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My Life as a Comrade : The Story of an Extraordinary Politician and the World That Shaped Her
Former Kerala health minister K.K. Shailaja became a global icon because of her handling of the first phase of the COVID pandemic. In this superb memoir, she tells her story – from her childhood as a shy, fearful girl, her days as a school teacher where she learnt the art of managing difficult students to her entry into politics leading to a tenure as health minister where she dealt with two terrifying epidemics. Along the way, she tells the story of Kerala in post-independent India – how its Communist politics shaped her family and the state, and what makes the Kerala model so remarkable. Simply and grippingly written, My Life as a Comrade will be one of the country’s most important political memoirs, one that sheds light not just on a brilliant politician but the society and the world that shaped her.
328 pages, Paperback
Published July 30, 2023
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August 15, 2023Most Malayalis, as Shailaja teacher points out, are socialists at heart. That, combined with the fact that I was an active member of the SFI in college, meant that this was a book that I had to read.
The book proved interesting to me on multiple counts. The first part is an excellent primer into the milieu that shaped the communist movement in the northern part of Kerala that she belongs to. This is presented not just as history beginning in the colonial era, but also as the living history of a land and its people, with many examples of her own family and neighbours being part of the societal struggle from its early days. In terms of structure and narrative, I liked this part of the book the most.
The book then moves on to her own political life - from the grassroots level to becoming a part of the state cabinet as Health Minister. This section provides a good behind-the-scenes look of what it really means (and takes) to have an active political life, specifically for a woman. Towards the end of the book, she also provides her perspectives on why she wasn't part of the cabinet in its second term, despite winning her seat by the highest-ever majority. It also gives us an idea of how a ministry functions, and the combination of political will and bureaucratic hands-on knowledge that is required for it do good for the public.
With a cyclone, floods, Nipah, and COVID, hers was an eventful tenure. The book gets into great detail on how planning, co-operation, and a sharp focus on serving public needs was what led to Kerala becoming a role model for disaster management of all sorts. It has been said many times before, but the way in which the state managed the virus storms by practically creating its own playbook is nothing short of amazing.
There is an excellent section on what makes the 'Kerala model' work, despite low budgets. The social contract between the government and the governed that focuses on quality of life, a transparent and combinatorial system of administration, the willingness of folks across the political spectrum to put aside differences in times of need, and an active community that's always ready to support each other, that's what makes the model work.
The more I read about the different initiatives, the more I was convinced that old age is perhaps best spent in Kerala, despite the climate scares. Not all the infrastructure might be ready, but there is a mindset that is focused on getting there. I have to say that there is a mix of gratitude of pride that I feel in having such an option.
Having said all that, a couple of things that could have been done better. The first is language - the quality of translation, or rather, transliteration is rather poor. Given the persona, I think the publisher could have put in a lot more effort on this. The second is editing - while it follows a linear narrative, I think the book could have been structured much better.
But despite that, this is a fantastic read for many lessons - how the power of a state that works on socialist principles (allegations of corruption notwithstanding) can effectively and efficiently improve the quality of life of citizens, the life of a woman politician, and the excellent leadership and managerial aptitude in handling crises.
The book proved interesting to me on multiple counts. The first part is an excellent primer into the milieu that shaped the communist movement in the northern part of Kerala that she belongs to. This is presented not just as history beginning in the colonial era, but also as the living history of a land and its people, with many examples of her own family and neighbours being part of the societal struggle from its early days. In terms of structure and narrative, I liked this part of the book the most.
The book then moves on to her own political life - from the grassroots level to becoming a part of the state cabinet as Health Minister. This section provides a good behind-the-scenes look of what it really means (and takes) to have an active political life, specifically for a woman. Towards the end of the book, she also provides her perspectives on why she wasn't part of the cabinet in its second term, despite winning her seat by the highest-ever majority. It also gives us an idea of how a ministry functions, and the combination of political will and bureaucratic hands-on knowledge that is required for it do good for the public.
With a cyclone, floods, Nipah, and COVID, hers was an eventful tenure. The book gets into great detail on how planning, co-operation, and a sharp focus on serving public needs was what led to Kerala becoming a role model for disaster management of all sorts. It has been said many times before, but the way in which the state managed the virus storms by practically creating its own playbook is nothing short of amazing.
There is an excellent section on what makes the 'Kerala model' work, despite low budgets. The social contract between the government and the governed that focuses on quality of life, a transparent and combinatorial system of administration, the willingness of folks across the political spectrum to put aside differences in times of need, and an active community that's always ready to support each other, that's what makes the model work.
The more I read about the different initiatives, the more I was convinced that old age is perhaps best spent in Kerala, despite the climate scares. Not all the infrastructure might be ready, but there is a mindset that is focused on getting there. I have to say that there is a mix of gratitude of pride that I feel in having such an option.
Having said all that, a couple of things that could have been done better. The first is language - the quality of translation, or rather, transliteration is rather poor. Given the persona, I think the publisher could have put in a lot more effort on this. The second is editing - while it follows a linear narrative, I think the book could have been structured much better.
