[Sadly enough, the high-point of militant working-class struggles in Kerala, the late 60s and early 70s, remains poorly researched. This piece on a militant communist is a treasure indeed.]
Illustration by:- Nipin Narayanan
The story of a woman-dalit agricultural worker without formal education who rose up to be a leader of the communist movement
– Nitheesh Narayanan
On 24 January 1970, a group of goons of the Indian National Congress and other groups who were part of the then right-wing government of Kerala attacked KS Ammukkutty — a 36-year-old leader of the Kerala State Agricultural Workers Union. She was on her way, along with a few other women comrades, to the place in Alakkode, Kannur district, where communist leaders had come for a discussion with the local landlord during a militant land struggle. The goons lurking in the forest grabbed her by the hair and trampled her. Beaten all over the body, she was left unconscious. Many thought she would not survive. It took almost one year of intense care and treatment for Ammukkutty to return to normal life. “I was lying unconscious for many days. I could not move from bed for months. It pained throughout the body and it took six months for me to eat even a bun,” the 86-year-old Ammukkutty recalls. The injuries it caused lasted long, perhaps for a lifetime.
Read the rest on : https://thetricontinental.org/asia/ammukkutty/
Swatantryavaadini 