KE Mammen, Scorpio *** [inspirational books txt] 📗

Dedication 

About KE Mammen 

Early Days 

Baptism into Freedom Movement

Post Independence 

Moves to Capital 

In Twilight of his life 

Honours and Awards 

Present Battle 

Mammen In Pics

About the Author 

Author Requests 

This E - Book is deidcated to

  KE Mammen  

 the one and only Gandhian Naxalite. 

 Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins wrote in their legendary work ‘Freedom at Midnight’ “ The one man unarmed army of Mahatma could avert a catastrophic series of communal violence in Bengal while a hundred thousand strong British army couldn’t stop the most dreadful bloodshed in Punjab that tarnished Indian history in the wake of Independent India”. A great tribute to the soul of 20th century!

If you are an ardent follower of post-independent history of this tiny State of Kerala you cannot miss an analogous single-man unarmed army in the thin, lean and tall frame of ninety four year old KE Mammen, a true Gandhian in words and practices. If someone asks you as to who is the most feared but equally revered figure in Kerala’s socio-political horizon without batting an eyelid you will answer 'it is KE Mammen'. Such is the stature and influence this unflinching messiah of Gandhian ideologies that ‘Mammen Sir’, as he is affectionately called by one and all irrespective of their political leanings, commands on the knowledgeable publicof Kerala.

A Gandhian Naxalite? That is what KE Mammen calls himself. Sounds paradoxical?  But true.  A revolutionary in true Gandhian mould, that is what he is.

 This E- book is an effort to portray this idealist with a difference  as truthfully as  one can .  

KE Mammen hails from the well-known orthodox Kandathil family, which owns the Malayala Manorama Group of companies. His father KC Eapen, the Managing Director of National and Quilon Bank, forerunner of banking in Kerala, was the nephew of Kandathil Varughese Mappillai, the founder of Malayala Manorama. Born on 31 Jul 1921 as the sixth child of KC Eapen and Kunjandamma, Mammen had his schooling in St Joseph’s High School,   one of the oldest schools in Trivandrum. He studied in St Joseph’s for nine years till matriculation. The Principal of the school was a Belgian priest, Father Patrick, whom he vividly recollects with  sibce his family was based at Trivandrum those days a lot of respect. He fondly remembers Champion Bhaskaran, then a famous athlete well known in Trivandrum and after whom the road where Mammen is residing now is named, was his schoolmate. In his school days he was an active member of Scouts and was very fond of cycling and running. He used to read a lot, but never had been a bookworm, he says.

During his school days itself Mammen got attracted by the freedom movement and the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. In spite of his wealthy, orthodox and reputed family background, he wanted to plunge into the freedom struggle and to be a worthy follower of Mahatma. He says he identified Jesus Christ in Mahatma for his ideology based on truth, love, non-violence and urge to serve the nation and its people.

After matriculation, he joined the Government Arts College, the present University College, for the Intermediate course in 1938. This was the time when the freedom movement was at its peak and the young Mammen needed no rethinking to join the struggle. He still has the black and white photograph along with five of his close friends, CM Stephen, Mathew, Paravoor Mohammed Basheer, KC Cherian and Sarangadharan. All of them shared Mammen’s eagerness to join the freedom struggle. Out of these, only Mammen is now alive. CM Stephen later on became a well-known Congress leader and Minister in the Central Cabinet. KC Cherian was the brother of late KC George, veteran communist leader and a minister in the first communist ministry of EMS. K C Cherian became a high official in the UN and passed away recently. Paravoor Mohammed Basheer, later on supported Independent Travancore for unknown reasons and faded away from public life. Sarangadharan became a police officer and retired as District Superindent of Police. Unfortunately, Mammen does not have a clue as to what happened to the sixth member of that group, Mathew.

Though Travancore those days was an independent kingdom of Maharaja Sri Chitthira Thirunal, the people were very much active in the Indian freedom struggle and the Congress Party. The freedom movement was led by prominent Congress stalwarts like TM Verghese, Pattom Thanu Pillai, C Kesavan, AJ John to name a few. Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyer, a brilliant administrator but an autocrat to the core, was the Dewan of Travancore, i.e. the Chief Executive Officer of Maharajas Government. However, he treated the freedom activities with contempt and wanted Travancore to be an independent State. The Constituent Assembly known as Praja Sabha of Travancore with representatives of the people used to meet at the Victoria Jubilee Town hall and it was the Dewan who used to preside over the assembly. While one of the meetings was going on, students led by the student group of six including Mammen went on demonstration against the autocratic regime of the Dewan shouting slogans in support of the freedom movement. The Dewan who had a strong influence on the Maharaja used his Police and forced a lathi charge on the demonstrating students. KC Cherian was seriously injured in the melee that followed. That was the baptism into active politics and freedom struggle for the 19-year-old KE Mammen.

Inspired by the Congress leaders the students launched an organisation called Students Congress and went on strike as a protest against the police action. Paravoor Mohammed Basheer was the first president of Students Congress and KE Mammen was an active leader. The police promptly arrested Basheer. NJ Chacko was elected as the next President. He too was arrested. Thus, KE Mammen took over the mantle ofs the third President of Students Congress. He published a statement in The Hindu that the fundamental rights of the students to protest against the atrocities of the Dewan cannot be denied. CP, infuriated, wanted the statement to be withdrawn which Mammen squarely rejected. Thus the battle lines were drawn for Mammen.

Student Congress had invited K T Bhashyam, a Congress leader from Mysore to address their meeting. Irked by the activities of the Students Congress, CP called Mammen to Bakthivilas, his official residence, for a meeting. Among the officials present was the Inspector General of Police Abdul Karim. CP asked Mammen to withdraw the statement and asked him how an outsider could be invited to a meeting in Travancore? The 19 year old replied him with the most unexpected question CP would have ever thought of, “Sir, if Mr Bhashyam is an outsider and cannot address us, then how come you are here as our Dewan?” Fuming, CP left the meeting in a huff and Mammen was arrested the next day Under Sec 90 of the Indian Penal Code. He was kept for seven months in Kottayam Sub Jail without trial. He spent his time in jail by reading the Bible again and again to gain the inner strength he needed at that young age. ‘The more I read the Bible, the more I realised that Gandhi is the true disciple of Christ. I saw Christ in Gandhi’, he says. He was dismissed from Government Arts College and thus could not appear for the Intermediate examination.

Next year he secured admission to St Thomas College, Trichur, a part of Cochin State for the second year of Intermediate course and passed creditably. He wanted to join Shantiniketan for further studies. However, that did not materialise and he joined for BA in Madras Christian college, Chennai, with Politics as main and Economics as subsidiary subjects. Dr KM George was then a lecturer in Malayalam in the college, he remembers. The first year went on peacefully; the second year was marked by the Quit India movement and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had come to Madras. It was his patriotic speech in Madras that served as a catalyst for Mammen and other students to plunge into the freedom struggle in full earnest. As a result he was suspended once again from the college and his formal education came to an abrupt and unfortunate endre! But, then started the unfinished journey of KE Mammen for realising free India drawing strength from Gandhian ideologies.

Consequent on the Quit India agitations, top leaders of Congress all over India were arrested enmass and the onus of continuing the freedom struggle was taken over by Socialists within the Congress like Jaya Prakash Narayan, Ashok Mehta, Acharya Narendra Dev, Aruna Asaf Ali, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and so on. Mammen vividly remembers that this socialist leadership did not adhere to Gandhiji’s principles of non- violence and resorted to more aggressive postures, which included sabotage