But despite that, this is a fantastic read for many lessons - how the power of a state that works on socialist principles (allegations of corruption notwithstanding) can effectively and efficiently improve the quality of life of citizens, the life of a woman politician, and the excellent leadership and managerial aptitude in handling crises.
January 1, 2024
I liked the first half where she talks about her introduction to politics and her family's history with the communist party. It painted a really interesting picture of Kerala's relationship with communism. I think the writing got a bit boringly informal and narrative towards the second half. The book could have ended on a better note. It was a dull wrap for a politician who got to do quite a bit of meaningful work through her term as minister.
June 20, 2023
Relevant, simplistic memoir
Finished reading this memoir of K. K. Shailaja and I feel that this should reach more people.
When she became the health minister or we can generally say that when CPIM came into power in 2016, the series of unfortunate events were really on the peak with floods, Nipah virus and the global COVID19 pandemic. Shailaja teacher as we call her is popular for strategically handling and containing the deadly Nipah virus outbreak in 2018 and her proactive approach in dealing with the Covid 19 pandemic during her tenure as former Health minister of Kerala.
This takes us through the journey of making of this exemplary politician.
It begins with a brief history of Kerala: the feudal system that pre existed, egalitarian vision of early communists in Kerala. Then beautiful, sweet and bitter memories of her childhood family unit with her strong grandmother as the pillar of their family, her loving mother and aunt and uncles who nurtured her and never restricted the freedom to be herself. Her teaching profession, grass root politics, husband and family who always had her back to continue to push herself and of course her principles of always giving the best efforts and approaching problems rationally and scientifically has made her what she is now!
Manju Sarah Rajan who has co authored this memoir has captured well the pieces of her story and tailored them excellently.
This is truly inspiring and humbling.
Finished reading this memoir of K. K. Shailaja and I feel that this should reach more people.
When she became the health minister or we can generally say that when CPIM came into power in 2016, the series of unfortunate events were really on the peak with floods, Nipah virus and the global COVID19 pandemic. Shailaja teacher as we call her is popular for strategically handling and containing the deadly Nipah virus outbreak in 2018 and her proactive approach in dealing with the Covid 19 pandemic during her tenure as former Health minister of Kerala.
This takes us through the journey of making of this exemplary politician.
It begins with a brief history of Kerala: the feudal system that pre existed, egalitarian vision of early communists in Kerala. Then beautiful, sweet and bitter memories of her childhood family unit with her strong grandmother as the pillar of their family, her loving mother and aunt and uncles who nurtured her and never restricted the freedom to be herself. Her teaching profession, grass root politics, husband and family who always had her back to continue to push herself and of course her principles of always giving the best efforts and approaching problems rationally and scientifically has made her what she is now!
Manju Sarah Rajan who has co authored this memoir has captured well the pieces of her story and tailored them excellently.
This is truly inspiring and humbling.
July 9, 2023
When she had a chance to make a difference how she was able to do it. A lot of politicians want to be minister but she did what a minister should do. Political willingness, grit, ruthless execution, data driven and scientific approach to problem solving is a clear formula to her success.
August 14, 2023
Comradeship is communist brotherhood working together for socialist purposes. And communism means working together to break chains, to share a fate of comradeship- living together, and celebrating social, economic and spiritual equality of humans in the ecology of life, resources, time and space in the universe.
The book exhibits formidable assertion of a proletarian youth who, thanks to her education and empowerment thru rational socialization, chooses to be herself. She refuses to be influenced by bourgeois temptations and a false fate; and wisely chooses freedom and to be her true, authentic self- the best way to achieve community-social and spiritual fulfilment- in the midst of chaotic blabber of false, and what Sartre called bad faith. Winning in her life with Socialism-Communism ideology, practise and a role to play for a change in the collective consciousness with the people gives her that chosen breakthrough. She writes this book in tandem with good command over idiomatic English of her co-author Manju S Rajan: “..my tale is also one of social change in the society that I am part of.”(Pg xv). Community participation and political awareness empowers her to say, “You stop thinking of yourself and think of the larger group; of Us instead of I”. (pg 1). That is the essence of the narrative, i.e. creation of culture of togetherness and to walk in triumph through a space of freedom and joy. Description of Malabar where she grew up in a large family creates a puissant emotional heaviness in the mind of the reader. It is about a poverty-steeped society of feudal structures of caste discrimination, objectification of women, enslavement and dehumanization of men and its normative substance in culture—“One group of people inflicting pain on another, sanctioned and aided by the prevailing system: this cruelty is etched in people’s collective memory.” (pg 14). And then sometime during the freedom movement comes communist leadership and awareness in the state. Mass communist movements gather steam of the highly volatile urge to make a difference to the life of drudgery and exploitation. Comrade Shailaja’s uncles and other family members suffer incarceration, incapacitation and death because of farmers’ movements that they were members of. When India gained independence, Comrade Shailaja write, “Communism was still banned in this country… and stalwarts like Comrade AKG celebrated India’s independence in prison.”(pg 27).
