M. C. Naryanan’s Life Story

(As adapted from the book “A Social History of India” by Dr. S. N. Sadasivan)

Birth

M. C. Naryanan (b: July1893 ~ d: December1979) was born in 1893 to Chirutha (Seetha) and Kochayyapan of the larger Elavanthi family of Praikkara, the townsend on the banks of the Achenkovil river in Mavelikara. Popularly known as ‘MC’ during his later life, the initials of his name, which stood for Manalelkizhakathil Crishnan. Crishnan, being his grandfather’s name as originally spelt with the “C” by the British administrator at the Bishop Hodges School when MC was enrolled at the primary section. Manalelkizhakathil was the specific house (address) where his father Kochayyapan lived at the time.

Parents

Although traditionally the Elavanthi family’s ancestral male members were engaged in timber trade for several generations, MC’s father, Kochayyappan was an excise tax collector. Kochayyappan had established a reputation for his probity and his resoluteness to oppose the exploitation and oppression of the hard hearted traditionalists of his own Ezhava community to earn great respectability and popularity.

MC’s mother Chirutha a homemaker was from a respectable family from the village of Mattem west of Mavelikara town and on the lower side of Achenkovil River.

Early life

When he was 12, MC was bereft of his father and the entire responsibility of his family descended on him. On account of his family burden, he could initially secure only modest education, but he by his own effort, acquired knowledge and developed a mind conducive to social reform. Circumstances forced him to take up a job during his youth as a legal documentation clerk ('vakil gumastan') with a leading lawyer, C. N. Narayana Pilla of Mavelikara. On the job exposure and experience set his mind on the track of jurisprudence and helped him later channel his organisational capabilities toward social reform. He led youngsters of his locality to bring about changes in the style of living and crusaded against untouchability to bring all communities considered less equal to the Ezhavas in close proximity.

Background to meeting Narayana Guru

In the second half of Sree Narayana Guru’s life, he entirely had become a peerless exponent of the advaita philosophy. Sree Narayana Guru equally gave his attention to reforming the Ezhava community. There were many worn out customs and practices that afflicted both the Nayars and the Ezhavas, but the Guru’s efforts for social reform were confined obviously to the Ezhavas for caste did not allow him to cross the frontiers of his community although he had become a role model for social change for all.

In Kerala in almost every corner there was a thick piece of jungle called Kavu (grove or serpent grove) which during the Buddhist period was the adjunct of a vihara where the bhikshus used to sit in meditation or for their relaxation. The snakes peacefully co-existed with the monks and often served as a type of watchmen for their meagre belongings. As Brahminism became dominant, these Kavus were transformed into abodes of the fierce deity Kali where blood sacrifices and drunken bouts were every day affairs. Some of the groves became centres of nightmarish fear for the simple folk or people in general that if they interfered with them, they would become victims of incurable diseases and their family would be destroyed by the curse of the serpents and the wrath of Kali. Sree Narayana urged the people to bring these groves under proper use and encouraged clearing the groves, sometimes under his personal presence to reassure village folk that no harm would befall upon them as a consequence of their action.

Chance meeting at Mutirakkandam

In a place Mutirakkandam in Poypallikarayma in Mavelikara, after standing in silence before a frightening grove for some time, Sree Narayana Guru asked the village folk to clear the grove and demolish sacrificial stones. The fear arising from superstition was unnerving and none ventured despite the Guru’s presence and reassurances. At the peak of this tense conflict of conscience and consequence that gripped the crowd, a young lad and devotee came forth, picked up an axe and boldly started hacking at the grove with firm faith in the Guru. Motivated by lad’s bravery and faith in the Guru’s words, all others surged forth to obey the Guru.

After the grove was cleared, Sree Narayana Guru called for the young lad and asked him his name. On hearing that the lad’s name was Narayanan (MC Narayanan), the Guru was doubly pleased and remarked that “nammude peru Narayanan ennaannallo” (‘our names happen to be Narayanan’). The Guru reassured that no harm would come to anyone and particularly blessed the lad saying the words “Narayana nee nannakum!” (‘Narayana, you will prosper!’). Indeed, in the next six months those who engaged in removing the grove had in their families good developments or signs of prosperity which, by and large, put an end to the superstitious fears associated with the serpent groves.

