Not just Delhi, history is being rewritten by Kerala too: CPI leader

Kasaragod: The CPM-led government, which accuses the BJP of rewriting history to fit its narrative, does the same in Kerala, said veteran CPI MLA and former minister E Chandrasekharan, without naming the government.

The CPM and the CPI are allies and are part of the LDF government in Kerala.

"There is a conscious attempt to change history everywhere. Not just in Delhi,  records of historical events are being watered down even in our villages," he said.

He was speaking at the district conference of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)  at Cheruvathur on Sunday.

He particularly referred to the history of the Kayyur Peasant Uprising of March 1941. 

"We are in a period where even the historical records of the Kayyur Uprising are being edited and revised," said Chandrasekharan, CPI's state assistant secretary and three-time MLA from Kanhangad. 

The spectacle of historical people being deliberately excluded from history is all over, he said.

The CPI was miffed because the Department of Prisons replaced the name of Churikkadan Krishnan, one of the five persons convicted in the Kayyur Uprising case, with E K Nayanar, who had little to do with the peasant revolt.

In March 1941, the peasants who had no tenancy rights revolted against the landlords and the British rule in Kayyur. The British government retaliated by arresting a large number of peasants, which in turn triggered widespread protests in Kayyur village.

During the protests, a police officer was stoned to death. In that case, police arrested five persons -- Madathil Appu, Kunhambu Nair, Koyithatil Chirukandan, Pallikkal Aboobacker, and Churikkadan Krishnan Nair. 

On February 2, 1942, a Mangalore court sentenced the first four to death by hanging. But Churikkadan Krishnan Nair, the 32nd accused in the case, was awarded a life sentence because he was a minor. He was only 15 years old then.

On March 29, 1943, Madathil Appu, Kunhambu Nair, Koyithatil Chirukandan, and Pallikkal Aboobacker were hanged in Kannur Central Prison. March 29 is observed as All India Kisan Day.

To be sure, E K Nayanar had claimed he was the third accused in the case.

But the late historian A Sreedhara Menon had said that it was a case of mistaken identity and Nayanar had little to do with the peasant uprising at Kayyur in 1941. He was neither arrested nor did he face trial in the case.

In November 1997, M V Raghavan, the communist leader expelled by the CPM, made public the documents from the 1942 verdict of the South Canara Sessions Court in Mangalore. They had the names of all the 60 accused except Nayanar's. 

However, when the Kerala Prisons & Correctional Services organised an exhibition at Kayyur in January this year, it glorified E K Nayanar for his alleged role in the uprising.

The Prisons Department distributed pamphlets with the sketches of the four martyrs and a sepia image of E K Nayanar. The document said the four martyrs would live in the hearts of the people as true patriots. "But the third accused in the case got the benefit of being a minor and was let off. He later went on to become a part of Kerala's history by becoming the longest-serving chief minister of the state. He was E K Nayanar."

CPI's Kasaragod district secretary C P Babu said it was factually incorrect and his party had publicly denounced it. E K Nayanar was born on December 9, 1919, and in March 1941, he was 21 years old, Babu said. "So he cannot have been let off for being minor," he said.

On February 7 this year, on the death anniversary of Churikkadan Krishnan Nair, the CPI organised an event at Cheruvathur and publicly slammed the government for the factual mistake.

Babu said the Department of Prisons had done it before during the Kannur Fest hosted by the government during the fag end of the first LDF government.

CPI worker and retired tehsildar Ravindran Maniyat Puthiyadath said he had taken up the issue with the government then. "I wrote to the Director General of Prisons asking why such lies were being spread by the department. I got a reply saying the Prisons Department was only organising the exhibition. The documents and pamphlets were shared by the Information and Public Relations Department (I&PRD)," he said.

Ravindran Maniyat then wrote to the I&PRD asking it to correct the mistake. "I did not get a reply and it went on to repeat the lies in Kayyur," he said. "Churikkadan's mistake could be that he was a CPI worker," he said.