Communist parties are cadre-based. Members are not only taught the ideology but are also given packages of awareness of self-help on various issues of life so that a scientific attitude is developed in the minds of the members. There are sessions of awareness not only on Marxism, scientific thinking and religion etc but also a viewpoint on the topical issues of society like economy, cooperation, education and even disease. “Starting in the 1940s, the Communist Party held classes to teach people how to deal with this (smallpox) disease. EMS, AKG, K Pillai and NE Balaram frequently visited Kannur at that time and spoke on the subject.” (pg38).
Communist political consciousness, like education and health to all, came to the people of Kerala much earlier in independent India, and asserted itself politically as the first elected Leftist state government. But the deeply entrenched feudal elite in the national politics along with the vested feudal interests in the state forced the then central government to illegally dismiss the state government! The book mentions this fact. Since then, it has been a see-saw between the LDF and another Front in Kerala. The international movement is yet to manifest its inevitability in the evolution of humanity. Happy news here in the interim is that Kerala’s LF collective shows ways to many other sensible democratic leaders in the country in leading and administrating welfare-development duties towards the people.
Comrade Shailaja’s political work at the grass root community level, as a political party worker; as a member of the government with a system of hierarchy, bureaucracy, limited resources but with many allusive provisions; and – most importantly, unlimited scope of exercising one’s will power and service-attitude to democratize the government power effectively, have all been exemplary. She belongs to a series of such leaders and workers of Kerala who since independence have given the basic meaning of democracy to the masses thanks to which Kerala youth and the people become an enlightened and scientifically-thinking community.
About her personal life, perhaps the best episode that I have read and liked in the book is about the time, occasion and manner of proposal she receives for marriage. Years later, after the birth of two sons and their education, Comrade Shailaja recalls about Bhaskar master -Bhaskarettan to her, “when he knew I’d be coming to Kannur, he would have all my favourite foods prepared and waiting for me.” (Pg 125). Communism is not all agitations and fight for rights, and efficiency of development work. Karl Marx was a great lover too. The one who doesn’t have love in his or her heart cannot be a communist.
That is the time when she has matured already as a communist. She receives a science teacher’s job in a school, and becomes part of the multi-tiered participative and decision-making structure of CPI(M). Comrade Shailaja avers, “… what impressed me most was how the whole system was built on egalitarian principles and the fact that it was performance-oriented.” (pg. 102). And, “The spiritual guidance, so to speak, for my work, and indeed my life, has been provided by Communist ideology” (Pg 125). But her harder trial begins on the day she became minister for Health. First the Nipah virus- that Comrade Shailaja’s ministry, departments and the men and women dealt with; and then the import of Covid19 virus through some state citizens back from Italy. It was a stormy time when she and the entire state health service- the government servants, the infrastructure, the expedient arrangements, the logistics, the hectic search for the infected people, isolations, protests, fight for authentic numbers and formidable battle of wits, innovations and sincerity-- all got together and lapped on two years of exemplary work. Half of the book is on this tragic episode of our present times. The writer duo mentions how the state has succeeded in making local self-governments effective and empowered through participation, responsibility and freedom of taking decisions at the local-community level. Aggregates matter more than the individuals, and the individuals matter to society. Such a situation of political and cultural responsibility creates immense confidence in society with which the state government generated a formidable machinery to cope with the community health emergencies like Nipah and COVID-19.
Thanks to the work, “The united nations awarded the Kerala government for its ‘outstanding contribution’ towards preventing and controlling non-communicable diseases.”(pg 241). Kerala Government got further decorated within the country and abroad for their Covid control work.
On the day I, this reader-reviewer, read the last pages of the book, i.e. on the 18th May; I got the news that overall pass percentage of CBSE 12th class result 2023 for Trivandrum region (i.e. Kerala state) was 99.91- that is on the top of all other states!! The family where kids show merit, is considered enlightened, progressive and well-cultured. Again, on the 18th I read that Kerala Left Alternative policies’ project Kudumbashree has completed 25 years. And there was news about launching of welfare fund for MGNREGS workers. And that 639 PHCs are transformed into Family Health Centres and the rest 899 PHCs are on the way to that status. Writers of the book describe in details the urgency and necessity to create such basic health care facilities. Some of the stories of how it is achieved are touching. Results are coming. Kerala government has decided to install sanitary napkin vending machines in schools. The news compounded my pleasure of reading the book. Comrade Shailaja’s tenure as minister of multiple portfolios of Health, Women and Child Development and Social Justice, as described in the beautiful text of her biography have been humdrum of challenges. The system of politics that she is a part of, has taken Kerala to the top slot because individualism there is well diffused and empowered in the community-way. The zeitgeist in Kerala is of people’s participation and willingness to conform to the power and the providence of the community sense and progress. Community in Kerala means living together- in spite of the relic or the albatross of caste lingering as ascriptive identity in several parts of society. It is not a communist society in the final sense; as it remains a communist voting society by the provisions and parameters of the national Constitution. However, the welfarist endeavours there certainly get the rub of socialist ideology.
But there is something missing in the Kerala Story of Health and Women empowerment. That is the mention of the missing women that Amartya Sen talked about a few years back, and which the last census (of 2011; that continues to be the latest one) and various other later reports checked about. Because of the demographic facts of the country, most of these missing women were Hindu.
