in the family, is as perthe Hindu Code, where most of the property goes to the male side anda very little goes to female side. Further more, according to Hindus,where living tradition is a very easy process, which is not so anywherein the country and in Hindu code there is also a matriarchal system inKerala and in South North Karnataka, where property descends frommother to daughter and then to grand daughter and son on. In otherwords the property belongs to female population and not to malepopulation. This was so even in old Travancore State, when the Maharajadies, the person who took his place was not his own son, but his sister’sson.

As against this you have a special muslim code and the MuslimAct. In fact, after Indonesia, the second largest population of Muslimsis in India and not in Pakistan. Their Civil rights are controlled by theprovision of Kuran and therefore, they will not accept anything which isagainst Kuran. Therefore, if the civil code is brought in, there will be lotof objection from Muslim religious people. Then as far as otherpopulation is concerned, they are governed by the Indian SuccessionAct and they are Christians, Parsis etc. Their reaction to common civilcode is also doubtful.

Ours is a country with fifteen languages and dover towthousands dialects. Therefor, civil life of people in villages and thecommon right which they at present represent, may not certainly beparallel to common civil code. Therefore, there is going to be a definiteobjection from this group also.

On the whole, common civil code is going to create moreproblems than the politicians think of and it will lead to a lot of litigation.We have more than two crores of cases pending in various courts inIndia. Promulgation of common civil cases will certainly increase thisamount by a very large percentage. So, it is my suggestion that the ideaof Common Civil Code should not be implemented. I am sure if othersread what I have written, they may also come to the same conclusion.

As an ancillary subject, I would recommend that theGovernment pass a bill to reduce the cases in the court of law. eg.if acivil case is pending for more than 10 years in the court, the governmentshould bring the law saying that a case more than ten years old will bereviewed by the judges on the papers available at their office and givendecision, against which there will not be appeal permitted. If such astep is taken, then we will reduce court cases in our country and improvelitigation in the court of law. This is only the suggestion which I am suremany people will not agree to, but not what I am writing to you.

We are following a British Code of legal conduct, where it issaid that in criminal cases, it is better that 9 criminals escape rather thanone non-criminal is sent to jail. This is not so in the continent of Europe.

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In other words, the burden of proof mainly lies on the accused in criminalcases. This has nothing to do with Indian Code. I am recording this toshow that laws of various countries are different and we must see thatwe have our own law to reduce court cases.

And in the end, I congratulate the people of Trivandrum forbringing out a Souvenir in the honour of Mr. Pillai.

Thanking you very much.

Yours sincerely,Sd/-

(M.R.Rayakar)

SRI. ATTINGAL GOPALA PILLAI IN A VIEWFROM THE FAR

M.R. Muraleedharan Nair, Advocate, Attingal.

Early Nineteeen Sixtees. An elegantly dressed young debonairwith twirling moustache and side-whiskers walked briskly into thewedding hall. Everyone sitting there felt the grease and rose to greethim, murmering Thampanoor’s son. He sat down to talk, he became acynosure of all eyes.

That was the first time I set eyes on “Thampanoor’sson” wholater came to be called “Attingal Gopala Pillai. I have seen him since athousand times in his house, office, court, here there and everywhere.

He was the worthy son of a great and worthy father, Sri.Thampanoor Narayana Pillai who was the doyen among civil practionersof the Trivandrum District and particularly of Attingal. By sheer dint ofhardwork instilled from much burning of midnight oil, ThampanoorNarayana Pillai rose to dizzy height, ascending spirals of success. Hewas probably the first lawyer in the area to win the much coveted sleekautomobile which was a rare phenomenon in those days.

Brought up in such milieu, and with his residence at the palatial“Jaya Vilasom” under the sheltering care of such a great father, he AttingalGopala Pillai, could perceive the whole world at his feet. Young GopalaPillai soon found himself under the spell of Jayaprakash Narayanan,who with his socialist instincts, was the rising star in the political firmamentof the day. Thereafter he went to Trivandrum and then to Belgaum tocomplete his graduation in law as in Politics. He returned for good andbefriended well known socialitst of the day, here and elsewhere. In theNational scene, his comrades included redoutable veterans like Dr.RamManohar Lohia, Madhu Dendavate, Nathpai, Madhu Limaye andGeorge Fernandez, the rage of the time and a host of others of similarilk , At the state level, he made friends with Sri. Pattom Thanu Pillai,

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Ponnara Sreedhar, P.S.Nataraja Pillai and others. Soon he threw himselfinto the vortex of solialist agitations with its unending eddies, where hewas himself a principal player. He worked himself up day and nightwhich had endeared himself to the people and he was one of the principalsights at Attingal. His taking part in an agitation ultimately landed him inthe Trivandrum Attakulangara Sub Jail from where fate and destinyinveighed him out, to witness the smouldering pyre of his beloved father.

The second chapter in his career saw him stand contesting theVarkala Election, where he lost to his opponent by a narrow margin oftwo hundred votes. He seems to have drawn a blank in one or twosubsequent elections, but soon he made it to the Assembly fromTrivandrum subsequently. During Sri. C.Achutha Menon’s Ministry,when he was all but selected to the Minister’s post, his swearing as aminister was scuttled by the parliamentary wing of his own party ofwhich he was the chairman, thanks to the political skullduggery unleashedby his party men.Severely hurt by this act of unkindness, he seems tohave opted to fade gradually into political oblivion and wilderness.

