‘Liberation’
struggle
The political rivals of government
was initially surprised at the magnitude of change initiated
by the government, later decided to stall such moves lest
it would lose its political constituency in Kerala to the
CPI.
The Congress leadership, therefore, mobilised smaller parties
and splinter groups and even the Muslim League which its leader,
Jawaharlal Nehru, once described as a 'dead horse', and launched
the infamous 'Liberation' Struggle against the government.
The political combination by itself was not formidable, but
when joined hands with communal forces like Christian Church
and NSS, it proved deadly. It was a social, political and
communal combination-all the three in one.
The connection of CIA in easing out the Communist Government
has been a subject of great controversy ever since 1959. Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, the American Ambassador to India, has this
to say about CIA's role in the process The financial help
it received from the Central Intelligence Agency of the United
State increased the intensity of the firepower of this agitation
against the government.
A section of the common people participated in the agitation,
due to ignorance and fear, and due to caste and communal pressure.
The Christians as the Church considered participation in the
agitation as a Christian virtue and read pastoral letter in
the churches. V. Viswanatha Menon, a former leader of the
CPI(M), crystalizes their feeling in his autobiography That
a section of the people who had participated in the agitation
later reprsented their action itself is a proof of both the
fear that gripped them and ignorance they had on the issue.
Even a stalwart of the agitation, Fr. Vadakkan, testified
to this when he conferred later that the 'Liberation' struggle
'represented a confluence of vested interests'.
All these showed the extent to which Kerala society was communalized,
and also the presence of a critical gap in politicising it.
