Kerala Socialist Party

Kerala Socialist Party (KSP) was a political party in India founded under the leadership of Mathai Manjooran on 21 September 1947 at Kozhikode. It began as a small party, but its front-line leaders compelled the party deep into the public imagination. The party was part of the coalition that formed the first democratically elected communist government in the world after San Marino.[1][2]

In the changed atmosphere of the present it is hard to evoke the degree of excitement and promise the new party held out to the State. Within the short time span of two decade and a half of its coming into existence KSP came to play a larger-than-life role in the political landscape of the post-independence Kerala State.

Among its founding members other than Mathai Manjooran were N. Sreekantan Nair, M.P. Menon (who later went on to become a Judge of the High Court of Kerala), K. Balakrishnan (son of the veteran Congress leader C. Kesavan), John Manjooran, K.C.K.M. Mather, P. K. Balakrishnan, K.R. Chummar, G. Janardhana Kurup, T.P. Chakrapani, M.T. Lazar, A.P. Pillai to name only some of the prominent leaders. It was one among the seven parties that came together to form a coalition government under the chiefministership of E.M.S. Namboodiripad in the 1967.[3]

The fate of the KSP however was sealed within its makeup. It goes naturally that such an explosive combination of talents could not get along together in harmony for long. In 1949 October, within 2 years of its inception the party underwent a split and N. Sreekantan Nair, Baby John and K. Balakrishnan joined the Revolutionary Socialist Party, then a small socialist party confined to Bengal.

Other prominent leaders of the KSP were as follows:

  • Mamman Kannanthanam.
  • P. Sankarankutty.
  • Cherian Manjooran.
  • S.S. Das.
  • K.G. Nath.
  • Karunakara Menon.
  • A. Damodaran.
  • C.N. Sreekandan Nair.
  • C.S. Gangadharan.
  • Varkey Unnikkunnel
  • Baby John.
  • Prakkulam Bhasi.
  • Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai.
  • C. Vivekanandan.
  • Sadananda Shastri.
  • L.G. Pai.
  • T.K. Divakaran.[4]
  • M.L. George.
  • U. Neelakhandan.

Important members and fellow travellers of the KSP.

  • M.K. Menon (Vilasini).
  • K.M. Roy.
  • Pozhamangalath George alias P P Varuthukutty (Secretary, Tata Employees Union)

References
  1. https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/news-makers/story/20170925-ems-namboodiripad-communist-contemporary-marxist-industrialisation-1044929-2017-09-15
  2. https://mattersindia.com/2017/04/worlds-first-elected-communist-government-celebrates-60th-anniversary/
  3. https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79R00890A000200050008-2.pdf
  4. https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/160119/tk-divakarans-dream-turns-real.html
  • Kaalathinu Munpae Nadanna Manjooran_ by K.M. Roy.
  • Keraleeyathayum Mattum (Published by D.C. Books)_ by P. K. Balakrishnan.
  • "CIA Confidential Report on the first communist win in the Indian States" (PDF). cia.gov.
  • "Vision of Kerala Socialist Party's TK Divakaran implemented after almost half a century". deccanchronicle.com.
  • "When the 'Red Star Rose'". asianage.com.


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