It has been repeatedly reported that all those missing women of India have been converted to death through the rites of foeticide and infanticide by their own; mostly north and western Indian urban, educated, small-nuclear, “upper caste”, middle/upper-middle class family-members. Going on for the last twenty years (as per data)- every year about 5 lakh of them, that is, 1370 per day; 57 per hour—almost all in the north and the west of India; hardly any, or the least in the south and the east and the north-east. In spite of the Female Infanticide Prevention Act passed in the British India in 1870, and total prohibition against sex determination of embryo by the Independent India, the pogrom continues- with elan in the North and the West India predominantly. Count since then. You will get one full Australia or twice the Hindu nation Nepal of women converted to death.
Bhroon-Hatya. Shishu-Hatya. Kanya-Hatya. Jeev-Hatya. Sanskruti-Hatya. Good that Kerala and its neighbours are not part of this Sabhyata-Sanhaar. Why doesn’t the minister mention this fact!!
Kerala women are live-wire participants in the narrative of this five-star book, walking in relatively higher dignity of service. Comrade Shailaja Teacher is quintessential rising woman of Kerala. One of the all in a literate society. “That is what a government is for. Reimagining the present for a better future and working towards it.”(Pg 141). Sadharyam munnottu.
23rd May 2023
The book exhibits formidable assertion of a proletarian youth who, thanks to her education and empowerment thru rational socialization, chooses to be herself. She refuses to be influenced by bourgeois temptations and a false fate; and wisely chooses freedom and to be her true, authentic self- the best way to achieve community-social and spiritual fulfilment- in the midst of chaotic blabber of false, and what Sartre called bad faith. Winning in her life with Socialism-Communism ideology, practise and a role to play for a change in the collective consciousness with the people gives her that chosen breakthrough. She writes this book in tandem with good command over idiomatic English of her co-author Manju S Rajan: “..my tale is also one of social change in the society that I am part of.”(Pg xv). Community participation and political awareness empowers her to say, “You stop thinking of yourself and think of the larger group; of Us instead of I”. (pg 1). That is the essence of the narrative, i.e. creation of culture of togetherness and to walk in triumph through a space of freedom and joy. Description of Malabar where she grew up in a large family creates a puissant emotional heaviness in the mind of the reader. It is about a poverty-steeped society of feudal structures of caste discrimination, objectification of women, enslavement and dehumanization of men and its normative substance in culture—“One group of people inflicting pain on another, sanctioned and aided by the prevailing system: this cruelty is etched in people’s collective memory.” (pg 14). And then sometime during the freedom movement comes communist leadership and awareness in the state. Mass communist movements gather steam of the highly volatile urge to make a difference to the life of drudgery and exploitation. Comrade Shailaja’s uncles and other family members suffer incarceration, incapacitation and death because of farmers’ movements that they were members of. When India gained independence, Comrade Shailaja write, “Communism was still banned in this country… and stalwarts like Comrade AKG celebrated India’s independence in prison.”(pg 27).
Communist parties are cadre-based. Members are not only taught the ideology but are also given packages of awareness of self-help on various issues of life so that a scientific attitude is developed in the minds of the members. There are sessions of awareness not only on Marxism, scientific thinking and religion etc but also a viewpoint on the topical issues of society like economy, cooperation, education and even disease. “Starting in the 1940s, the Communist Party held classes to teach people how to deal with this (smallpox) disease. EMS, AKG, K Pillai and NE Balaram frequently visited Kannur at that time and spoke on the subject.” (pg38).
Communist political consciousness, like education and health to all, came to the people of Kerala much earlier in independent India, and asserted itself politically as the first elected Leftist state government. But the deeply entrenched feudal elite in the national politics along with the vested feudal interests in the state forced the then central government to illegally dismiss the state government! The book mentions this fact. Since then, it has been a see-saw between the LDF and another Front in Kerala. The international movement is yet to manifest its inevitability in the evolution of humanity. Happy news here in the interim is that Kerala’s LF collective shows ways to many other sensible democratic leaders in the country in leading and administrating welfare-development duties towards the people.
Comrade Shailaja’s political work at the grass root community level, as a political party worker; as a member of the government with a system of hierarchy, bureaucracy, limited resources but with many allusive provisions; and – most importantly, unlimited scope of exercising one’s will power and service-attitude to democratize the government power effectively, have all been exemplary. She belongs to a series of such leaders and workers of Kerala who since independence have given the basic meaning of democracy to the masses thanks to which Kerala youth and the people become an enlightened and scientifically-thinking community.
About her personal life, perhaps the best episode that I have read and liked in the book is about the time, occasion and manner of proposal she receives for marriage. Years later, after the birth of two sons and their education, Comrade Shailaja recalls about Bhaskar master -Bhaskarettan to her, “when he knew I’d be coming to Kannur, he would have all my favourite foods prepared and waiting for me.” (Pg 125). Communism is not all agitations and fight for rights, and efficiency of development work. Karl Marx was a great lover too. The one who doesn’t have love in his or her heart cannot be a communist.
