Liberation’ struggle

The political rivals of government was initially surprised at the magnitude of change initiated by the government, later decided to stall such moves lest it would lose its political constituency in Kerala to the CPI.

The Congress leadership, therefore, mobilised smaller parties and splinter groups and even the Muslim League which its leader, Jawaharlal Nehru, once described as a ‘dead horse’, and launched the infamous ‘Liberation’ Struggle against the government. The political combination by itself was not formidable, but when joined hands with communal forces like Christian Church and NSS, it proved deadly. It was a social, political and communal combination-all the three in one.

The connection of CIA in easing out the Communist Government has been a subject of great controversy ever since 1959. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the American Ambassador to India, has this to say about CIA’s role in the process The financial help it received from the Central Intelligence Agency of the United State increased the intensity of the firepower of this agitation against the government.

A section of the common people participated in the agitation, due to ignorance and fear, and due to caste and communal pressure. The Christians as the Church considered participation in the agitation as a Christian virtue and read pastoral letter in the churches. V. Viswanatha Menon, a former leader of the CPI(M), crystalizes their feeling in his autobiography That a section of the people who had participated in the agitation later reprsented their action itself is a proof of both the fear that gripped them and ignorance they had on the issue.

Even a stalwart of the agitation, Fr. Vadakkan, testified to this when he conferred later that the ‘Liberation’ struggle ‘represented a confluence of vested interests’.

All these showed the extent to which Kerala society was communalized, and also the presence of a critical gap in politicising it.