Communist stalwart KR Gouuri Amma passes away at age of 102

Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran politician and the stalwart of Kerala's Community party KR Gowri Amma died today morning at the age of 102.

She had been in the PRS hospital in Thiruvananthapuram after having been infected by a viral infection in April. Her condition turned critical last week and was in the Intensive Care Unit since then.

Kalathilparambil Raman Gouri had an eight-decade-long political history that had been turbulent for its most part. She was the first woman lawyer from the Ezhava community, categorised as Other Backward Class (OBC) in the state.

She was a minister in the first Communist Government led by E M S Namboodiripad in 1957. Being Revenue Minister she brought out the revolutionary Kerala Agrarian Relations Bill that paved the way for land reforms.

The land reforms had far more impact on Kerala, that it limited the ownership of land by landowners, forcing them to give excess lands to the landless. The Congress government of 1960 had watered down the norms in favour of landlords. But, Gouri who again became agriculture minister in the second EMS Government of 1967, had amended the act in favour of the landless.

Born in June 1919 at Pattanakkad village of Alappuzha, Gowri Amma joined the Communist party in 1948 and her political career grew with the party. She stood with the CPI (M) post the split of the Communist party in 1964, while her husband and veteran leader TV Thomas joined the CPI.

In 1994, the CPI (M) expelled Gouri Amma for 'anti-party activities'. She then floated her own political outfit named Janathipathya Samrakshana Samithi based in Alappuzha. In 2021 she stepped down as the General Secretary of the JSS due to poor health.

She was the longest-serving MLA of the state after KM Mani, the late patriarch of the Kerala Congress (M). Gowri Amma contested elections 11 times and won eight times. She had handled an array of portfolios as a minister in 1957, 1967, 1980 and 1987.