KOZHIKODE: “The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles,” so said Karl Marx. Keluettan Study and Research Centre in the city is on a mission to bring out a series of books on the evolution of Kozhikode, the birthplace of Communist movement in Kerala, through class struggles.Titled ‘History of Communist Party in Kozhikode’, the three-part series will feature the origin of the Communist Party, the circumstances that led to it, class struggles in Kozhikode, impact of anti-colonial protests on the social and economic conditions and a relative analysis of exploitation by colonialist forces now and then.“However, the present generation should know why Kozhikode, the capital of Malabar in the erstwhile Madras Presidency in British India, became the provenance of Communist movement in the state and how the people here were involved in those struggles. The ignorance of such historical facts would make the present and future generations culturally and politically impotent. Awareness of local movements and struggles is essential to fight against the denationalisation and apoliticisation due to globalisation and commercialisation,’’ said K T Kunhikannan, director of the Keluettan Study and Research Centre.The first part will feature the history of Kozhikode, the influence of Communist movements occurred in other countries, formation of the Communist movement in Kozhikode and its role in the freedom struggle till gaining Independence in 1947. While the second part will narrate the activities of Communist forces from 1947 to 1964 till the origin of CPM, the third book will be a brief history of the party’s activities in Kozhikode upto the 20th party congress, scheduled to be held in April, 2011.Apart from frontline leaders like P Krishna Pillai, E M S Namboothiripad, N C Shekar and K Damodaran, the book will depict the roles played by several regional leaders in organising the farmers and fielding them for the freedom struggle even before the exhortation from Mahatma Gandhi, said Kunhikannan. “Local leaders played a key role in the ‘Kuli Samarangal’, the struggle to obtain rights to take bath in ponds, in the 1930s. All these protests evoked a general feeling of getting an equal social status among marginalised sections. The Renaissance, October Revolution and the active participation in nationalists forces have, in fact, led to the origin of Communist movement in Kozhikode,’’ he added.The first part of the book will be released in the upcoming CPM district conference. A history committee comprising members of the Centre has been working for the project for the last one year. It has also conducted meetings of senior comrades across the district for data collection besides referring biographies and related literature.
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