Dedication of life to the Guru’s cause

It is the intellectual who conceives and works for social change but he must be able to find and inspire agents of change at every level so that the change will permeate deep to make it stable, irreversible and sprouting new shoots for further change. In the resurgence of the era of Sree Narayana Guru, although there was a dearth of second line change agents, the available ones like M.C. Narayanan endearingly were dedicated, courageous and active to carry the message of the top leaders to lowest levels to make the transformation as complete as possible.

MC also became a staunch spiritual follower of the Guru’s favourite Lord Siva, and thereafter naming his sons Sivanandan (meaning one who finds joy in goodness or Lord Siva’s worship) and Sadasivan (meaning one who always does good, as Lord Siva).

In mid 1930s, although MC started his own timber trading business and a furniture manufacturing unit, his continued preoccupation with social activities and incessant need to travel on account of the community's causes led to the closure of the establishment, which did not turn around due to divided attention.

Social Reforms

SNDP Union (1951¬1953) : A devotee of Sree Narayana Guru, MC established a public library in the name of Mahatma Gandhi to encourage the reading habit of the people and educate them in all essential subjects. As a result of his efforts, the branches of the SNDP Yogam were opened in his own village and in the neighbouring hamlets and the Mavelikara union of the SNDP Yogam was established. Between 1924 and 1928 he entertained the idea of building a hostel for the Ezhava students seeking admission in the nearby Bishop Hodges English High School, but as a result of the hostility deliberately engineered by the hooligans identifying themselves as Syrian Christians, its construction which reached the wall-plate level, had to be abandoned. The incomplete and partly damaged building was exposed to the sun and rain for more than 28 years, when in the changed social circumstances M. C. Narayanan, the then secretary of the SNDP Union (1951¬1953) took the initiative of rebuilding it in a new style to house the office of the Union. He was secretary of the Mavelikara Union for two terms from 1951 and completed the construction of a new building to house its office.

During the period 1925-1935, when the life of the Ezhavas was made insecure by the rowdy gangs belonging to the Syrian Christians, MC had successfully taken defensive measures for their protection including through the courts of law. Indirectly of course, by the adept use of his personality, he obtained the sympathies of the Nayar notabilities to the cause of the Ezhavas which indeed enhanced their morale to face their foes. A defender of the dignity of his community, MC thwarted the attempts of the same gangs to obstruct the Ezhava students from going to the Bishop Hodges English school, a patently protestant institution run by British missionaries who were then converting Ezhavas in large numbers to increase their tribe.
A faithful lieutenant and an intimate friend of T.K. Madhavan, MC carried the message of Sree Narayana Guru to the masses and at the behest of the Guru took the lead in eradicating superstition particularly associated with Kavus (groves or pieces of thick jungle) believed to be the haven of snakes. In 1935, a year earlier than the proclamation of temple entry, MC acquired a piece of land and built a Siva shrine at Kallumala dedicated to Sree Narayana Guru to which he added entirely with his own finance a new hall of common worship in 1963.

He was a pioneer in the cooperative movement to bring the people in mutually helpful interaction. In 1933 he established the Kallumala Agricultural Cooperative Society, which grew up to be a cooperative credit bank that extends relief to the toiling farmers and the people engaged in other vocations.

He untiringly worked for the collection of Kesava Nidhi, purse for C. Kesavan, braving dangers to his own life and freedom, for over six months.

Recognitions by Government of Travancore

The Government of Travancore in recognition of his efforts to achieve social justice by peaceful and legitimate means and of his judicial frame of mind, appointed him as Judge of the Village Panchayat Court and honorary Second Class Magistrate in 1936 in which capacity he distinguished himself.

In the social revolution of Kerala, the agents of change at the sub-state level have been as much active as their lofty leaders; from the divinity of Sree Narayana Guru, they gathered absolute fearlessness, from the poems of Kumaran Asan, inexhaustible inspiration and from the intellectual values of T.K. Madhavan and K. Ayyappan, rationality for social action. It is men like MC, whose number may not be more than a fifty, who unpretentiously carried, the message of social change and interpreted its objectives to the intelligibility of the masses to make them rediscover their intellectual capabilities and re-establish their rights, prominently their right to equality, deliberately destroyed by the institution of caste.