That is the time when she has matured already as a communist. She receives a science teacher’s job in a school, and becomes part of the multi-tiered participative and decision-making structure of CPI(M). Comrade Shailaja avers, “… what impressed me most was how the whole system was built on egalitarian principles and the fact that it was performance-oriented.” (pg. 102). And, “The spiritual guidance, so to speak, for my work, and indeed my life, has been provided by Communist ideology” (Pg 125). But her harder trial begins on the day she became minister for Health. First the Nipah virus- that Comrade Shailaja’s ministry, departments and the men and women dealt with; and then the import of Covid19 virus through some state citizens back from Italy. It was a stormy time when she and the entire state health service- the government servants, the infrastructure, the expedient arrangements, the logistics, the hectic search for the infected people, isolations, protests, fight for authentic numbers and formidable battle of wits, innovations and sincerity-- all got together and lapped on two years of exemplary work. Half of the book is on this tragic episode of our present times. The writer duo mentions how the state has succeeded in making local self-governments effective and empowered through participation, responsibility and freedom of taking decisions at the local-community level. Aggregates matter more than the individuals, and the individuals matter to society. Such a situation of political and cultural responsibility creates immense confidence in society with which the state government generated a formidable machinery to cope with the community health emergencies like Nipah and COVID-19.
Thanks to the work, “The united nations awarded the Kerala government for its ‘outstanding contribution’ towards preventing and controlling non-communicable diseases.”(pg 241). Kerala Government got further decorated within the country and abroad for their Covid control work.
On the day I, this reader-reviewer, read the last pages of the book, i.e. on the 18th May; I got the news that overall pass percentage of CBSE 12th class result 2023 for Trivandrum region (i.e. Kerala state) was 99.91- that is on the top of all other states!! The family where kids show merit, is considered enlightened, progressive and well-cultured. Again, on the 18th I read that Kerala Left Alternative policies’ project Kudumbashree has completed 25 years. And there was news about launching of welfare fund for MGNREGS workers. And that 639 PHCs are transformed into Family Health Centres and the rest 899 PHCs are on the way to that status. Writers of the book describe in details the urgency and necessity to create such basic health care facilities. Some of the stories of how it is achieved are touching. Results are coming. Kerala government has decided to install sanitary napkin vending machines in schools. The news compounded my pleasure of reading the book. Comrade Shailaja’s tenure as minister of multiple portfolios of Health, Women and Child Development and Social Justice, as described in the beautiful text of her biography have been humdrum of challenges. The system of politics that she is a part of, has taken Kerala to the top slot because individualism there is well diffused and empowered in the community-way. The zeitgeist in Kerala is of people’s participation and willingness to conform to the power and the providence of the community sense and progress. Community in Kerala means living together- in spite of the relic or the albatross of caste lingering as ascriptive identity in several parts of society. It is not a communist society in the final sense; as it remains a communist voting society by the provisions and parameters of the national Constitution. However, the welfarist endeavours there certainly get the rub of socialist ideology.
But there is something missing in the Kerala Story of Health and Women empowerment. That is the mention of the missing women that Amartya Sen talked about a few years back, and which the last census (of 2011; that continues to be the latest one) and various other later reports checked about. Because of the demographic facts of the country, most of these missing women were Hindu.
It has been repeatedly reported that all those missing women of India have been converted to death through the rites of foeticide and infanticide by their own; mostly north and western Indian urban, educated, small-nuclear, “upper caste”, middle/upper-middle class family-members. Going on for the last twenty years (as per data)- every year about 5 lakh of them, that is, 1370 per day; 57 per hour—almost all in the north and the west of India; hardly any, or the least in the south and the east and the north-east. In spite of the Female Infanticide Prevention Act passed in the British India in 1870, and total prohibition against sex determination of embryo by the Independent India, the pogrom continues- with elan in the North and the West India predominantly. Count since then. You will get one full Australia or twice the Hindu nation Nepal of women converted to death.
Bhroon-Hatya. Shishu-Hatya. Kanya-Hatya. Jeev-Hatya. Sanskruti-Hatya. Good that Kerala and its neighbours are not part of this Sabhyata-Sanhaar. Why doesn’t the minister mention this fact!!
Kerala women are live-wire participants in the narrative of this five-star book, walking in relatively higher dignity of service. Comrade Shailaja Teacher is quintessential rising woman of Kerala. One of the all in a literate society. “That is what a government is for. Reimagining the present for a better future and working towards it.”(Pg 141). Sadharyam munnottu.
23rd May 2023
March 5, 2024
K K Shailaja, affectionately called Shailaja teacher, was the most popular and efficient minister in the cabinet led by Pinarayi Vijayan during 2016-2021 in Kerala. As the minister in charge of public health, she steered Kerala’s fabled healthcare system to handle major crises like the outbreak of Nipah and flood in 2018 and the pandemic Covid-19 in 2020. This is a memoir as well as biography of her life as a little girl growing up in a remote village in Kannur and moving into political work. She was elected many times as the representative of that area in the state assembly and was inducted as minister in 2016. Her brilliant track record as minister overshadowed all others including the chief minister. Consequently, she was left out of the next cabinet when her party again formed the ministry in 2021 even though her winning margin of 61,000 votes against her rival was the largest in the state. This book is co-authored with Manju Sara Rajan who is a writer, editor and arts manager. She is the former CEO of the Kochi Biennale Foundation where she oversaw the management of the Kochi Muziris Biennale in 2016.
