KR Gouri, the chief minister Kerala deserved but never had
Gouri sacrificed her personal life for her party, but never received the legitimacy due to her.
In 1979,
Deshabhimani weekly began to serialise KR Gouriâs autobiography coinciding with her sixtieth birthday. However, by the end of year, it was abruptly discontinued. The reason given was that Gouri Amma, as she would be known in the following decades, wanted to concentrate on the midterm assembly election in 1980 after losing an election for the first time in 1977 (not counting her loss in 1948 in her maiden contest to the Travancore legislative assembly).
But the 43 chapters already written of her autobiography covered her formative years until the early months of 1948, with a couple of chapters exclusively dedicated to TV Thomas whom she would marry in 1957. While Mathrubhumi Books published the chapters in 2010 as
Agrarian Bill was Gouri Amma s biggest contribution I was attracted to Left politics after listening to her speech
K R Gouri Amma s contributions to the Kerala society and to Left politics is immense. I have had the opportunity to work with her since my student days.
I was attracted to the Left after hearing the speeches and watching the works done by the likes of Gouri Amma.
My first meeting with her was in the early 1950s. She was jailed along with the undivided Communist Party s leaders TV Thomas, who later became her husband, and R Sugathan after the Punnapra-Vayalar struggle against the then rulers of Travancore. They were released after India gained independence and the formation of United State of Travancore and Cochin. We, as college students, decided to give a felicitation to the three leaders at Edappalli near Cochin ahead of the first general election to the Lok Sabha. Their speech during that programme had an influence on me.