Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad(EMS)

Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad(EMS) was a Scholar, Communist Idealogue, Voracious reader, Columnist and above all a revolutionary in perception
but a Gandhian in practice. Born in an Aristocratic and orthodox family in Palakkad district on June 13,1909, he antagonise the Namboodiries by defying their rigid customs and practices. His father, Parameshwaran Namboodiri,died when he was a child. He
was educated in the Victoria High school and Victoria College ; Palakkad, and St.Thomas college, Thrissur.

During his college days he was greatly influenced by the speches and writings of Gokhale, Gandhi and Tilak. He participated in the freedom movement launched by
Gandhiji in the early 1920's . While he was studying for his Graduation he was arrestedand sentenced to three years imprisonment and later released when
Gandhiji withdrew the satyagraha movement.

The meeting with Kamalnath Tiwari and Sengupta Chakravarthy and Acharya of Anshilan group from West Bengal in the Kannur Central jail was a milestone in
Namboodiripad's life. The seed for the communist party was sown there.

He was a founder member of the congress socialist party when it was formed at Patna in 1934. he was one of its joint secretaries. The congress became a mass organization in kerala under his leadership. He was also elected as a member of the All India Congress Committee and head of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.

Namboodiripad got elected to the Madras Assembly on a Congress ticket in 1937. He became a member of the UN divided Communist party of INDIA. In 1964 he was elected to the CPI central committee in 1943 and was a member of its politburo till the split in 1964.

EMS, however became the center of world attraction for altogether a different reason. In 1957 he headed the first democratically elected communist ministry in Kerala, the first of its type in the world. Till then Communists came to power through armed struggle. But his ministry did not last long and was brought down by the congress achanisation. It took Namboodiripad eight turbulent years to return to power.

In 1967 he again became the Chief Minister by forming a coalition, which included the CPI. The govt. fell in October 1969 when the CPI outsmarted the CPI-M. For the rest of his life CPI was his beatnik.

Even though he ruled only for a short period, EMS laid the foundation for whatever achievement the state made in the socio-economic front. The land reform and education policy he pursued brought revolutionary changes in the state.

He was an Ideologue par-excellence and assured himself aplace in Indian History with his achievements. During his early school days he had shown keen interest in Sanskrit and Vedic studies. He was a highly sensitive child and made his mark at the age of 12 when he participated in the first all India political Conference at Thrissur. The visionary, was the CPI-M general secretary from 1978 to 1992. He was secular at heart and advocated equidistance from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. He passed away at the age of 89.