Communists in Kerala are a confused lot. When the communist regimes in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe collapsed like a pack of cards, Kerala’s communists transformed their political affiliation into a kind of religious belief that Marx’s ideas were gospel truth and applicable for all time but what was found wanting was their physical implementation in those countries where it was enforced till the 1990s. This self-delusion propels Shailaja to assert that what it means for a communist is engaging in the class struggle to eradicate existing ‘feudal-capitalistic structures’ that support class inequalities (p.2). She starts the book with the intension to tell her ‘personal story as well as the story of Malabar and the growth of communism in Kerala’. Of course, by communism she means only the political party with a red flag having the hammer and sickle emblazoned on it and nothing to do with armed revolution. However, she rightfully points out that communism’s influence has seeped into the psyche of most Malayalis, whether they identify with the Left politically or not. Every Malayali is a socialist in some way (p.43). It is jokingly said that ‘if you are not a communist at age 20, you have no heart; but if at age 30 you are still a communist, then you have no brains’. Kerala refuses to grow up in this juvenile respect. The author professes to be a committed socialist and praises the Cuban healthcare system whenever a slender opportunity presents itself. Not only that, she ascribes the success of Kerala’s health sector during the several crises between 2016 and 2021 (during her tenure as minister) as a vindication of the communist dream (p.243). Social revolution that occurred in Kerala is claimed to be facilitated by communists. The author also adds that in fact, many communist politicians gave up their caste-based symbols to shed the allegiance and entitlement attached to them (p.244). This is also a pious wish and piece of propaganda as not only most, but almost all of the Communist stalwarts in the state carried the caste tail in their names till the end.
A persistent false claim made by the Communists in Kerala is that the province’s pole position in education, healthcare and social reforms owes its origin to the work and policies of the communist party in Kerala. In fact, this claim is not even false: it’s absurd. Shailaja argues that the first EMS government’s education bill which guaranteed free education to all, eventually paved the way for Kerala’s much-touted status as India’s most literate state (p.44). To punch holes in this claim, you need only to look up the census figures of 1951. The regions that became Kerala six years later (except Malabar) were the most literate in India even in 1951. The author also proudly talks about ‘party families’ in Kannur in which every member belongs to the communist party and they shun association with other party members. Marital alliances are based on political affiliations of the families. Loyalty to the party is stronger than sanguinary bonds for these people. The loyalty comes in strange and ridiculous varieties. The author had erected the red party flag in front of her house at Pazhassi as a mark of affiliation. Moreover, her husband demanded their son not to enroll for ‘bourgeois streams like medicine or engineering’. Ironically, many of the top brass of communist leaders in Kerala educate their wards overseas who then find lucrative employment in multinationals which their parents and party cadres resist by tooth and nail back home. We also read about occasions when the leaders receive illegitimate personal help across party lines while the ranks battled it out on the streets. In 2004, the party asked the author to do full time political work by resigning her job as a school teacher. She had 18 years of teaching experience and the previous five years as a member of the legislative assembly couldn’t be counted as part of her teaching career. She wanted to have full pension while taking voluntary retirement at that point which required a minimum of 20 years of service. The rival UDF government was in power then, but they obliged her request and issued a special order taking her tenure of 5 years as an MLA countable for pension as a school teacher! Of course, the author could have chosen not to include this incident in the book and no would have been the wiser. But since it is there, it still rankles on the political sensibility and rectitude of the common man.
The book’s title would have served better justice to its content had it been changed to ‘My Life as a Minister’ as most of the informative and refreshing tract deals with her stint as a minister of Kerala in charge of the health portfolio. A good description of the development work undertaken in hospitals and clinics to give them a facelift is provided. Upgradation of facilities and manpower also were undertaken with the public participating in providing the financial resources. Shailaja observes tactfully that money is not the only problem in government, but the will and motivation to do something is even more rare than money (p.171). She also laments that while it may take up to three years even to develop a concept, five years is not enough to ensure its success. The book also includes an eventful narrative on how Nipah and Covid-19 outbreaks were successfully handled in Kerala. Irrespective of political fault lines, it ensured her public image as an efficient and dedicated political worker. During these testing times, officials of the health department worked not as a team, but as a family. They disagreed and argued but there was an intimacy and understanding in the team.
Quite naturally, Shailaja devotes a considerable space to showcase her winning performance in combating the pandemic. ‘The Guardian’ published a profile of her with the headline ‘The Corona Virus Slayer! How Kerala’s rock star health minister helped save it from Covid-19’. The UN invited her to speak on Public Servants’ day in the General Assembly. The Covid mortality rate in Kerala is claimed to be 0.5 per cent while the national average was 1.2 per cent. However, independent online sources indicate that Kerala’s rate was 1.03 per cent which is not that different from the national rate. The book also includes an analysis of excess deaths above the normal in a year. In 2020, there were 29,000 fewer deaths than in 2019. This may be because the Covid curbs led to fewer fatal traffic accidents. Even if traffic deaths were omitted, there were still 24,000 fewer deaths. With this stellar performance behind her, we would have expected her to receive a second term in office as minister. Strangely, she was sidelined and a novice took her place which can only be attributed as a case of king’s envy.
