K. R. Gouri Amma

K. R. Gouri was born on 14 July 1919 to K. A. Raman and Parvathi Amma in a wealthy Ezhava family in Alappuzha, Travancore.[1][4] She studied at Maharaja's College, Ernakulam and St. Teresa's College, Ernakulam (Graduation in History). She obtained her law degree (B. L.) from Trivandrum Law College and enrolled as an advocate at Sherthalai.[4]

Gouri was the first woman from the Ezhava community to get a degree in law.[4] She famously refused an offer from C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, the Prime Minister of Travancore, to be appointed a government magistrate.[4]

She married her colleague T. V. Thomas in 1957.[1] The couple was later estranged.[7]

K. R. Gouri started her public life with the Quit India Movement and later joined the agitation for the merger Travancore with the state of India.[6] She joined the Communist Party in 1948 (by this period, she had started working for the Party among coir workers in Alappuzha).[4] She unsuccessfully ran for office from Sherthalai Constituency in the 1948 Travancore elections.[4] Subsequently she underwent imprisonment and endured severe police torture.[4][8]

She was elected to the Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly in 1952 and 1954 (she was in prison throughout the election period).[1][4]

The state of Kerala was constituted on 1 November 1956 (States Reorganization Act). In 1957, the Communist Party of India defeated the Indian National Congress in the first Kerala Legislative Assembly elections and, under E. M. S. Namboodiripad, formed the first non-Congress government in independent India. K. R. Gouri, member from Sherthalai, was chosen as the Revenue Minister.[1]

As the Revenue Minister in the first Kerala ministry, K. R. Gouri piloted the Kerala Agrarian Relations Bill in December, 1957.[4][6] Two major aims of the legislation introduced were the abolition of tenancy and the security for landless agriculture labourers or the hut dwellers.[9] The bill gave tenants the right to buy their land from the owner at a price set by regulations, placed ceilings on the amount of land a family could own, established procedures for determining a fair rent, made illegal any evictions after the formation of Kerala and set up Land Tribunals in every taluk.[9]

The Kerala Assembly passed the bill on 10 June 1959. The President refused to assent the bill and sent it back with recommendations. The new Congress-led alliance government passed the amended bill as Agrarian Relations Act in 1960 (which was declared unconstitutional by the Kerala High Court in 1963).[9]

In 1964, ideological differences over a split between the Soviets and the Chinese communists and over the response to the 1962 India-China war prompted a large faction of party members to break with the Communist Party of India and form the Communist Party of India Marxist.[10] After the split of 1964, K. R. Gouri joined the newly formed Communist Party of India Marxist.[6][4]

E. M. S. Namboodiripad and K. R. Gouri in 1967

In 1967 assembly elections resulted in the formation of the Communist Party of India Marxist-led United Front government in Kerala (Second Namboodiripad ministry). K. R. Gouri, a member from Aroor, was chosen as Minister for Revenue, Social Welfare and Law. She served from March 1967 to November 1969.[1]

From 25 January 1980 till 20 October 1981 K. R. Gouri served as Minister for Agriculture, Social Welfare, Industries, Vigilance and Justice Administration in the first E. K. Nayanar ministry.[11][1]

The Left Democratic Front projected K. R. Gouri as the Chief Minister designate in the 1987 election assembly campaign.[4] But once the alliance emerged victorious, the party chose veteran leader E. K. Nayanar instead.[4]

In the Second E. K. Nayanar ministry (1987–1991), K. R. Gouri served as Minister for Industries and Social Welfare, Vigilance and Administration of Justice.[12][1]

K. R. Gouri served as the Minister of Agriculture in the third A. K. Antony ministry (May 2001 – August 2004).[1] She also a served as the Minister of Agriculture, Soil Conservation, Soil Survey, Warehousing Corporation, Dairy Development, Milk Co-operatives, Agricultural University, Animal Husbandry and Coir in the first Chandy ministry (August 2004 – May 2006).[14]

Gouri published her autobiography titled Athmakatha, which won the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award for best Autobiography/Biography in 2011.[15][16]

K. R. Gouri died on 11 May 2021.[4][17][3] She was cremated at the Valiya Chudukad in Alappuzha.[18]

• Lal Salam (1990), co-written by Cheriyan Kalpakavadi and directed by Venu Nagavalli.[20]

• Chief Minister K. R. Gowthami (1994), written by Salim Cherthala and directed by Babu Raj (Babu Cherthala)