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Matriliny, Marxism, and the Birth of the Communist Party in Kerala, 1930–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Robin Jeffrey
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Abstract

Why has communism flourished in some parts of Asia and not in others? Examining the case of Kerala, this paper argues that, in India at least, social dislocation is the crucial ingredient when added to poverty, landlessness, and literacy. In Kerala, the matrilineal family system of caste-Hindus and the attendant system of extreme disabilities enforced against the low castes collapsed in the early twentieth century. The social upheaval was greater than anywhere else in India. A déraciné generation of caste-Hindus was forced to seek remedies for-the disruption and misery that daily confronted it, while increasing numbers of low castes refused to submit to the restrictions that traditional society sought to impose. This situation of social turmoil, similar in some ways to that prevailing in China and Vietnam, contributed crucially to the establishment of Kerala's vigorous, broad-based Communist party in the late 1930s.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , November 1978 , pp. 77 - 98
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1978

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References

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11 It became a common pattern for Kerala Com-munists to remain bachelors or to marry only intheir 40s, partly because the marriage system hadbeen in such flux in their youth that they had noguardians to arrange their marriages. Interview, K.P.R. Gopalan, Kalliasseri, 23 Nov. 1975.

12 Krishnan, T. V., Kerala's First Communist:Life of “Sakhavu” Krishna Pillai (New Delhi: Communist Party Publication, 1971), pp. 2–3.Google ScholarHindu, 14 May 1934, p. 16.

13 Krishnan, Krishna Pillai, pp. 8—11. The experiences of K. Damodaran and Puthuppalli Raghavan were strikingly similar. Interviews: K. Damodaran, New Delhi, 9 Dec. 1975; Puthuppalli Raghavan, Quilon, June 1974, August 1975. Compare this, too, with the quotation from Chu Teh in Friedman, Edward, Backward Toward Revolution (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1974), p. 219.Google Scholar

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17 The notes of Messrs. Innts and Evans on Tenancy Legislation for Malabar (n.p., n.d.). p. 52.

18 J. Gray, Officer on Special Duty, to the Secretary, Board of Revenue, 22 Nov. 1917, Tamilnad Archives, Madras [hereafter TNA], Madras Revenue Dept. G.O. No. 2941, 12 Aug. 1918.

19 Prakash Karat explores the impoverishment of the Malabar peasantry in two stimulating articles, “Agrarian Relations in Malabar, 1925–48,” Social Scientist, Nos. 14, 15 (Sept., Oct. 1973), pp. 30–43 and 24–37.Google Scholar

20 I hope to examine in another paper the failureof the Communists to make an impact on the Mappilla peasantry. The Party strove hard but unsuccessfully to do so in 1946. See, for example, Madras Public, G.O. No. 491, 23 Feb. 1949 (KS).

21 Varghese, Agrarian Change, pp. 64–69; Jeffrey, Nayar Dominance, pp. 80–90.

22 Report of the Board of Conciliation of Trade Disputes in the Mats and Matting Industry 1939 (Trivandrum: Government Press, 1953), pp.129, 185.Google Scholar

23 Sri Mulam Assembly Proceedings, VII (12 Nov. 1938), p. 35.

24 Gopalan, Cause of the People, pp. 8–9. See also, History of the Freedom Movement in Kerala, ed. Menon, P. K. K. (Trivandrum: Government Press, 1972), II, 71–73, 94–104Google Scholar; Dale, Stephen F., “The Mappilla Outbreaks; Ideology and Social Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Kerala,” JAS, 35 (1975). 85–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wood, Conrad, “Historical Background of the Moplah Rebellion: Outbreaks, 1836–1919,” Social Scientist, No. 25 (1974), pp. 5–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Miller, Roland E., Mappila Muslims of Kerala (Madras: Orient Longman, 1976), pp. 100–53.Google Scholar

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28 Nehru to K. Madhavan Nair, 10 June 1928, in Menon, Freedom Movement, II, p. 146. Congress membership in Kerala in 1929 was said to be 3,265; Hindu, 14 Oct. 1929. I am grateful toChristopher May for this reference.