The book includes a timeline of Kerala history which quite incomprehensibly begins with the invasion of Haidar Ali of Mysore in 1766-92 as if Kerala had no history worth its name before the Muslim conquest. This illogical slip is all the more galling as Malabar was the port at which Vasco da Gama made landfall on his epic transoceanic voyage in 1498. The narrative in the book is nothing but a very long political speech with little regard to facts. The author deliberately and fastidiously weaves in a fabricated story of caste oppression. She freely borrows from her grandmother’s experiences in moulding a presentable story of how she was discriminated based on caste. Even then, we often see the landlord, who was an upper caste man, intervening of behalf of the author’s family than against it. It is said that sins of fathers visit the sons, but oppression: would it visit the granddaughter? In one page, she grieves that the landlord sucked the tenants dry with nothing left over after extracting his rent. However, she concedes in another page that her ‘mother and aunt could use the money received as agricultural labourers to buy some cows’ (p.51). There is lavish praise heaped on the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan which looks a bit like apple polishing. The book also includes a lecture on why the ‘Kerala Model of Development’ is the way to emulate for other states in India. It is amusing to note that Shailaja in fact believes in her senseless political rhetoric. After reading the book, people are a bit confused as to why it is written in English as the author had to seek the help of a ghost-writer. If she had used Malayalam, which was also her mother tongue, she could have reached the hearts of her readers effortlessly. But then, we should also keep in mind the target audience. Buoyed by the recognition in international fora, Shailaja seems to have been carried away by the adulation and wanted to expand her wings far wider than the narrow borders of Kerala. Unfortunately, the fate of Icarus was what awaited her. With this imagined stature, she wanted to have a more prominent role for herself in Kerala where people even envisaged her in the role of the state’s first woman chief minister. Politics is a mystery right till it unfolds and there’s no other way to know her fate than wait and watch.
The book is recommended.
Communists in Kerala are a confused lot. When the communist regimes in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe collapsed like a pack of cards, Kerala’s communists transformed their political affiliation into a kind of religious belief that Marx’s ideas were gospel truth and applicable for all time but what was found wanting was their physical implementation in those countries where it was enforced till the 1990s. This self-delusion propels Shailaja to assert that what it means for a communist is engaging in the class struggle to eradicate existing ‘feudal-capitalistic structures’ that support class inequalities (p.2). She starts the book with the intension to tell her ‘personal story as well as the story of Malabar and the growth of communism in Kerala’. Of course, by communism she means only the political party with a red flag having the hammer and sickle emblazoned on it and nothing to do with armed revolution. However, she rightfully points out that communism’s influence has seeped into the psyche of most Malayalis, whether they identify with the Left politically or not. Every Malayali is a socialist in some way (p.43). It is jokingly said that ‘if you are not a communist at age 20, you have no heart; but if at age 30 you are still a communist, then you have no brains’. Kerala refuses to grow up in this juvenile respect. The author professes to be a committed socialist and praises the Cuban healthcare system whenever a slender opportunity presents itself. Not only that, she ascribes the success of Kerala’s health sector during the several crises between 2016 and 2021 (during her tenure as minister) as a vindication of the communist dream (p.243). Social revolution that occurred in Kerala is claimed to be facilitated by communists. The author also adds that in fact, many communist politicians gave up their caste-based symbols to shed the allegiance and entitlement attached to them (p.244). This is also a pious wish and piece of propaganda as not only most, but almost all of the Communist stalwarts in the state carried the caste tail in their names till the end.
A persistent false claim made by the Communists in Kerala is that the province’s pole position in education, healthcare and social reforms owes its origin to the work and policies of the communist party in Kerala. In fact, this claim is not even false: it’s absurd. Shailaja argues that the first EMS government’s education bill which guaranteed free education to all, eventually paved the way for Kerala’s much-touted status as India’s most literate state (p.44). To punch holes in this claim, you need only to look up the census figures of 1951. The regions that became Kerala six years later (except Malabar) were the most literate in India even in 1951. The author also proudly talks about ‘party families’ in Kannur in which every member belongs to the communist party and they shun association with other party members. Marital alliances are based on political affiliations of the families. Loyalty to the party is stronger than sanguinary bonds for these people. The loyalty comes in strange and ridiculous varieties. The author had erected the red party flag in front of her house at Pazhassi as a mark of affiliation. Moreover, her husband demanded their son not to enroll for ‘bourgeois streams like medicine or engineering’. Ironically, many of the top brass of communist leaders in Kerala educate their wards overseas who then find lucrative employment in multinationals which their parents and party cadres resist by tooth and nail back home. We also read about occasions when the leaders receive illegitimate personal help across party lines while the ranks battled it out on the streets. In 2004, the party asked the author to do full time political work by resigning her job as a school teacher. She had 18 years of teaching experience and the previous five years as a member of the legislative assembly couldn’t be counted as part of her teaching career. She wanted to have full pension while taking voluntary retirement at that point which required a minimum of 20 years of service. The rival UDF government was in power then, but they obliged her request and issued a special order taking her tenure of 5 years as an MLA countable for pension as a school teacher! Of course, the author could have chosen not to include this incident in the book and no would have been the wiser. But since it is there, it still rankles on the political sensibility and rectitude of the common man.
