Kannur: Inside India’s Bloodiest Revenge Politics

by Ullekh N P

Kannur, a sleepy coastal district in the scenic south Indian state of Kerala, has metamorphosed into a hotbed of political bloodshed in the past few decades. Even as India heaves into the age of technology and economic growth, the town has been making it to the national news for horrific crimes and brutal murders with sickening regularity.What makes this region so susceptible to vendetta politics and such deadly violence? How is it an anomaly in Kerala, the state with the highest social development parameters in India? Born in Kannur and brought up amidst some of the tallest political leaders of the state, author Ullekh N.P. delves into his personal experiences while drawing a modern-day graph that charts out the reasons, motivations and the local lore behind the turmoil. He analyses the numbers that lay bare the truth behind the hype, studies the area's political and cultural heritage, and speaks to the main protagonists and victims. With his journalistic skills and years of on-the-field reporting, he paints a gripping narrative of the ongoing bloodbath and the perceptions around it.Ullekh's investigations and interviews reveal a bigger game at work involving players who will stop at nothing to win.

Genres: Politics, India, Nonfiction, History

196 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 19, 2018

Reviews

[Tanvi Prakash · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book took 4 years to read. That's the last time I'm getting drawn in my sensational book titles.
Way too violent but also poorly researched. The author actually cites his memory and his mother as a reference source and even suggests that setting up a Kalaripayattu Premier League is the answer to deal with political violence. Thoroughly ridiculous. The book is stuck in an awkward limbo between being a journalists article and a historical account and a thriller novel. The author should have decided which one he wanted to be and stuck to it.

[Sajith Kumar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kerala leads most other Indian states on the indices of human development and social progress. Its life expectancy is comparable even to the most developed nations. Kerala’s economy is also peculiar in its makeup. Industrial manufacturing and production of food grains are given no priority at all and the state’s scanty agricultural produce is limited to cash crops like tea, rubber and cashew. The public sector is the major investor as far as industries is concerned. What drives it’s otherwise faltering economy is the remittances made by Keralites working overseas, which comes to about 35 per cent of its income. This makes the human resources of the state a valuable source of income. The topmost position of Kerala in education, healthcare and welfare schemes is thus correlated to its imperative of properly tending to a rich capital of manpower at its disposal. Naturally, this translates to suppression of violence and civic unrest. While most of the state is so peaceful as to make the slogan God’s Own Country no exaggeration but a plain statement of fact, the northern district of Kannur is wrought with political violence of the worst kind. Rival parties employ killer squads to eliminate or maim their opponents working in other political parties. This goes on unchecked even now, and the ruling CPM is arraigned by serious allegations of colluding with the criminals. This book examines the political situation in Kannur, how this sorry state of affairs came into being and the supposed causes and remedies. Ullekh N P is a native of Kannur and is a journalist and political commentator based in New Delhi. He has working experience in India’s leading newspapers and writes on domestic and international politics, economy, governance, public health and corporate affairs.

Continuously targeted by the Marxists, the RSS initiated a nationwide campaign titled ‘Redtrocity’ that highlighted the state-sponsored violence in Kannur. The movement has been immensely successful and Kerala’s Chief Minister, who is also a Marxist and alleged to have links to political violence himself in Kannur, had had to change his travel routes in Bhopal and Delhi to evade the protestors. This book is in fact a Marxist reply to the Redtrocity campaign. The author is the son of Pattiam Gopalan, a former member of parliament of the CPM and boasts of close relationships with the chief minister and CPM’s top brass in the state. The author’s acute political bias is evident from his tweets with the Twitter handle @Ullekh. What is amusing is his shuffling of facts to present himself as an impartial author. On closer inspection, it can be seen that the entire book is an attempt to project the CPM line that all parties in Kannur indulge in violence and their own fury is to be construed as acts of self-defense. Ullekh mentions the death toll at least half a dozen times, like a basketball score, to drive home the CPM’s contention that all parties resort to atrocities to score political points.

