A. K. Gopalan
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Ayillyath Kuttiari Gopalan Nambiar, popularly known as A. K. Gopalan or AKG, was a communist leader and an Indian politician.
He was born on 1 October 1904 in Kannur District of Northern Kerala and educated in Tellichery. By the time he became a teacher, India's independence movement was becoming energized by Mahatma Gandhi. Gopalan took part in the Khilafat Movement [1] which prompted a marked change in his outlook, transforming him into a dedicated fulltime social and political worker. In 1927 he joined the Indian National Congress and began playing an active role in the Khadi Movement and the upliftment of Harijans. He was arrested for participating in the salt satyagraha in 1930.
While in prison he became exposed to leftist thinking and became a member of the Congress Socialist Party and later the Communist Party of India when it finally took shape in Kerala in 1939. He led the hunger march from Malabar region to Madras in 1937 and the Malabar Jatha in support of the movement for responsible government in Travancore.
The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 prompted an upsurge in activism against British domination, and Gopalan was again arrested. But in 1942 he escaped from prison and remained at large till the end of the war in 1945. He was arrested again shortly after the end of the war and was still behind bars when India became independent on August 15, 1947. He was released a few weeks later. Thereafter he was a member of Lok Sabha for 5 consecutive terms till his death on March 22, 1977 and became the first leader of opposition in the parliament of India. He also wrote extensively. His autobiography In the Cause of the People has been translated into many languages. His other works include For Land, Around the World, Work in Parliament, and Collected Speeches, all in Malayalam.
AKG was married to Mrs. Susheela Gopalan, who was a prominent Marxist and trade union leader. His daughter, Laila, is married to Mr. P. Karunakaran, the MP for the Kasargode constituency.
AKG was also the founder of Indian Coffee House, the world's largest worker cooperative initiative. It was he who led the thrown out last grade employees of Coffee Houses of Coffee Board to establish ICHs in mid 1950s. We can read this thrilling story in Coffee Housinte Katha, a Malayalam alternative history book (Author - Nadakkal Parameswaran Pillai or Coffee House Pillai, the cofounder of ICHs in Kerala with the Communist Leader Advocate T. K. Krishnan of Thrissur).