He has a peculiar capacity and flair in making friends. Indeed,he believes with Dr. Johnson that one should keep one’s friendshipunder constant repair. His friends are too numerous and many, belongingto every walk of life, without any distinction. He never shunned a friend,when a friend was in need.

Writing of him, I am reminded of the words of the poet,Kindness and grace, excellent courtesy,A brightness in the face, airs of high memory,Whence came all this to such as he?No man less proud than he, none asked for homage

less”Now that he has entered the grand finale of his life, he

can look back with absolute satisfaction to his part in life serving a lifesublime, which never was made ludicrous by resort to acts of suchpolitical malfeasance which has, of late been shadowing the social andpolitical arena.

He is a man whose only passion in life is to be of service to theState, Country and the Republic, with all his strength at his commandand with much vitality as he could muster. Here if anywhere, is a manwho loves his country, as much as he loves his people, with all his mindand heart, and never forsake them for rewards. Here , if any where, isa man who has emerged with his head high through the permutationsand combinations of joys and sorrows, troubles and tears, cares andanxieties with the singular honesty of purpose, deed and action. Here ifany where is a great gentleman, a man gently and kind to the tips of hisfingers, who verily loves and likes his countrymen. He fills the greatOstrovsky’s dictum. “ Man’s dearest possession is life, and since it isgiven to him to live but not one, he must so live as not to be seared withthe shame of a cowardly and trivial past, so live as not to be torturedfor years without purpose, that dying he can say, “ All my life and mystrength were given to the first cause in the world- the liberation ofmankind.

May his tribe increase, in increased and increasing numbers!May such a useful person as he, be spared for a hundred years!.

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N.GOPINATHAN,Chairman , Souvenir Committee,Retired District and Sessons Judge.

The word ‘Attingal Gopala Pillai’ has a special fascination forme and vivid memories of my intimate association and friendship withSri Attingal Gopala Pillai drawn upon me when I hear that word. Whileas a student I used to visit Trivandrum during vacation to be with myuncle and family and my uncle was late K.Narayanan who was professorin the Law College, Trivandrum. Anxious to reach Trivandrum I usedto enquire other passengers as to when we will reach Attingal as fromAttingal one could reach Trivandrum soon enough. So Attingal wasalways in my mind even in my early years and only that memory remindsme of my intimate friendship with Attingal Gopala Pillai in the later yearsof my life. Later I joined the Law College in Trivandrum and took myBL Degree in the year 1944 and started practice in the High Court ofTravancore at Trivandrum where my uncle Late Sri.K.NarayananaPanikkar former Government Pleader of Kottayam was practising andlived with him.

It was in the Bar Association where I first met the gentlemanpolitician Sri. Attingal Gopals Pillai who was a prominent lawyer atTrivandrum. I learnt that was also a former athlete and soon a sincerefriendship developed between us and Gopala Pillai was glad to knowthat I was an all round athlete and a member of the prestigiousTrivandrum Tenis Club which was then at Sasthamangalam and itsPresident was late Col.G.V.Raja who was the Doyen of all athleticassociation in Travancore and who was the prince among the sportmen.Gopala Pillai came to know how late champion, University HockeyPlayer and winner of inter Collegiate Davis Cup Tennis Tournament

Attingal Gopala Pillai was also an all round sportsman duringhis college days and he used to be penalised by his father for his overenthusiasm for sporting activities perhaps neglecting his studies.

In the Trivandrum Bar Association, Attingal Gopala Pillai had aunique status as a lawyer, senior politician and an important member ofthe Praja Socialist Party and he contested many elections to theLegislative Assembly as a candidate of the PSP he ultimately won hisseat from the Trivandrum-1 constituency. As Chairman of PSP anddistinguished himself as an able Legislator, but unfortunately he missedhis chance to become a minister. Though I was not interested in politicsI watched with admiration his progress as a lawyer politician and weparted company temporarily when I entered Kerala Judicial Servicesas Munsiff.

It was while Gopala Pillai was dabbling and shining in the politicalfield that his marriage with Barrister Smt. Indira took place. It sohappened that the distinguished lady was distantly related to me frommy father’s side. This also further strengthened our intimacy andfriendship. She worked for some years as a lecturer in the Law College,Trivandrum.

After returning from judicial services as District Sessons Judge,Ernakulam I chose to settle down in Brindavan, College Lane,Trivandrum where my parents lived. Attingal Gopala Pillai was alsoretired from active political life and was staying in his home atSasthmangalam with family and this served a chance to restore andcontinue our old intimate friendship.

I recollect the many evenings that we spent together enjoyingeach others company and very often many of his other friends alsojoined these groups to spend evenings most happily. My associationwith his family also became very close and his wife was a wonderfulhostess and I hope that such intimate friendship will continue for manymore years.