29 “A Short History of Satyagraha in Kerala,” n.d. AICC Papers, G-107/1930 [hereafter “Short History”].Menon, K.P. Kesava, Samakālīnarāyacila kēralḷiyar (Kottayam: National Book Stall, 1974), p. 207Google Scholar. Menon, Freedom Movement, II, p. 1840, lists the members of the jatha. Useful biographical detail is in Who is Who of Freedom Fighters in Kerala, ed. K. Karunakaran Nair (Trivandrum: Government Press, 1975).

30 Krishnan, Krishna Pillai, p. 14.

31 Ibid., p. 16.

32 “Short History.”

33 Ibid. Madras Fortnightly Report for the firsthalf of May 1930 [hereafter FR1 or FR 2 + month] (TNA).

34 Madras Public, G.O. No. 1085, 26 Aug.1930 (TNA). Madras FR2 June 1930 (TNA). Madras FR1 Sept. 1930. Madras FR1 Dec. 1930.Madras FR2 Dec. 1930. FR2 Apr. 1931. Figures extracted from Madras FRs.

35 See, for example, Grieder, “Chinese Revolution,” p. 212; Friedman, Backward toward Revolution, p. 219; and Selden, Mark, The Yenan Way in Revolutionary China (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1971), p. 93.Google Scholar

36 “Movement in Kerala,” n.d., AICC Papers, G-107/1930 [hereafter “Movement”].

37 District Magistrate, Malabar, to the Madras Government, 30 Dec. 1930, Madras Public, G.O. No. 45, 10 Jan. 1931 (TNA). Only Guntur District, with 108, exceeded Malabar. E.C. Wood, District Magistrate, Malabar, Report, 6 Jan. 1931, National Archives of India [hereafter NAT], Home Political Department [hereafter H. Poll], 14/21/32. For the temple-entry satyagraha undertaken during the lull of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, see “The Temple-entry Satiagraha in Guruvayur,” n.d., AICC Papers, P-14/1932. Also Menon, Freedom Movement, II, pp. 266–78.

38 Madras FR1 May 1932; A.V. Kuttimalu Amma, 9th Dictator, to the President, AICC, 19 Feb. 1932, AICC Papers, P-14/1932; Statement of V.K. Sivarama Panikkar, 3 Nov. 1932, Madras Public, G.O. No. 1627, 16 Dec. 1932 (TNA). K.C. Nambiar, 20th Dictator, to the President, AICC, 24 Aug. 1932. AICC Papers P-14/1932.

39 Chief Secretary's Note, 20 June 1933, Madras Public, G.O. No. 345, 10 July 1933 (TNA); Hindu (Madras), 29 June 1933, p. 12; 13 Sept. 1933, p. 17. K.P. Gopalan and K.A. Keraleeyan at a public meeting in Cannanore attacked the decision to call off civil disobedience. Govt, of Madras to the Govt, of India, 2 Aug. 1933, H. Poll, 4/10/1933 (NAI).

40 Gopalan, Cause of the People, p. 18; Namboodiripad, Ātmakatba, p. 278. For similar experiences in Bengal, see Laushey, David M., Bengal Terrorism and the Marxist Left (Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1975), pp. 100—110.Google Scholar In his forthcoming book on Vietnam in the twentieth century, David Marr draws a parallel between the Long March in China and the jail life of the Vietnamese revolutionaries as crucial experiences which forged comradeship and heightened political consciousness.

41 Swadeshabhimani, 1–3–1099 Malayalam Era [Oct. 1924], p. 83. Copy owned by Puthuppalli Raghavan, Quilon. For an English translation of the Malayalam biography of Marx, see Joshi, P.C. & Damodaran, K., Marx Comes so India (Delhi: Manohar Book Service, 1975), pp. 74–123.Google Scholar

42 Kesava Dev, Lōkattil, pp. 77–78; Krishnan,Krishna Pillai, p. 14.

43 Namboodiripad, Ātmakatha, p. 288.

44 Ibid., p. 290.

45 Ibid., pp. 284, 290–1; Gopalan, Cause of the People, p. 19; Krishnan, Krishna Pillai, p. 19; Laushey, Bengal Terrorism, pp. 110–20.

46 Interview, K.P. Gopalan; Krishnan, Krishna Pillai, p. 24.

47 Madras States FR2 Mar. 1931; Travancore Government English Records, Confidential Section [hereafter CS], 775/1931 (KS). Interview, N.C. Sekhar, Cannanore, 24 Nov. 1975. Kurukkal wasan Ambalavasi, a caste-Hindu.

