Mathai Manjooran

Mathai Manjooran ( 13 October 1912 – 14 January 1970) was an Indian independence activist from Kerala, socialist revolutionary, Member of Parliament, Minister of Labour in the second E.M.S. Namboodiripad communist ministry, and above all the staunchest proponent for the formation of the Kerala State.

Pre-Independence Days

Mathai was born as the second son of Mathew Manjooran and Elishua on October 13, 1912 at Chakkarakadavu, in the erstwhile princely state of Kochi. Those were troubled times when the mighty waves of the global economic depression were lashing hard across the coast of Kerala. Mathai was led by hand into active politics by his elder brother Cherian Manjooran.

When the state was harrowing under the effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s, yet another great convulsion engulfed the land from end to end. But this time it was a positive one in the form of the Quit India Movement of 1942. Instead of being a passive spectator, Mathai plunged headlong into the vortex of the movement.

As a fearless freedom fighter, he had led many daring exploits against the British, both in Kerala and in the north of India. His involvement in the Quit India Movement of 1942 saw him and his cronies actively involved in an attempt to sabotage several strategic railway bridges in the Malabar region to cripple the military movements across the area. The tumultuous Kizhaariyoor bomb case is the result of one of such attempts.

Post-Independence Era

In the post-independence era,...
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