It was thus that when friends came to know that Attingal Gopalawas reaching 84 years of age that all his friends met and decided tocelebrate his SATHABHSHEKAM in a befitting manner, I had aprominent role in that function and it was on my initiative that we chosethe venue for the felicitating function at the prestigious VJT Hall,

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SATHABHISHEKAMAdv. K. Ayyappan Pillai

We have celebrated the 84th birthday of our good and valuedfriend Sri. Attingal Gopalapillai a year back. He is a unique personality,a large hearted man, politician, sincere, effective and honest; aparliamentarian having prior equals. Sri. Gopalapillai had endearedhimself among his thousands of friends irrespective of political affiliation,caste or religion or other denominations. I take this opportunity to paymy sincere regards to him.

Born in an aristocratic nair family as the second son of late Sri.Thampanoor Narayana Pillai who was the leader of Attingal bar andlater the first president of Attingal Municipal council, Gopalapillai hadan easy comfortable life during his early days. Evenwhile in high schoolhe proved to be an alround sportsman winning laurels in different sportsevents held at that time. When he passed his secondary school leavingexamination, he joined the science college, Trivandrum (now UniversityCollege). Then he joined St. Xavier’s college, Palayamkotta wheresportsmen were given an honourable place in the student world. In ashort time he became a favourite of students and teachers of that college.

His ambition was to follow in his father’s footsteps as a legalpractictioner. So he joined the law college, Belgaum. Dr. Ram ManoharLohya, the great socialist thinker came to Belgaum at that time inconnection with the Goa struggle for indepedence. He came into closecontact with Dr. Lohya and he was very much impressed by his principlesthrough close conversation with him. So he became an ardent admirerof Dr. Lohya. The atmosphere at Belgaum law college made a subtleinfluence in his mental outlook. He gradually developed a political biasalong with his love for a legal career. Returning to Travancore he joinedthe bar in Trivandrum. Simultaneously he developed an inclination forsocialist politics.

In the coming years we saw Gopalapillai being put up as acandidate in the election-all from socialist bloc. He contested these

Trivandrum in on 11th May, 2003. I was also chosen as the Chairmanof the Sourvenir Committee which decided to publish a sourvenir also.The meeting held on 11th May, 2003 at VJT Hall was inaugurated bySri.K. Ayyappan Pillai and there were many distinguished persons fromall walks of life to felicitate him amd messages were received fromdinitaries all over Kerala and India.

I am delighted that even though there has been some delay, thesouvenir is being printed and soon it will be released. As the Chairmanof the Sourvenir Committee on behalf of his friends and well wishersand my own behalf I record our thanks to the distiguished persons whohave sent the articles and messages which were included in the sourvenir.Thus as already mentioned the word : Attingal” continues to have aspecial fascination for me and on behalf of one and all I with AttingalGopala Pillair many more years of happy and fruitful life.

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elections meeting election expenses from his own pocket disposingvaluable properties alotted to him. Gopalapillai never grudged spentingmoney if the cause was just and right.

He played a distinct part in the agitation for the establishmentof a bench of the High court in Trivandrum. While he was inAttakulangara jail, he lost his father. He was in the forefront of thevimochana samaram - a fight against the tyrannical action of thecommunist led government, the first communist government in the entireworld voted into power through ballot.

He continued to be one of the leading lights of the socialistparty in Kerala. The most prominent party then was the Praja SocialistParty led by the late Sri. Pattom Thanu Pillai. Gopalapillai was also amember of that party.

The Vimochana samaram (liberation struggle) succeeded in thedismissal of the communist government led by EMS Nampoodirippad,by the Presidential decree. In the election that followed, the Communistparty lost majority and a united government in anti-communist sessionsled by Pattom Thanu Pillai was formed. In the 1962 Lok Sabha elections,all the four PSP candidates including Pattom Krishnapillai (son-in-lawof Chief Minister Pattom Thanupillai) lost. Pattom took it as a defeatand it as rumoured that Pattom Thanupillai had been to the governorV.V. Giri and told him that it was a personal defeat as Chief Ministerand that he was resigning and recommending the dissolution of theassembly. News later appeared in newspapers that Pattom Thanupillaihad been appointed Governor of Punjab and R. Sankar was sworn inas Chief Minister of Kerala.

K. Chandrasekharan and P. Viswambharan were electedPresident and Secretary of the Praja Socialist Party respectively. Theelection to Rajya Sabha was notified. Attingal Gopalapillai filednomination proposed by late Ponnara Sreedhar and Balakrishna Menonwho were members of the Legislature party. Later Ponnara Sreedhartold me that the state leadership received Rs. 10000 from sale ofMuhammed Ibrahim Sulaiman Seth and asked PSP members to votefor him. Sulaiman Seth was declared elected. So it was evident from

the voting pattern that nine members of the congress party also votedfor Seth at the expense of the congress candidate.