48 Madras Public, G.O. No. 1449, 6 Sept. 1935 (TNA).

49 Krishnan, Krishna Pillai, p. 29. Commissioner of Police to the Chief Secretary, 5 July 1936, CS, 1092/1936.

50 Interview, Damodaran, K.; Damodaran, K. and Ali, Tariq, “Memoir of an Indian Communist,” New Left Review, No. 93 (1975), pp. 38–39.Google Scholar

51 Hindu, 14 May, p. 16, 13 Sept. 1934, p. 17; C.K. Govindan Nair, Joint Secretary, to the President, AICC, 13 Sept, 1934, AICC, P-15/1934; Weekly Secret Bulletin [Travancore], 1, No. 39 (22 Sept. 1934); Hindu, 18 Oct. 1934, p. 19.

52 Menon, Freedom Movement, II, p. 407n.

53 Hindu, 25 April 1934, p. 18; 12 May, p. 21;12 June, p. 12; 16 June, p. 21.

54 The committee consisted of P. Krishna Pillai, K.P. Gopalan, and Chandroth Kunhiraman Nair. Report, 29 Dec. 1934, AICC, P-15/1934.

55 Hindu, 12 Feb. 1935, p. 18.

56 Kesava Dev, Lokattil, pp. 149–51; Madras States FR1 Oct. 1932; Hindu, 3 July 1933, p. 13, and 9 Jan. 1932, p. 5.

57 Congress Socialist, 10 Mar. 1935, p. 16. This was followed by a brief strike in a nearby tile factory. Hindu, 6 Mar. 1935, p. 21.

58 Congress Socialist, 8 Feb. 1936, p. 19.

59 Ibid., 30 May 1936, p. 18.

60 Hindu, 15 Jan. 1936, p. 17; 20 Jan., p. 21.

61 Prabhatam, 4 Mar. 1935 in Madras Public, G.O. No. 544, 3 Apr. 1935 (KS).

62 Ibid., 11 Mar. 1935.

63 Ibid., 26 Apr. 1935.

64 Hindu, 1 Aug. 1935, p. 15; 15 Aug., p. 16;2 Aug., p. 14; 29 Aug., p. 18; Namboodiripad, Ātmakatha, pp. 377–88.

65 Report of the Malabar Tenancy Committee (Madras: Government Press, 1940), II, p. 249Google Scholar, evidence of K. Kunhiraman [hereafter MTC 1940]; “How the Malabar Peasants Should Fight and For What?” n.d. [c. 1939], translation of pamphlet, H. Poll, 7/9/41.

66 Hindu, 20 Dec. 1938, p. 17; “Circular No. 14,” n.d. [c. 1940], H. Poll, 7/9/41.

67 Congress Socialist, 30 May 1936, p. 18. For earlier attempts at agrarian organizations, see Hindu, 7 (29 Nov. 1933), 12, 20; Namboodiripad, E.M.S., How I Became a Communist (Trivandrum: Chintha Publishers, 1976), pp. 152–53.Google Scholar Krishnan, Krishna Pillai, p. 31, says the key meeting was in 1934; in fact it was in November 1936. Hindu, 4 Nov. 1936, p. 17. For the spread of the ideas of the caste reformers, Nair, P. Narayanan, Aranurrāntilute (Kottayam: National Book Stall, 1973).P. 32.Google Scholar

68 National Front, 28 Aug. 1938, pp. 9, 18; Madras FR2 May 1937 (TNA); Jeffrey, Robin, “Peasant Movements and the Communist Party in Kerala, 1937–57,” in Peasants and Politics:Grass Roots Reactions to Change in Asia, ed. Miller, D.B. (Melbourne: Edward Arnold, 1978).Google Scholar

69 Madras FRi Dec. 1938, FRi Feb. 1939; MTC 1940, II, p. 281, evidence of M. P. Madhavan Nambudiri; A.K. Gopalan, speech, 23 Nov.1938, H.Poll, 7/9/41.

70 “Activities of the All-Malabar Peasants' Union,” 30 Apr. 1941, H. Poll, 7/9/41 [hereafter ”Activities”].