The book makes a social analysis of the situation prevailing in Kannur. Whereas the caste groups defined social identity in other parts of Kerala, political affiliation alone matters in Kannur. Even matrimonial alliances are chosen along party lines. Ullekh identifies the Thiyya community as the major pool which supplies both the perpetrators and victims of violence. As times advanced, the strategy also changed. Now, men are picked up randomly from various parts of the district, given fake names and put together as a killer squad. Tipper lorry drivers are the group used most frequently as killers. Another notable feature is that it is the areas that were once mentioned in the Northern Ballads that have seen disproportionately high levels of bloodbath. The ballads sing the saga of Chekavars, who fought and died to settle the personal vendettas of their upper caste overlords. The author assumes that the martial spirit of the Chekavars lingers on today. Widespread practice of the martial arts form called Kalaripayattu also plays a part in driving its practitioners to the battlefield. We should also note that guns and other projectile weapons are not used at all to kill people, while knifes, daggers and machetes are freely employed.

Ullek lays before us the history of the Communist movement in Kannur and how the poison seed of wanton belligerence was sowed by unrelenting physical attacks from Congress and their hired goons. M V Raghavan, who later left CPM to align with the Congress, was the lynchpin of the party’s resistance. As the CPM’s might consolidated, the Congress faded away from the scene and the RSS took its place. The book describes the brutal murder of K T Jayakrishnan Master of the RSS who was hacked to death while teaching his primary school students in the classroom. Forty-two eleven-year olds watched in horror and shock as a few assailants chopped their teacher to pieces. What stuns the civilized reader is the callous indifference with which CPM handled its aftermath. Seven were arrested for the murder, of which one committed suicide during trial. One was acquitted and the remaining five were sentenced to death by a sessions court. The verdict was upheld by the High Court, but on appeal the Supreme Court acquitted four and commuted the death penalty of a CPM activist named Pradeepan to imprisonment. After he spent twelve years in a very liberal prison he was released by the CPM government in 2011. And – the worst was yet to come – he was elected the president of the Parent-Teacher Association of the very school where Jayakrishnan Master was slain. CPM’s retaliation can sometimes turn beastly too. One of their attacks against M V Raghavan turned to smashing of the institutions he had helped found. Consequently, a snake park was attacked by the Marxists and the snakes and tortoises caged in the stalls were roasted alive. However, the author cleverly fails to mention this gruesome incident.

This book’s raison d’etre is the whitewashing of CPM and its chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who himself was one of the accused in the horrific murder of Vadikkal Ramakrishnan, an RSS worker in 1969. This is clear from the author’s painstaking research of crime records and party lore on the atrocities committed by the RSS. As K T Jayakrishnan Master was killed in front of his young pupils, so Ullekh cites two other cases in which CPM-men were also killed likewise. Not to be satisfied with this macabre tallying game, he quotes a general principle that recognizes violence as a rightful tool of political movements. He claims that ‘history teaches us that the world over, violence has served certain functions to ensure justice in an unjust society (p.103). We can only wonder why Penguin Books chose to promote such a blatant piece of political propaganda. The book also contains some fanciful theories of Alexander Jacob, a former police chief who served in Kannur during the unrest, which attributes racial factors to the violence. Such ahistorical conjecture which links the people of Kannur with ancient dynasties in Central India and even far away Assyria in Iraq are just flights of fancy.

The book is recommended.

[Liju Kuriakose · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and laudable take on the infamously violent politics of Kannur. The author, albeit being the son of a communist leader, maintains a commendable critical distance from all the parties involved enabling him to critique the modes of politics being played out in the district.

The book serves as a short history of both the RSS and the CPIM and provides critical insights into the modes and means of renowned leaders and rabble rousers of both sides.In an age when flattering political hagiographies are abound, this well-researched text does indeed stand out well due to its objective point of view.

While the lion's share of the initial chapters are taken up for recounting heart wrenching tales of murders and of the family that the deceased leave behind, the later chapters go deep into each party's history of violence and vengeance, leaving the reader to question the possibility of sustained peace in Kannur. The book does not provide a conclusive answer to that question and leaves it open ended for the readers.