Attingal Gopalapillai filed an appeal before the centralparliamentary board of the party that the state leadership received Rs.10000 from Seth and got him voted in election. The central boardrequested Gopalapillai to make an announcement that he has withdrawnfrom the contest since it was after scrutiny of nomination papers. AnnieThayyil of the congress party was defeated. So the whip M.C. Abrahamof the congress parliamentary party filed an election petition before theHigh Court of Kerala. Justice Sadasivan was appointed tribunal.Gopalapillai received a summons to appear before the tribunal. So heappeared before the tribunal and was questioned regarding the appeal.He stated that there was nothing particular and that it was only a regularappeal. So the tribunal declared Saleh Muhammed elected. IfGopalapillai had produced his appeal before the tribunal that the partyhad received financial gain it would have amounted to an election offenseand the reverse would have taken place. But he did not do so onlybecause of his loyalty to the party which he was nourishing from 1952onwards. Nemesis followed congress and within a few months congressfell into two parts, one led by R. Sankar and the other by P.T. Chackoand on a motion of non-confidence the congress government fell and itwas followed by president’s rule.

In 1965, Gopalapillai was elected chairman of PSP. In the 1970elections he was elected from Trivandrum Ist constituency as a unitedfront candidate in a coalition led by CPI, RSP, Muslim League andIndira Congress. Along with him two other members of PSP wereelected - N.K. Balakrishnan and Kuttappan. By a secret ballot N.K.Balakrishnan was elected leader of the party and he was sworn in asminister. After an year, the congress joined the government. Three CPIministers resigned and M.N. Govindan Nair and T.V. Thomas weresworn in as ministers. The PSP in the same way elected Gopalapillai asleader. The Secretary of the party Palkulangara Thankappan Nair wroteto Chief Minister Achutha Menon that Balakrishnan may be droppedfrom the ministry and Gopalapillai be asked to join the ministry. The

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Chief Minister did not take any action in that. In the subsequent liaisoncommittee meeting the chief minister told Gopalapillai to wait for twoand a half years and then he could join the ministry. Immediately withoutany hesitation Gopalapillai told Chief Minister that he did not wish toseek favour from him. As the leader of United Front Achutha Menonshould have asked Balakrishnan to resign. But he did not do so. On aformer occasion, when minister N.K.Seshan was asked to resign fromcabinet by the chairman of SSP, P.R. Kurup, Achutha Menon sent thepolice to bring Seshan and asked him to resign. But in the case ofGopalapillai he did not do that.

Gopalapillai proved to be an effective member of the legislature.Credit goes to him as the first legislative member who sought leave forintroduction of an anti-corruption bill in any Indian legislative assembly.The members of the bar should be greatfrul to him for the Advocate’sProvident Fund bill. Another private bill sought for introduction in theassembly was to neutralise the bad effects of the enactment of the landreforms act, because a new set of landlords had been created. It wasjust like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The properties owned by the original landlords had been takenaway and handed over to the rich lessees who acted as middlemen.Kerala Land Reforms Act instead of transferring the land from the Janmisto the actual cultivators had transferred the land to the lessees in thename of tenants. Gopalapillai moved a bill to protect the interest ofmiddle class landlords with a view to lessening the harm done to thelanded genry. That bill was unfortunately opposed by the Chief Minister.

Attingal Gopalapillai is having a well earned rest after a hecticpolitical life. Sri. Gopalapillai had successfully withstood the onslaughtsof political victimisation because he had a spotless political career.Besides he has the good fortune to have a happy and contented familylife for which his wife Smt. Indira Gopalapillai, a highly educated andcultured lady who stood by him firm as a rock through the ups anddowns of his political career is responsible.

We wish him a long and healthy prosperous life.

A LOW PROFILE POLITICIANProf. P. Gopalaraman, Secretary, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Attingal Gopalapillai a person whom I adore and respectrecently celebrated his sathabhishekam. To commemorate this happyevent, a souvenir is being released. It is my pleasure and privilege topen a few lines about his wonderful personality.

I know Attingal Chettan for the last fifty years. My first contactwith him was through a common friend of ours late K.R.V. Pisharadyof Trivandrum Hotel and Trivandrum Chitty Fund. We were having anAll India Tennis Tournament here in Trivandrum. As the then HonorarySecretary of the Kerala Tennis Association responsibility of conductingthe tournament was on my shoulders. The main stumbling block in theproper conduct of the tournament was finance. Sri. Pisharady whowas the treasurer of the Tennis Association and a few of us were goinground the entire length and breadth of Kerala to collect funds. One daySri. Pisharady mentioned about a tennis lover and a more than averagetennis player. It was none other than Attingal Gopalapillai. The momentwe mentioned our mission to him there was a positive response fromhim. From then on he was always with us in our endeavour to collectfunds for running the tournament. I shall never forget the spontaneoushelp he rendered to our mission.

Now a few words about Sri.Attingal Gopalapillai as a politician.A very respected politician. Sri. Attingal can be referred to as a lowprofile politician. He believed in deeds and not in words. The manythings he has done for the constituency he represented are legendary.He believed in calling a spade a spade much to the embarrassment ofhis co-politicians.

From another angle I would like to refer to Sri. Attingal as acandle politician and not as a tubelight politician. Let me explain. Acandle can always be depended upon to give light until we ourselvesextinguish it. But a tube light cannot be depended to shed light accordingto our will. Perhaps at the time we want light the most, it will be

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extinguished due to current failure. Today we want dependable candlepoliticians like Sri. Attingal and not undependable tubelight politiciansas many of the present day politicians are.