71 Ibid.

72 “Annual Report,” 3rd Chirakkal KarshakaConference, 1939; Extract from notebook of V.Narayan, volunteer; “Circular Nos. 14 and 18”, n.d. [c. 1940], all in H. Poll., 7/9/41.

73 Hindu, 6 July 1938, p. 4; CS, 774/1940; Madras Public, G.O. No. 2232, 3 Dec. 1939 (TNA); V.T. Baylay, Intelligence Bureau, Home Dept., Govt, of India, to E.H. Colebrook, Supt. Of Police, Special Branch, CID, Madras, 21 May 1940, CS, 171/1940; Madras Public, G.O. No. 238, 3 Feb. 1939 (TNA). Karat, Prakash, “Organized Struggles of Malabar Peasantry, 1934–40,” Social Scientist, No. 56, (1977), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

74 The membership fee was two annas a year. MTC 1940, II, p. 319, evidence of T.S. Subramaniam Tirumumpu; p. 186, evidence of P. Narayanan Nair. “Activities,” H. Poll, 7/9/41.

75 MTC 1940, II, pp. 186, 266.

76 The cases are in Madras Home, G.O. No. 3903, 18 July 1939 (KS) and Madras Public, G.O. No. 2135, 29 Oct. 1940(TNA).

77 Hindu, 4 Feb. 1936, p. 13; 16 Nov., p. 18; 3 Jan. 1939, p. 5. V. Ramunny, President, Malabar Aided Elementary Teachers' Union, to the Secretary, KPCC, 11 Aug. 1939, AICC Papers, P-12/Pt. 1.

78 Namboodiripad, Communist, pp. 199–201.

79 Interviews: E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Trivandrum, 23 March 1978; Sekhar, N.C.; Damodaran, K.. Ghate, S.V., “Remember Krishna Pillai,” New Age, 7 Apr. 1957, p. 18.Google Scholar Krishnan, Krishna Pillai, p. 68, says 5 men met Ghate, but he does not name them. New Age, 17 Mar. 1957, p. 8, gives 1937 as the date for the formation of the first communist cell and gives 4 names. K. Damodaran in an interview named the same 4. See also, Namboodiripad, Communist, p. 211.

80 Hindu, 28 Apr. 1937, p. 15; Cmsr. of Police, Cochin, to the Dewan, 30 Apr. 1937, Dewan's Letters, Cochin, Cmsr. of Police File (Kerala State Archives, Ernakulam) [hereafter KSA, E]; Madras FR2 Nov. 1937; Congress Socialist, 27 Nov. 1937 p. 16Google Scholar, for examples of leading Communists using the Congress “cover.”

81 Interview, K. Damodaran.

82 New Age, 7 Apr. 1957, p. 7; p. Kesava Dev,”Panimutakku” in Ormakalute lōkattil, p. 99.

83 Namboodiripad, E.M.S. to Ghate, S.V., 13 Sept. 1938 in Cochin Dewan's Letters to and from the Resident (KSA, E).Google Scholar

84 Interview, K. Damodaran. For Namboodiripad, see R.K. Shanmukhan Chetty, Dewan, to C.P. Skrine, Resident, 1 Nov. 1938 in Cochin Dewan's Letters to and from the Resident. See also, Jeffrey, Robin, “A Sanctified Label—'Congress’ in Travancore Politics,” in Congress and the Raj, ed. Low, D.A. (London: Heinemann, 1977), pp. 453–54.Google Scholar

85 Congress Socialist, 20 Nov. 1937, pp. 17–18.Google Scholar

86 Peety, , by “Through Struggles and Sacrifices,” in Communist Party of India 9th Congress Souvenir (Cochin: C. Unniraja, 1971), p. 159; Gopalan, Cause of the People, p. 136; interviews, N.C. Sekhar, K.P. Gopalan, K.P.R. Goplan; Krishnan, Krishna Pillai, p. 68, puts the meeting in November and the attendance at 90.Google Scholar

87 Krishnan, Krishna Pillai, p. 72.

88 G. Ramachandran to Rajendra Prasad, 26 Dec. 1939, AICC Papers, P-39/1939–40.

89 Madras Public, G.O. No. 2135, 29 Oct.1940 (TNA); H. Poll, 5/22/40 (NAI).

90 R.K.L. Nandkeolyar & P. Subarayyan, Report, 8 Oct. 1940, AICC Papers, P-11/1942–46.They were convinced the Protest Day confrontation was “a deliberate attempt to either stampede the A.I.C.C. into action [against the war] or to forestall its decision [not to oppose the war].”