The book is however not without its fair share of flaws. The lack of thorough editing leaves a few sentences standing out and atleast one concept repeated. The space given to pseudo-anthropological notions of a retired IPS officer could have been put to better use.

But on the whole, it's both a book recording the history of the Kannur violence and also, a gentle reminder to the readers that in death and loss there are no sides to pick.

[Pradeep E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ullekh NP explores the political history and sociology of Kannur, the epicentre of one of modern India's bloodiest politically abrasive revenge conflicts spanning across decades. This is by and large an insider perspective - he is from Kannur and father was a prominent Communist leader of his times, so the challenge was always to see whether it is possible to give a neutral viewpoint of the ground situation. And clearly, the audience is clearly divided on where the book leans towards to, but will come to that point later.

As a non-resident Keralite, the politics of the state was always alien to me and so Ullekh's tracing back of the Communist party and prominent leaders of the state was pretty insightful. Leaders like P Krishna Pillai, AKG, EMS, MVR and PR Kurup were only names to me so far and so the info on the roles played by them gave me an idea on how the Communist Party created a permanent legacy in the state. (Aside - PR Kurup's grandson was my classmate/roommate in college, so the name was familiar but nothing beyond that...)

The books stars off as a journalistic look at the various incidents that have happened and has a purely reporting academic feel. It only really kicks off when the historical events and the backdrop get sufficient space and here the stories are quite interesting - the contributions of P Krishna Pillai and AKG in cementing the movement in Vadakkan Kerala, the struggle of the party to grow beyond just an opposing revolutionary party leading to the likes of the fiery MVR who fostered an era of acerbic politics which became its hallmark in future and the genesis of violence in the region, pioneered by the politics of PR Kurup and his followers.

But can the history of a state be viewed only from the spectrum of one side, unless ofcourse it is suggested that only one alignment (the Left here) is responsible for the sadistic political violence that has overshadowed the progress of the state? While his lineage and background has given him access to the sources on the Left, it appears that the other side is left somewhat unrepresented. Yes, he tries to do the balancing act but when your sources are skewed, it is difficult to appear neutral.

Violence has become a form of expression in the violent politics of Kannur and with time, it is difficult for anyone to take the moral ground. The foot soldiers of the various parties continue to lose their life while the party bosses continue to use this as a tool to settle scores and gain power - a sad state of affairs, poignantly conveyed in Jayaraj's 'Shantam'. There would be cultural and social reasons for how Kannur has become (the book gives too much space to retired DGP Alexander Jacob's theories) but there is nothing on what is the way ahead which is what you would expect from such a book.

While I don't think commentators need to be neutral in assessment but a journalistic work of this nature which attempts to strike a fine balance should have had a more rigorous set of sources from across all sides. Without this, it is open to criticism of being by and large a one-sided perspective.

[Nallasivan V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is both an interesting and frustrating read. Interesting because it is probably the only book in English that covers the Kannur political murders. Frustrating because often it leaves us with more questions than answers.

It is an honest attempt - to look critically, even to look introspectively at the retributive violence between RSS and CPI(M) cadres going on in North Kerala. That the journalist is the son of a yesteryear communist leader only gives him both the insider perspective as well as the license to introspect. For most parts, the writer keeps his middle ground, examining both sides without bias. But just when he is near to hitting the nails on, when he is close to uncovering the layers of truth, he takes a detour. Multiple socio-economic angles like the RSS connection to elite factory owners, the Congress' repression of communism and lack of employment/growth are ignored. Instead, he pays more attention to the history and legacy of warfare in Kannur - going back 2000 years - as though some mystical connection with aggressive clans can explain the current situation substantially.

When you complete the book, you will get a good coverage of the history of political killings. But the lack of perspective leaves you wanting for more.

[Deepak K · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those interested in Kerala politics, this is indeed an engrossing topic, however the narrative used by the author is all over the places, unstructured and sometimes incoherent, that you don't get a comprehensive whole picture. The landlord-tenant frictions, the importance given to Chekavars , their duel and the mythology surrounding it, the lack of a social/religious renaissance of the likes of Southern Kerala are some of the reasons behind Kannur becoming the land of bloody political revenges.