Because of his integrity, honesty and forthright utterances Sri.Gopalapillai has been sidelined. It is a great loss to our state and to ournation.

I used to meet Sri. Gopalapillai everyday during our morningwalk and exchange a few pleasantries. But due to his present state ofhealth I have been denied this wonderful opportunity. We still maintainour contact and this I value most.

Sri. Attingal has just celebrated his Sathabhishekam. Let meon this happy occasion pray to God Almighty to spare Sri. Attingal formany more years enabling him to be the role model for every section ofsociety.

ATTINGAL GOPALAPILLAI : A VICTIM OF THEVICISSITUDES OF IDEALISTIC POLITICS

Dr. N.A. Karim

My friend Mr. Attingal Gopalapillai who celebrated hissathabhishekam recently was one of the outstanding first generationleaders of socialist politics of Kerala. He played crucial roles in thethen Travancore-Cochin and later Kerala politics, both as a topfunctionary of PSP and member of the state legislative assembly.

Trained as a lawyer, Mr. Gopalapillai set up practise which hesoon neglected due to his pre-occupation with politics and in politicsnot being a careerist he later lost grip of the fast changing political style.A keen sportsman right from his school days he brought to bear on hispolitical life the spirit of sportsmanship which ill-fitted with the nature ofpolitics of later years. The socialist movement, first as part of IndianNational Congress and later as an independent one generally consistedof idealist young men and women who were restless of the very slowtransformation of society to the socio-economic ideals they believedin. Finding that it was futile to function as a political catalyst within theparent body they strengthened their movement inorder to make itindependent if necessary. On the other hand the conservative in thecongress were finding the presence of these radical elements quiteuncomfortable. Therefore they were shown the door at the earliestpolitically convenient moment. Cut adrift suddently from the main bodythe socialist groups became the flotsam and jetsam of our national politics.Caught in the powerful current of later parliamentary politics severalidealistic socialists like Attingal Gopalapillai reluctant to swim with thetide was washed ashore in a political wilderness.

He has vivid memories of the state leaders with whom he closelyworked and the national leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, AcharyaKripalani, Nath Pai etc. of the socialist movement with whom he cameinto contact during the course of his political career. His estimate ofevery one of them is imbued with a deep insight into their character and

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personality. Mr. Pillai is a born racontuer who recalls his political dayswith wisdom and maturity and regales his friends with interestinganecdotes even now. With no trace of frustration or bitterness he exudesa cheerfulness even at this advance age which is infectious. The onlyhandicap now is the loss of the agile mobility that he enjoyed till recently.

For his friends like me, Gopalapillai chettan is the embodimentof values that are fast vanishing from our public life particularly politicallife.

I wish him a long and happy life.

S. Peer MohammadFormer Managing Director,Kerala State Industrial Enterprises, Trivandrum

I was a college student in Trivandrum for eight years from1935 for BA in the then Science College and B.Sc (Engg) in the firstbatch of students in the Govt. College of Engineering. I came as a shy,reclusive student from the suburban town in south Travancore but passedout of the colleges with an abundant wealth of acquaintance of eminentpeople of the Kerala state. Perhaps T.V. Thomas comes up in mymemory as distinctive among the valuable personalities, I was privilegedto interact in this mileu. He gave me an outstanding opportunity to peepinto the intricacies of the political set up in public life. Attingal Gopalapillaiexemplifies the inscrutable complexities of political career.

Gopalapillai in his college days was an outstanding student andattracted attention of the turbulent culture of student life. He shined asan outstanding MLA in the assembly. Sreekandan Nair who cappedthe RSP movement set the pace for the fire brand in political life. AttingalGopalapillai resembled him in candour, courage and cleanliness in publiclife.

Even from his student days Gopalapillai who was an excellentball badminton player among other innings used to enter with ease,dangerous public situation with abundant insight and courage. I havegreat pleasure to congratulate him on his innings and wish him abundantmeasure of mental happiness in his future.

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GOPALAPILLAI CHETTANProf. G. Pankajakshan Pillai, Retd. Principal, Mahatma

Gandhi College, Trivandrum

Born in an aristocratic Nair family in 1919 at Chirayinkeezhuas the son of a renowned and popular lawyer, Sri. Attingal Gopalapillaibecame a socialist when he was a college student. It was quite accidentalthat he became a politician. When he was a student in the Raja LakhamGowda Law College at Talakwadi, Belgaum he happened to meet Dr.Ram Manohar Lohya who came there in connection with the strugglefor the liberation of Goa. Dr. Lohya was staying with Sri. Sharaf asocialist and a close associate of Gopalapillai. The Linged hostel wereSri. Pillai resided was near Sri. Sharaf’s house. This gave him anopportunity to become acquainted with Dr. Lohya. Dr. Lohya was agreat revolutionary and a stalwart of socialism. His magnetic personalityattracted and inspired Shri. Pillai and he plunged into politics.