The book’s title would have served better justice to its content had it been changed to ‘My Life as a Minister’ as most of the informative and refreshing tract deals with her stint as a minister of Kerala in charge of the health portfolio. A good description of the development work undertaken in hospitals and clinics to give them a facelift is provided. Upgradation of facilities and manpower also were undertaken with the public participating in providing the financial resources. Shailaja observes tactfully that money is not the only problem in government, but the will and motivation to do something is even more rare than money (p.171). She also laments that while it may take up to three years even to develop a concept, five years is not enough to ensure its success. The book also includes an eventful narrative on how Nipah and Covid-19 outbreaks were successfully handled in Kerala. Irrespective of political fault lines, it ensured her public image as an efficient and dedicated political worker. During these testing times, officials of the health department worked not as a team, but as a family. They disagreed and argued but there was an intimacy and understanding in the team.
Quite naturally, Shailaja devotes a considerable space to showcase her winning performance in combating the pandemic. ‘The Guardian’ published a profile of her with the headline ‘The Corona Virus Slayer! How Kerala’s rock star health minister helped save it from Covid-19’. The UN invited her to speak on Public Servants’ day in the General Assembly. The Covid mortality rate in Kerala is claimed to be 0.5 per cent while the national average was 1.2 per cent. However, independent online sources indicate that Kerala’s rate was 1.03 per cent which is not that different from the national rate. The book also includes an analysis of excess deaths above the normal in a year. In 2020, there were 29,000 fewer deaths than in 2019. This may be because the Covid curbs led to fewer fatal traffic accidents. Even if traffic deaths were omitted, there were still 24,000 fewer deaths. With this stellar performance behind her, we would have expected her to receive a second term in office as minister. Strangely, she was sidelined and a novice took her place which can only be attributed as a case of king’s envy.
The book includes a timeline of Kerala history which quite incomprehensibly begins with the invasion of Haidar Ali of Mysore in 1766-92 as if Kerala had no history worth its name before the Muslim conquest. This illogical slip is all the more galling as Malabar was the port at which Vasco da Gama made landfall on his epic transoceanic voyage in 1498. The narrative in the book is nothing but a very long political speech with little regard to facts. The author deliberately and fastidiously weaves in a fabricated story of caste oppression. She freely borrows from her grandmother’s experiences in moulding a presentable story of how she was discriminated based on caste. Even then, we often see the landlord, who was an upper caste man, intervening of behalf of the author’s family than against it. It is said that sins of fathers visit the sons, but oppression: would it visit the granddaughter? In one page, she grieves that the landlord sucked the tenants dry with nothing left over after extracting his rent. However, she concedes in another page that her ‘mother and aunt could use the money received as agricultural labourers to buy some cows’ (p.51). There is lavish praise heaped on the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan which looks a bit like apple polishing. The book also includes a lecture on why the ‘Kerala Model of Development’ is the way to emulate for other states in India. It is amusing to note that Shailaja in fact believes in her senseless political rhetoric. After reading the book, people are a bit confused as to why it is written in English as the author had to seek the help of a ghost-writer. If she had used Malayalam, which was also her mother tongue, she could have reached the hearts of her readers effortlessly. But then, we should also keep in mind the target audience. Buoyed by the recognition in international fora, Shailaja seems to have been carried away by the adulation and wanted to expand her wings far wider than the narrow borders of Kerala. Unfortunately, the fate of Icarus was what awaited her. With this imagined stature, she wanted to have a more prominent role for herself in Kerala where people even envisaged her in the role of the state’s first woman chief minister. Politics is a mystery right till it unfolds and there’s no other way to know her fate than wait and watch.
The book is recommended.
August 31, 2024
one of the best political memoirs I've ever read - an incredibly personal and open book about Teacher Shailajas political path within the CPI and Kerala and her advocacy. I learned a lot and am really glad I read this - I highly suggest reading, no prior knowledge is needed to read this book.
December 1, 2024
Absolutely loved the history of the malabar and communism that the book begins with. The various personal stories of Shailaja Teacher's family members and neighbors are truly an engaging detail in the history of our land.
It was also exciting to read about all the work that goes on in the back end of the ministry while having 5 years to set up your legacy to your role.
It was also exciting to read about all the work that goes on in the back end of the ministry while having 5 years to set up your legacy to your role.
October 15, 2024
Written in simple language with plenty of anecdotes that make the book a fast and engaging read. Reading it made me feel like if one is well-intentioned and honest, it’s easy to make an impact in political life (sounds simplistic though). The ideals of the Kerala model will definitely stay with me.
May 18, 2023
True story
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