91 Press Note, 22 Sept. 1940, H. Poll, 5/22/40; Gopalan, Cause of the People, p. 142.

92 District Supt. of Police, Malabar, to the Inspector-General of Police, Madras, 23 Sept. 1940, Madras Public, G.O. No. 2135, 29 Oct. 1940 (TNA).

93 People's Age, 25 Nov. 1945, pp. 6–8.Google Scholar

94 Mathrubhumi [Calicut], 9 Jan. to 16 Feb.1940.

95 Prabhatam Annual, June 1939, Madras Public, G.O. No. 1351, 17 Aug. 1939 (KS).

96 Namboodiripad avoided arrest until the Party was legalized; A.K. Gopalan escaped from Vellore Jail and avoided rearrest. Hindu, 11 May 1941,p. 6; 2, 4 Aug. 1942, both p. 4; Madras Public, G.O. No. 2688, 24 Nov. 1941 (TNA); Madras FR2 May 1941.

97 J.S. Wilkes, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, to the Chief Secretary, Madras, 3 Apr. 1941, Madras Public, G.O. No. 811, 24 Apr. 1941 (KS).

98 Johnson, Chalmers A., Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power: The Emergence of Revolutionary China (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1962)Google Scholar; Gillin, Donald G., “‘Peasant Nationalism’ in the History of Chinese Communism” [review of Johnson], JAS, 23 (1964), 269–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Duiker, William J., The Rise of Nationalism in Vietnam, 1900–1941 (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1976), p. 276.Google Scholar

99 A.K. Gopalan and Namboodiripad were beaten by their Congress opponents by margins of three and five to one. Mathrubhumi, 27 Mar.1946, p. 4. For the CPI's new line in the late 1940s,see Overstreet, Gene D. & Windmiller, Marshall, Communism in India (Berkeley: Univ. of Cal.Press, 1960), pp. 265–75.Google Scholar

100 The ministers were Namboodiripad himself, K.P. Gopalan, C. Achutha Menon (the Cochin leader), and K.C. George, and T.V. Thomas of Travancore. I am grateful to Christopher May for his information on the district committees in 1957.

101 For a colorful, though not always accurate account, see Zinkin, Reporting India, pp. 159–203.

102 Kessinger, Tom G., Vilyatpur, 1848–1968 (Berkeley: Univ. of Cal. Press, 1974), pp.178–201, and others argue against the proposition that the joint-family in India is disappearing. In Vilyatpur, for example, the joint-family “has notbeen replaced by the nuclear family and a growing spirit of individualism” (p. 201, emphasis added).Google Scholar

103 Franda, Marcus F., Radical Politics in West Bengal (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1971), pp. 6–7, 13–41, 244Google Scholar; Dasgupta, Biplab, The Naxalite Movement (New Delhi: Allied, 1974), p. 20Google Scholar; Weiner, Myron, Political Change in South Asia (Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1963), pp. 184–85, 197, 208–12, 226–27Google Scholar. For Bombay, see Omvedt, Gail, “Non-Brahmans and Communists in Bombay,” Economic and Political Weekly, 21 and 28 Apr. 1972, pp. 749–59, 800–5Google Scholar; and Roger Stuart, “The Formation of the Communist Party of India, 1920–36,” Diss., Australian National Univ. 1978, Chap. 4, “Taking Marxism to Its Class, 1927–29.” The rebellion in Telengana in 1946–49 appears to have owed as much to the incompetence and oppression of the Nizam of Hyderabad's government as to the organization of the Communist party. Elliott, Carolyn M., “Decline of a Patrimonial Regime: The Telengana Rebellion in India, 1946–51,” JAS, 34 (1974), 27–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

104 Grieder, “Communism,” p. 207.

105 Friedman, Revolution, p. 119.

106 Ibid., p. 219.

107 Woodside, Vietnam, pp. 7, 23, 16.

108 Friedman, Revolution, p. 219. See also, Selden, Yenan Way, p. 93.