After his education, Shri. Pillai followed his father’s path andenrolled as an advocate in 1950. He began practice at the district courtTrivandrum. In 1954 he shifted his practice to Attingal and in 1962 heagain set up his practice at Trivandrum. Though he was practising as alawyer he was very keen and active in politics. He contested more thanonce in the election to the state assembly. The first election based onadult franchise in independent India was in 1952. He contested in theelection to the state assembly as a candidate of the socialist party fromVarkala constituency. It was a triangular fight. The other contesting partiesbeing the congress and the left front (with an independent candidate)under the leadership of the communist party. He was defeated, butonly for 250 votes. He won the election in 1970. It was from theconstituency of Thiruvanthapuram-1. He was a candidate of the PSPwhich was a constituent of the United Democratic Front consisting ofthe Congress, the CPI, the RSP, the Muslim League and the PSP.

Sri. Attingal Gopalapillai held many official positions in the partyincluding that of the Chairman of the party. He decided the destiny ofthe party as the Chairman during the period 1965-70. In 1971 he leftthe UDF and went with the opposition consequent on the differencesof opinion with the party regarding certain vital issues. He gave upactive politics in 1976.

Sri. Pillai never ran after power and position as many politiciansdo today. He was more than satisfied with the chairmanship of theparty and the membership of the state legislature for one term. He wasnot an expert in political manoeuvring. He was not disappointed whenpositions he deserved slipped away from him. His face only brightenedwith his characteristic smile on these occasions. Among the names ofpoliticians who enter politics only to make personal gains through powerand position the name of Sri. Pillai shines like a lone star. He was a verygood player in football and ball badminton when he was studying forthe intermediate. Even as a boy he was a great lover of liberty andtreasured most his self respect. He did not bow his head before anybody.Perhaps it was the sportsman in him and the ardent love for freedomthat enabled him to face all odds with his usual enchanting smile.

Sri. Pillai’s marriage was in 1966. He married Smt. Indiradaughter of Capt. Dr. Nanoo Panicker, Retd. Principal, College ofIndigenous Medicine, Colombo, Ceylon. Smt. Indira was part timelecturer in Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. She alsoserved for some time as part time lecturer in the Police Training College,Thiruvananthapuram. Smt. Indira, with LLB from London, Barrister atLaw from Middle Temple and ML from the University of Kerala wouldhave attained a very high official poistion if Sri. Pillai was prepared toexert his political influence. But for the said premature demise of one ofhis two sons in the prime of youth, Sri. Pillai’s domestic life is happy.

Sri. Attingal Gopalapillai is a towering personality with his bigand thick moustache. But his appearance is deceptive. He looks like aleopard, but is as gentle as a lamb. His colleagues, friends and well-

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wishers celebrated his Sathabhisheka in a befitting manner on the 11thof May 2003. I have always called him Gopalapillai Chettan. He is likean elder brother to me. When I was a college student, he used to visitour residence to discuss political and other matters with my elder brotherlate Prof. G. Kumara Pillai for whom he cherished very great regardand love. On the auspicious occasion of the Sathabhisheka of Gopalapillai Chettain, let me convey to him the warm regards of an youngerbrother and wish him a long healthy and prosperous life.

SENIOR LEADERS SHOULD QUITELECTORAL POLITICS

The Hindu, Friday April 9, 2004 by N.J. Nair

Thiruvananthapura, April 8Politicians who have contested twice should quit electoral politics

and give way for the younger generation, the veteran socialist AttingalGopalapillai has said.

Mr. Pillai told the Hindu here today that the national partiesshould arrive at a consensus against fielding certain leaders repeatedlyfrom certain constituencies. “There are leaders who have beenrepresenting a constituency consecutively for the past fifty years. Nowthey are introducing their children in their place”, he said.

Progeny politics is the bane of the nation, according to Mr.Pillai. What started during the days of Jawaharlal Nehru was beingfollowed even now, Kerala being no exception, he said.

Political parties no longer attached any importance to valuesthat were once considered sacred in politics, he said. Ramjeth malaniwho was one of the bitter critics of the congress president Sonia Gandhihas now been given the party ticket to contest. There are any numberof such instances to cite, he said. An ardent crusader against corruptionMr. Pillai has the rare distinction of attempting to move a private anti-corruption bill in the assembly when the late Achutha Menon was chiefminister. Achutha Menon opposed the bill saying that it will affect theparty functionaries too. If a member moves a private bill in the LokSabha no member would oppose its admission. Later it would beadopted on the merit of the discussion that follows. This should be thepractice in the state assembly too, he pointed out.

According to Mr. Pillai, raising election expenses are the routeof all corrupt practice. The proposal that government should bearelection expenses of candidates during the time of Jawaharlal Nehrustill remained in cold storage. There were many commission reports onwhich no action had been taken. Only the former Chief Election

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Commissioner had had the temerity to end booth capturing and othercorrupt practices to a considerable extent, Mr. Pillai said.

Mr. Pillai entered electoral politics in 1952, contesting fromVarkala as a socialist party candidate. He contested from Attingal in1957, from Kazhakuttom in 1965, from Trivandrum West in 1967 andfrom Trivandrum East in 1970 when he was elected. He was instrumentalin setting up Trivandrum Railway division.

