Sixty-five years ago, when the first democratically elected Communist government of the world was unilaterally dismissed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru there were cries of ‘murder of democracy’ and ‘violation of democracy’ in political and media circles across India. It was 31 July 1959 and President’s Rule was declared in the state of Kerala, brushing aside claims of its chief minister EMS Namboodiripad, who headed a majority government of the Communist Party of India (CPI) since 1957. EMS, as he was popularly known, was a veteran Communist leader, a former member of the Congress Socialist Party, on friendly terms with not only Nehru but socialist stalwarts Jayaprakash Narayan, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and JB Kripalani.

“EMS, with the versatile vision of a Communist statesman and the flexible realism of a political activist, conformed to the constitutional paradigm and political compulsion of the Nehru era,” commented VR Krishna Iyer, who was a minister in the EMS government, and later an eminent Supreme Court judge. “What was the secret of this masterpiece of statecraft which held at bay the reactionary cabals and cliques and enabled this radical leader to push through his socialistic programmes? He adopted a strategy that dumbfounded his adversaries in politics by declaring that his government would implement the progressive policies of the Nehru Congress and the Avadi thesis which the Congress high command professed and consistently betrayed,” he added.

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The 70th session of the Indian National Congress was held at Avadi, near Chennai, in February 1955 under the presidency of U.N. Dhebar. The Avadi thesis refers to the resolution to set India on a socialist economic path. When it came to electioneering, and sidelining political opponents, Nehru was unflagging in his campaigns. In 1957, said MJ Akbar in ‘Nehru-The Making of India’, he campaigned for the Congress as ardently in Kerala as anywhere else. “If anything, Nehru had become even more scathing about the Communists. He questioned both their patriotism and their intelligence. Speaking at Ernakulam on 24 February 1957 he said: ‘The clock of the world has moved on while the clock of communist minds in India stopped long ago’.

But the voters of Kerala preferred local time; the Communists won and formed their first government under one of their most brilliant leaders, EMS Namboodiripad. Nehru’s dismay was tempered with pleasure that India had provided such a triumphant display of democracy, and he was happy to let the CPI have its chance in authority.” Not for long, as the Kerala government’s focus on land reforms and social justice soon became a sore point with Congress leaders and Nehru.

“EMS as the chief minister insisted that land reforms, which was the nation’s pledge on gaining Independence, would be implemented without delay, that peasants would not be evicted by latifundists (or large landowners) with clout, that labour would be assured of a fair deal and that the police would not interfere in peasant struggles and labour strikes on the side of the landlords and industrial magnates,” enumerated Krishna Iyer in a media article, paying his homage to EMS. As the land reforms movement picked steam, the anti-communist movement grew exponentially in different quarters. Explained Krishna Iyer, “land reforms were integral to social change…our edifice of freedom was to be built on the slogan of ‘land to the tillers’. EMS knew the pulse of the people and gave broad guidelines for the transformation process. Thus, a pioneering adventure in distributive agrarian justice was given statutory shape, with the Kerala Agrarian Relations Bill. Of course, the Supreme Court struck down the Bill on a technical ground. The court could knock down a Bill but could not wipe out a militant demand of the people.

So, land reforms reincarnated substantially in the same form and no one can refuse to attribute this glorious achievement to EMS who was leading Kerala in essence, the nation from its feudal slumber. Regrettably, many parts of India still remain primitive and under the heels of de facto landlordism.” In education, Prof. Joseph Mundassery, the minister started a series of reforms and stirred a political storm. He introduced a Bill to regulate private educational institutions in Kerala; and the Education Bill was passed on 2 Sept 1957. “The Church and other reactionary establishments started ‘Operation Overthrow’. It must be remembered that with the tacit connivance of the Congress high command and Central government departments, this upsurge took a violent turn, throwing the rule of law to the winds and violating all norms of democracy and constitutional order,” recalled Krishna Iyer, the Home Minister.

“The State Government desisted from using the police and insisted on minimal force where engineered clashes threatened the peace of the State. I can claim that never in free India’s history was so little force used against so large a violent turbulence masterminded by the Church, the Nair Service Society (NSS) and other vested interests supported by motivated dollars from abroad and concealed support from the Congress leadership. Political memory may be short and so, I may remind the present generation of Indians that, aided by American dollars, para-military training was being imparted in several Church compounds for the battle to oust the legally constituted EMS Government,” said Krishna Iyer, never one to mince his words. By July 1958, Nehru served a charge-sheet on EMS Namboodiripad, accusing the CM of violence in the state, favours for communists and no freedom for dissenters.

In August 1958 Nehru spoke for the first time against the Kerala Government when he referred to police firings. Political commentators have highlighted the role which the new Congress President Indira Gandhi played in publicly maligning and bringing down the CPI government in Kerala. Wrote Ashok K Singh, “in a curious turn of history, Indira was appointed Congress President on 2 February 1959, two years after Namboodiripad formed the government. Nehru wasn’t enthusiastic about her appointment but he didn’t actively dissuade her or party leaders not to take up the leadership.

Taking advantage of the situation, Gandhi saw an opportunity for the Congress to regain lost ground in Kerala. She mounted pressure on Nehru to dismiss the government, arguing that the failure of the state machinery had created anarchy. Nehru resisted for some time but in due course succumbed to pressure from her and the party’s right-wing leaders. Interestingly, it was the first of many such undemocratic dismissals of non-Congress state governments that became Indira Gandhi’s controversial legacy.” It was in June 1959 that Nehru arrived in Trivandrum and commented on the hostile atmosphere and violence on streets. He suggested that EMS should call for fresh elections to test the claims of the opposition on the failures of the government.

There were lastditch efforts by senior CPI leaders AK Gopalan and Ajoy Ghosh to convince Nehru in New Delhi, but to no avail. On 31 July 1959, the EMS Namboodiripad government was sacked on the insistence of Indira Gandhi. The dismissal followed large-scale law and order disturbances over the government’s attempt at land and educational reforms in Kerala, which became a battleground between the entrenched casteist, religious organisations on one side, and the communists on the other.

Nehru felt it was a ‘decision hurled upon us by circumstances’; a bad precedent which went against democratic conventions. When the Kerala elections were conducted, Congress won with a comfortable majority. EMS Namboodiripad became Chief Minister of Kerala again in 1967 heading a United Front ministry till 1969. “History, when retold with authenticity, will reveal the great developmental work executed by the EMS Ministry,” wrote Krishna Iyer, adding, “new industries were started, false charges were resisted and dauntlessly we marched on without fear of honest contradiction.

I may claim that so much was done in such a short span to put Kerala on the map of dynamic socialist advance under the luminous and dialectically guided leadership of one man, EMS Namboodiripad. There was no personality cult and there was no pomp or propaganda either. I could and did sometimes disagree, and frank exchange of views resolved friction. In every field we acted collectively. New medical and engineering colleges, new irrigation projects and hydel plants were constructed. There were many agricultural reforms. On the whole the Legislative Assembly itself was lively and constructive. Many new courts were started; many legal aid programmes were initiated…He was among the rarest of the rare in power.”

(The writer is a researcher author on history and heritage issues and a former deputy curator of Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya)