Kerala - Alappuzha   

Reliving moments of a historic revolt

ALAPPUZHA: At the age of 82, most men would prefer to rest in the shady confines of their homes, but not V.K. Thevan, of Vayalar.

One of the few living survivors of the historic revolt of 1946 when the villages of Punnapra and Vayalar wrote in blood their struggle against the then Dewan C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, the sprightly Thevan has been excited since last week. He has the reason too. The entire region, particularly his village, is celebrating the 61st anniversary of what he remembers was a death-defying revolution against armed forces.

“It was pure luck, otherwise I would have been among those hundreds who fell to the bullets of Sir CP’s army. We got news about three boats full of armed soldiers that were moving around our camp, which was waterlogged on three sides. We divided ourselves into three groups and took guard on the three sides of the camp,” he recalls.

“It must have been around 11.30 a.m., suddenly it was raining bullets and even as I was watching, the man near me, Narappan, fell. I ran to the other side along with a few others and jumped into the nearby stream where we remained underwater for what seemed like eternity. That saved us. Many of our friends never came back.”

“There were four camps at Punnapra, Vayalar, Menassery and Mararikulam, training us to use sharpened wooden poles since that was the only weapon we had. We were supposed to advance and capture them,” says Thevan, who is still a local committee member of the CPI(M).

He remembers that many leaders, including the legendary P. Krishna Pillai, A.K. Gopalan, V.S. Achuthanandan and the present CPI(M) district secretary P.K. Chandranandan, among others, were regulars at these camps.

On Friday, as he ran about the Martyrs’ Memorial at Vayalar helping youngsters make arrangements for Saturday’s memorial meeting, Thevan has only one complaint. “I hope the talk of factionalism in the party does not last long. It is nothing but a matter of difference of opinion between a few,” he smiles.

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