“When Madhu Dandavate was the Railway minister, he camehere to inaugurate the Railway overbridge. I went to the airport withplacards demanding the setting up of a division at Trivandrum. Thiswas a follow up of the continuous correspondence I had with the centrein this regard. Mr. Dandavate called me and assured that he wouldannounce the decision at the public function and he kept his words”, herecalls.

Mr. Pillai said many socialist leaders had been opposed to thesetting up of the division. Now, many were coming forward with theclaim that they had also made efforts to set up the division. I havenothing against them, he said.

Mr. Pillai had actively participated in the agitation to establisha high court bench here and had been imprisoned twice. During thetenure of Achutha Menon government the assembly had unanimouslypassed the resolution seeking to set up the bench. But there had beenno effective follow up, he said.

The octogenarian who lives in the city now has no affinity towardsany political party. His friends and well wishers who felicitated himrecently are planning to bring out a souvenier as part of his 85th birthdaycelebrations.

It would have interesting details about the politics and sociallife of Kerala of which Mr. Pillai is an integral part.

Rejoinder to a statement of P. Viswambharan alleging thatS. Chandrasekhar became Prime Minister after paying

king’s ransom to MPs.

When I read the statement of Janata Dal Secretary P.Viswambharan alleging that Chandrasekhar ministry was formed onthe foundation of immorality, I feel like quoting a famous saying “a potcalling the kettle black”. Viswambharan raised the allegation that forpurchasing each MP, 5-50 lakhs ransom was paid. But he convenientlyforgets that he as the secretary and K. Chandrasekharan as Presidenthad sold 18 MLAs for Rs. 10000. This story of the sale of MLAs isstill a public knowledge. For Viswambharan Nov 10 may be a blackday. But according to national dailies in the country it is a memorableday on which the people of India got a man at the helm as Prime Ministerwho is a champion of millions of poor and down trodden.

V.P. Singh who played a tacit role in putting Chandrasekhar injail and who took up the leadership of like-minded persons after hisouster from the congress and came to power. It was his policy to lingeron in power by fomenting communal and caste passions. His elevenmonth rule was a period of non-functioning of government. The life ofcommon people became miserable due to price rise and inflation. CanMr. Viswambharan afford to forget these things?

It needs no political wisdom to understand the reason why Mr.Viswambharan and his friends support V.P. Singh leaving Chandrasekharalone. It is sheer opportunism and a cheating of the entire rank and file.Viswambharan will before long understand the fact that the rank andfile of his party will follow the leadership of Chandrasekhar.

I still believe that the leadership of Chandrasekhar marks aturning point in the Indian polity. I have watched Chandrasekhar atclose quarters as an ordinary member of Janata Dal after being a workerof PSP right from 1952 and state president for a period of five years.

There was a time when the Trivandrum corporation councilhad eight mayors and majority of members of PSP. Now there is not a

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single member in the council. Who is responsible for this deplorabledecline of the party? It is none other than Viswambharan himself. It isnothing but shamelessness to issue such a statement by the president ofJanata Dal which does not have a member to represent even a singleward of his own panchayat. Your statement is false and far-fetched.

Thiruvananthapuram11.11.1990 Attingal Gopala Pillai

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DR. RAM MANOHAR LOHIA -THE SAGACIOUS SOCIALIST

Every Indian remembers Lohia as a fire brand socialist whowas reluctant for compromises. Though he was different from anysocialists of his making and contemporaries he lived as a true socialisttill his death, even when J.P. and Acharya Narendra for their own reasonsdeserted socialism in the post-independent era.

In 1948, the socialists in the congress decided to constitute aseperate parallel political party and not to join the government. Thecongress high command altered the constitution to debar from itsmembership one who is a member of any political party which had aseperate membership and programme. Lohia is one among those wholeft congress.

What Lohia said about congress after leaving congress to justifyhis action.

“Congress was an organisation to the building of which wecontributed as much as anybody else. We are voluntarily sacrificing ourshare and going to build ourselves another house.” Lohia was thestrongest opponent of the idea of country’s partition. He abstained fromthe congress working committee meeting at Delhi on 15-6-1947.Explaining his absence he wrote.

“In any event my opposition could not have moved mountains.It could only have been on record as the healthful opposition of a fighterfor freedom without much influence. Nevertheless the absence of seriousopposition to partition even from a man like me who had absolutely noselfish axe to grind showed the depths of weakness and fear which ourpeople and I, as an ordinary one among them had taken”.

It is in record that Lohia accompanied Mahatma Gandhi tosome areas of Noakhali when communal riots broke out. In 1947,Lohia was made a member of the food committee by Govt. of India.

A brochure “Salient points of the Indian foreign policy” authoredby Lohia to which Nehru contributed a foreword was presented in the1938 congress session at Haripara. It made the following points.

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1. India is determined to participate in the world affairs as a freeand soverign nation.

2. So long as British imperialism lasts in the country India isdetermined to resist by countrywide direct action any attempt toforce her into Britain’s war. It must therefore be clearlyunderstood by the whole world that for the purpose of internationaldiplomacy and war India does not form part of the British empire.

