Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad (13 June 1909 – 19 March 1998), known as EMS, was an Indian communist leader, theorist and historian who was the first Chief Minister of Kerala. The government he formed on 5 April 1957 was among the first communist governments anywhere to come to power through a free election. He was Chief Minister again from 1967 to 1969 and general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 1978 to 1992.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad |
| Born | 13 June 1909, Elamkulam, near Perinthalmanna, Malabar (now Malappuram district, Kerala) |
| Died | 19 March 1998 (aged 88), Thiruvananthapuram |
| Party | Communist Party of India (Marxist); earlier CPI |
| Offices | Chief Minister of Kerala (1957–1959, 1967–1969); General Secretary, CPI(M) (1978–1992) |
| Education | St. Thomas College, Thrissur (left in 1932) |
| Spouse | Arya Antharjanam |
| Children | 4 |
Early Life
He was born into a wealthy and orthodox family of Namboodiri Brahmins, the landowning priestly caste of Kerala. His father died when he was a child. He was first educated at home in Sanskrit and the Rig Veda in the traditional way, and went to school late. As a teenager he joined the movement led by V. T. Bhattathiripad to reform his own community, which demanded modern education, the right of younger sons to marry within the caste and an end to the seclusion of women.
At college in Thrissur he was drawn into the national movement. He left without a degree in 1932 to join the Civil Disobedience Movement and was sentenced to prison.
Political Career
He was one of the founders of the Congress Socialist Party in 1934 and became its all-India joint secretary. With P. Krishna Pillai and A. K. Gopalan he formed the first communist group in Kerala, and at the end of 1939 the socialist unit in the region went over as a body to the Communist Party of India. He spent years underground. In the early 1940s he sold his share of the family property and gave the proceeds to the party. He was among the first to argue, in a book published in Malayalam in 1948, that the Malayalam-speaking regions of Malabar, Cochin and Travancore should form a single state, and he joined the party’s central leadership.
Kerala was created in November 1956. In the election of March 1957 the communists and the independents they supported won a majority, and EMS, elected from Nileshwaram, took office. The ministry stopped the eviction of tenants, introduced a bill to give them ownership of the land they tilled and to limit holdings, raised wages and decentralised administration. Its Education Bill, which sought to regulate the pay of teachers and appointments in privately managed schools, united the Catholic Church, the Nair Service Society and the opposition parties in an agitation called the “liberation struggle”. After months of unrest the Union government dismissed the ministry on 31 July 1959 under Article 356 of the Constitution, a decision debated ever since.
When the party split in 1964 he joined the CPI(M). He returned as Chief Minister in 1967 at the head of a seven-party front. Its land reform law, which abolished landlordism and came into force after he left office, changed the social structure of Kerala. The coalition collapsed in 1969. As general secretary of the CPI(M) for fourteen years he guided the party’s strategy of alliances at the national level.
Writer
EMS wrote constantly despite a lifelong stammer that he turned into a deliberate style of speech. His books include a history of Kerala, studies of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, a history of the freedom struggle and an autobiography, and his collected works run to about a hundred volumes. In his last years he was the guiding spirit of Kerala’s campaign for decentralised “people’s planning”.
Death and Legacy
He died in Thiruvananthapuram on 19 March 1998. Friends and opponents alike acknowledged his simplicity of life and his intellectual honesty, including his readiness to say in public that he had been wrong.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was E. M. S. Namboodiripad born?
E. M. S. Namboodiripad was born on 13 June 1909 in Elamkulam, near Perinthalmanna, Malabar (now Malappuram district, Kerala).
When did E. M. S. Namboodiripad die?
Died: 19 March 1998 (aged 88), Thiruvananthapuram.
Featured image: E. M. S. Namboodiripad in his later years. Photo by Fotokannan, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