There are interesting vignettes about the Communist Party and Kerala's post-independence period, and brief notes on each revenge killings, that provides a historical perspective on the events that have led to the current state of affairs. There are a lot of new information for the millenials and the later generations, who might not be well-versed with the state's violent past.

Some notes:

* Azhikodan Raghavan was a prominent CPI(M) leader who was on a visit to Thrissur, a district in the former Kochi province, when he was brutally stabbed to death by assailants on the night of 23 September 1972.

* One of the most high-profile political assassinations before Azhikodan’s that rocked Malabar took place in 1948 when goons with alleged allegiance to the Congress and the police battered to death a former Congress leader, Moyarath Sankaran, who had joined the communist ranks.

* In the early years of Indian independence, the fear of communism in Asia would force governments, both outside and in India, both at the Centre and in some states, to come down heavily on the communists. The 1948 Calcutta Thesis of the then CPI general secretary B.T. Ranadive called for an armed rebellion against the state, much to the anguish of many of his compatriots—would be used to the hilt by the central government to clamp down on the activities of communists across the country. In Kannur, hostilities between the pro-landlord Congress, armed with state power, and the pro-peasant CPI, armed with sticks, were heightened during this period following a ban on the undivided communist party for waging a war against the state
So, its Karnataka-based proprietors, with solid RSS links, decided to enter Kerala through what began to be known as ‘kangani pani’, a derogatory expression for a system whereby the company would deliver raw materials to homes of select workers, but not offer them any place to work.

* On 1 December 1999 at around 10.35 a.m., while Jayakrishnan Master was conducting a class, his bodyguard went for a toilet break (apparently, according to RSS sources, the man deliberately went missing for a while). It was all the time a mob of killers needed to barge into the classroom and knife him to death in the most brutal fashion, as forty-two eleven-year-olds watched in horror and shock.

* Jayakrishnan Master’s political rivals, however, don’t speak as fondly of him. Neither do members of the Congress and the policemen in the district. A policeman told me that the late RSS leader, who was a senior state-level leader of the BJP’s youth wing, apparently, had an unsavoury background and was vitriolic in his comments against opponents. P.K. Premnath, a youth-wing leader of the CPI(M), had a few years ago referred to Jayakrishnan Master as a ‘bushy-moustachioed man’ with a criminal past, who went to classrooms with a knapsack containing an S-shaped knife. He was trained to kill and had meticulously planned attacks on CPI(M) members, Premnath had alleged, adding that Jayakrishnan Master was the kingpin of killer squads that had routinely carried out ambushes on CPI(M) cadres. True, the attack on Jayakrishnan Master wasn’t an unprecedented one by Kannur standards. As I look into district police records and conduct interviews with police officers, I find out that E. Raju Master of the CPI(M) was killed by RSS men in front of his students on his way back from school; his killing took place on 26 October 1978, outside the Panoor Lower Primary School. In 1972, the CPI(M) leader P. Damodaran Master was hacked in front of his students in the Vilakkottur Lower Primary School near Panoor. A month before the attempt on Jayakrishnan Master, V.K. Suresh Babu of the CPI(M) and teacher at Thalassery’s St Joseph’s School had a narrow escape after being attacked in front of his students by RSS-backed men.

* Back then, most of them were a constellation of autorickshaw drivers, beedi workers or hardcore partymen with a background in martial arts. These days, they are mostly tipper drivers—a vehicle also called naikurukkan in Kannur thanks to its peculiar shape, a hybrid of a dog and a fox.

* Taking a historical perspective throws up another theory to explain the political violence in the district. The northern parts of Kerala saw social-identity quests as a result of the militant peasant movements in the 1930s and 1940s—which had a tendency to use violent means to counter violent repression—as opposed to Kerala’s south where the political culture was based on social and caste reforms influenced by spiritual leaders such as Sree Narayana Guru, Ayyankali and Chattambi Swamikal.