3. India desires the transformation of league of nations into a leagueof peoples and support it.

4. India does not recognize the sanctity of international treaties. Butdeclares that the aggression and the easily named.

5. India offers her support to all the national democratic and socialistform in the world that are working for peace, freedom anddemocracy and puts on record her readiness to associate whole-heartedly in any scheme of international economic sanctionsagainst an aggressor.

6. India regards her present Indian army as an army of foreignoccupation and cannot in anyway support its maintenance orstrengthening. The congress declares that the only way to meetimperialist attacks from without is arms to the people and adultmilitary training.

Lohia’s view on Marxism are vividly included in his book“Fragments of a world mind”

Lohia was against the very term ‘Marxism’ because ‘no man’sthought, should be made the centre of a political action and one shouldbehave like an eclectic taking the good points from all thinkers andsystems of thought, as ‘there are priceless treasures to learn from’ them.

Lohia commented on Marxist theory of increasing accumulationor concentration of capial without pauperisation in the following words“The weakness of Marxist theory in explaining the absence of povertyunder capital accumulation has tended to blunt its understanding of whatis otherwise a correct description of the industrial crises in capitalism”.

Lohia does not agree with Lenin that imperialism appears onlyafter capitalism enters the monopoly phase and asserts. “Imperialismnot only appears at the first stage of capitalism, but goes on developingwith it. Capitalism seeks its external dynamic one might say, even beforeit is born and, unsatiable in this search, it gobbles up one country afteranother, until the limits of the world are reached.

Lohia was a student of Prof Werner Sombart at the universityof Berlin. Prof. Sombart was a known social scientist who is influencedLohia greatly.

On Land reforms unlike communists Lohia wanted socialiststo press for ‘democratization of state’ and decentralization of politicalpower before taking up the question of agrarian relation. Whenever theredistribution of land was going to be achieved, the efforts should bedirected to promote co-operativisation and adopt intensive techniquesof production.

Lohia was for non-violent mass action or satyagraha as themost important instrument of struggle. He warned “unless socialists arecontinually ready to use this weapon of mass action they will besubmerged by governmental action on the one hand and insurrectionalviolence by the communists....communist class struggle is immoral andviolent because of its faulty analysis of capitalism.

Rejecting both capitalism and communism Lohia propoundedhis own variety of socialism as the third force seemingly communismand capitalism were in combat with each other, but they “bear a closekinship; both are doctrines of political efficiency of seeing in any onepeople the image for others to follow, of environmentalism. In an article“Twentieth Russian Congress and Indian Communists” Lohia said.

“The concept of unanimous reconstruction has forcefullyemerged out of the Russian communist congress. This concept was solong valid only when communism became the government and throughthe dictatorship of proletariat.....Mr Vinoba Bhave’s UnanimousPanchayats, Mr. Asoka Mehta’s areas of agreement, Mr. JayaprakashNarayan’s partyless politics and the earlier communist concept of

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dictatorship of proletariate and the present concept of unanimousreconstruction are all one piece”.

However, Lohia lashed out at Indian communists by sayingthat “they were robbed of all self respect and that minimum of pride,which holds the personality together. They had during the open rebellionof 1942 associated with foreign rule in treachrous suppression of theirown people. They had intermitendly dishonoured the national flag andthey had learnt to abuse Mahatma Gandhi”.

Lohia was trying to democrat himself from the long line of IndianNationalist thinking and this found expression in his report to the NationalPlanning Committee of the Congress. He asserted in one place as below.

“The essential thing is to note that capitalist as well as communistrationalisation makes use of identical technology and that it is totallyuseless for Asia in view of its too many people, too little land, too fewforces of production. Socialists of Asia must themselves understandand make it clear to the people of Asia that communism cannot givebread even after it destroys freedom. Marx wanted to abolish thecapitalist relations of production but he wanted to continue the capitalisttechnology of production which may have been alright for Europebecause Europe has been the beneficiary of capitalism. This essentiallyEuropean analysis must give way to a world analysis Socialists have tofight capitalism on both points, they have to alter the forces as well asthe relations of production.

Lohia viewed that Marxian slogan “workers of the world unite”is absurd because the proletariat of England or France have nothing incommon to the working class of India. The proletariat of a countryunites with the bourgeoisie of his land and helps it exploit the proletariatand the bourgeoisie of another nation.

Lohia stressed that India had to chart a path which should bequalitatively different from capitalism and marxisian communism. Becauseboth were genetically the same. Both of them were not suited to thecondition in India and other countries of Asia and Africa. Consequentlyboth were equally irrelevant.

Acknowledgement:It is a hard truth that no serious studies have been made on

Lohia’s ideas on socialism in free India. Lohia’s ideas are most relevantin the country when non-congress coalition governments areindispensable due to political dilutions, compulsions and instability causedfor reasons inherent in the democratic set up of post-independencefree India.

A sketch of Lohia’s ideas can be comprehensed through variousstatements I have received from Lohia’s writings, speeches during his37 years of political life. Special mention is also made here on books“Fragments of a world mind”, Ram Manohar Lohia “Wheel of History”,Ram Manohar Lohia “The Man and his Ism”.

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