* Many of these CSP leaders would later become part of the communist faction formed in Kozhikode in 1937 and later the first Kerala unit of the Communist Party of India, established secretly in Parappuram, near Pinarayi, in December 1939. Krishna Pillai became the first secretary of the CPI’s Kerala unit at the convention attended by ninety people here.

* While Pillai died of a snakebite in 1948 after leaving a large imprint on the politics of Kerala, AKG would continue to shape the modus operandi of the communist forces in the state, through the 1964 split that led to the formation of the CPI(M) and the Emergency that came later, until his death in 1977, the year that the Congress lost the national elections for the first time, under Indira Gandhi.

* The Guruvayoor temple in Thrissur district is still one of Kerala’s most famous temples. Back then, when Kerala was a collection of the Malabar region (under the British Madras Presidency) and the princely states of Kochi and Travancore princely states, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) called for an agitation to allow entry to all castes into the temple, which had for centuries, practised restricted entry. What became known as the Guruvayoor Satyagraha was led by K. Kelappan (also known as Kerala Gandhi), Pillai, A.K. Gopalan and others. Pillai would display his valour and recklessness by entering the temple and ringing the bell, the first non-Brahmin to do so. When Nair guards and assistants hired by King Zamorin of Calicut threw punches at him, he loudly ridiculed them, ‘Ushirulla Nair maniyadikkum, echila perukki Nair avante purathadikkum.’

* AKG contended that his comrades were being targeted because the attackers could walk away with impunity. As part of self-defence, he formed what became faas the ‘Gopala Sena’, a team of volunteers trained in hand-to-hand combat and in using weapons. It was mostly due to this direction from AKG that in the 1950s, unlike the previous decade, any effort to target leftist cadres was met with stiff resistance.

* The CPI leaders often say that the reason they could not muster people’s support after the 1964 split was because AKG, the man who touched people’s hearts, was on the other side.

* The shrub Chromolaena odorata, which grows quickly, is called ‘communist pachcha’ in Malayalam, indicating that it spreads fast like communism

* Even as late as the late 1970s, the SFI couldn’t take out a procession in colleges, including the Sree Narayana College in the district, without being beaten up and dispersed by members of the KSU (Kerala Students’ Union, the Kerala student arm of the Congress), says K. Sanil Kumar, a former CPI(M) leader and former unit secretary of the SFI at Sree Narayana College. Things changed when a tough leader named T.P. Hareendran joined the college and began to hit back, even using knives. Very soon, the KSU workers stopped hurting the SFI boys, who were now free to organize activities of their choice.

* Kerala the third place in the world where a communist government had been elected to power through an election, after San Marino and British Guyana.

* In 1971, MVR would face a new opponent as others faded away. N. Ramakrishnan grew within the Congress rapidly, becoming the state secretary of the Youth Congress in 1967 and then in 1971 the president of the district Congress committee (DCC) in Kannur when he was just thirty, eclipsing Gandhian leaders who were at the helm until then. A close associate of the Congress strongman K. Karunakaran—who was then the home minister of the state—Ramakrishnan was a rabble-rouser, an opponent who suited MVR’s vendetta-driven, aggressive style of politics. Kolavili (war cry) is the term that journalists and political analysts have often used to describe this style of functioning

* According to British imperial records, together with Tellicherry (now Thalassery), it was the third-largest city on the western coast of British India in the eighteenth century after Bombay and Karachi.

[Vivek Nambiar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author covers the problems plaguing this beautiful little Malabar town..

[Byju.V · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engrossing read for those who know about Kerala politics

[Deepak P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good historically grounded narration of the sustained political violence in Kannur, the beautiful district in north kerala. It takes the reader through the layers of the conflict and how it evolved over the years. The british atrocities on the congress followed by the congress atrocities over the communists, and later replaced by a conflict predominantly between the marxists and the sangh. The authors, while almost being embedded within kannur's politics being the son of a prominent marxist leader, is able to stay at a distance while authoring the book. The role of MVR, first as a marxist strongman, and later as a perpetrator of violent politics while on the other side, was very interesting to read. Some of the incidents that involve prominent figures in Kerala's contemporary politics, such as Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, do invoke much curiosity. The role of Sudhakaran who has recently taken on the role of KPCC president, is very interesting as well. Some exemplary incidents, such as the role of marxists in maintaining law and order in one incident in the 1970s, are narrated in a very nice way. One thing I did not particularly like is the importance given to the various theories by Alexander Jacob; especially things such as 'violence is in the genes' kind of narration doesn't seem to deserve the attention Ullekh gives (personal opinion).

[Muraleekrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The political vendetta between Marx's interpretation of society and cultural nationalism concentrating on a district in Northern Kerala.

The author presents a much balanced view regarding what is expressed by both the parties. He tries to make the chronological flow of chapters as smooth as possible considering the political stability of Kerala at the end of the 20th century.

The interpretations provided by Alexander Jacob much appreciated mainly the reference of Chekavars and racial intermingling of the population.

At the end, the author struggles to provide the way out of this tick for tack of politically motivated murders which resulted in mockery by many book reviewers ( Kalaripayattu Premier league). Truth be told there isn't any concrete step to talk unless the political leadership decides to end it.

[Krishnanunni · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sombré presentation of the bloody political murders of Kannur. Not the best true crime book I've read. Parts of the book read like a news report while other parts read like a true-crime novel.
Regardless this book has sparked an interest in exploring the genre of true-crime more this year.

Note to self and to other Aspiring writers: There seems to be a shortage in the availability of Kerala History and politics book written in English targeting the Generation Y reader. Given how Kerala youth are showing trends of being illiterate in Malayalam, this presents an ample opportunity for English writers who have the patience and fascination to explore Kerala History.

[Revanth Ukkalam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is shabbily assembled. The past is poorly linked to the present in this journalistic piece; the author tried to be experimental in choosing jumbled screenplay but this scheme does not help much. A murder following a murder following a murder. I am glad it gave me a background to the second time-elect CM Pinarayi Vijayan.

[Sreenath · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is written as a journalistic piece wherein the storyline of the politics and violence in Kannur is portrayed somewhat accurately. With my biases, I think there should have had more information about the involvement of non- communist parties in the said violence.

[Hiran Venugopalan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt it more propaganda and biased.

[Ajeemsha S · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book doesn’t provide any insights, its simply the narration of events and misinterpretation by the political leaders

[Anoop Narat · Rating 1 out of 5]

A completely biased political report

[Ashwin Mullankandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely biased!. But a good read about the history of communism in kerala and Kannur in particular.

[Varun · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Varun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aug 2022 Read

[Udit Nair · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author delves into the historical,social,contemporary and various other reasons and contexts making kannur the political bloodbath. The author tends to give perspectives from right,left and centre and comes as unbiased to a larger extent. Kannur is a place which can be hardly spotted by others on the Indian map but I am sure that they have heard a lot about this region due to the political rivalry. Going forward political concern must not be allowed to distract us from the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in one of India's most progressive states. But indeed any solution will require an attitude of forgetting the past and at least pulling the plug for the sake of human lives.

[Sreenidhi Sreekumar · Rating 2 out of 5]

A really dull book, that just plainly narrates the landscape of kannur politics and the revenge murders that it's infamous for. The author may be due to his communist background, fails to generate an unbiased narrative, and superficially touches upon the history of the place and also fails to generate a convincing link between the history and present. However it's a good start for someone who is trying to get a picture of what the political climate of Kannur may be.

[Razeen Muhammed rafi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book which provided me history of my native place kannur. Author hails from a communist family whose father was prominent leader in it, yet this book is a unbiased copy on bloodiest political stories and massacre in kannur.. Shows light on some of historical information of kannur which was not aware of as a kannur resident gave a light on some of my nearby places like valapattanam, payyanur (mushika dynasty capital) .

[Himanshu Yadav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy Read. Author has managed to be impartial throughout.