Building SFI In The Early Decade: T A Ushakumari Remembers A Vibrant Time
Translated by Anagha Pavithran
Prof. T A Ushakumari’s life is an immense source of inspiration. A vibrant leader of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) throughout the 1970s, Ushakumari has been active in the public sphere of Kerala in many ways for the last five decades. Following her days as a student, she joined Thrissur’s Sree Kerala Varma College as a lecturer in History. Ushakumari was also the organiser of ‘Samatha’, a women’s theatre group formed in 1987, which performed at thousands of stages across Kerala, conveying the politics of equality, justice and the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed. She has also been part of a women’s publication collective by the name ‘Samatha: A Collective for Gender Justice’, which has published around a hundred books so far. Ushakumari has also been leaders of the teachers’ association, the progressive literary association and the workers’ union. In this short memoir, T A Ushakumari remembers her days in SFI.
Early Years in SFI
I was born and raised in Azhiyur, a village in Vadakara, at the northern tip of Kerala’s Kozhikode district. It is very close to Mayyazhi (Mahe). I completed my schooling at the Azhiyur High School, and in 1969, I joined the Govt. Madappally College for my pre-degree course. At the time, CPI(M) leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was an undergraduate student at Mahe Govt. College. My friendship with Kodiyeri, who was later elected as the chairman of Mahe College, thus began in 1969. During those days, we were all part of the Kerala Students’ Federation (KSF), i.e., SFI’s predecessor.
The year I joined the Govt. Madappally College, C P Abubackar, the then State Secretary of KSF and a Vadakara native, and Kodiyeri recommended that a KSF women’s wing be formed in the college. As the committee was established, I became its first convener. In December 1970, when the formation conference of SFI was held in Thiruvananthapuram, 25 female student comrades from Vadakara participated in the demonstration. After the conference, our SFI unit at Madappally College decided to form a women’s committee and I was elected as the convener. This was a historic step as it was SFI’s first women’s committee in India. During my undergraduate days, I also served as the Vice President of the Vadakara Taluk Mahila Federation.
SFI was burgeoning during this period and comrades had to face constant attacks from the Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) in colleges across Kerala. Once, beedi workers near our college rallied around student activists like us like a shield and gave us strength. During a roadblock strike that demanded a resolution to problems students faced regarding transportation, I stopped a bus by lying down on the road. The then Superintendent of Police was Pulikodan Narayanan, notorious for being violent towards protesters. I still remember his face with his lathi raised, shouting at me and my comrade A K Chandri, who led the protest.
Days in Brennen College and Fighting the Emergency
During 1974-76, I was a Masters’ student at Thalassery Govt. Brennen College in Kerala’s Kannur district. I was also the Vice President of SFI’s Kannur district committee at the time.
Brennen was one of the earliest colleges where SFI won the Students’ Union and one of the colleges that fought hard against the Emergency of 1975-77. It was in Brennen and Ernakulam’s Maharaja’s College that the state established the Central Reserve Police (CRP) aid post. In response to SFI’s call, we organised a protest gathering in Brennen College. When we were in front of the Principal’s room, KSU leaders reported us to the CRP aid post. The police rushed in and started beating us black and blue. Many male students were thrashed very severely and one of them ended up jumping down from the first floor. Another comrade was hit severely on the head. Many women ran to their classes and escaped, but I couldn’t move, as my left leg was hit with a baton several times. I still carry its remnants – the knee pain remains till date and so do other memories from the Emergency period. For SFI’s 50th anniversary, many of us gathered at Brennan and recollected our struggles. Many of my Brennen comrades were handcuffed and locked up in police stations in their trousers alone during the Emergency. People often told me that the police had their eyes on me, and so every time police cars passed by my house those days, I had a feeling that I would get arrested. In the meantime, I passed my Master’s with a First Class and a First Rank. After all, “study and struggle” is our slogan at SFI.
In State Leadership
Soon I enrolled for a research degree at the University of Calicut in Kerala under Dr K. K. N. Kurup, historian and former Vice Chancellor of the university. At that time, Kodiyeri was SFI’s State Secretary. I became the State Vice President, Central Executive Committee Member and the first State Women’s Sub Committee Convenor. I was also the students’ representative of the Calicut University syndicate. In addition, I was in charge of SFI in the district of Malappuram. I remember stopping the then-education minister and RSP leader Baby John at the University Guest House and leading a strike while also holding discussions to address the concerns of students. I took the initiative to form the University of Calicut’s SFI Unit as well as a Research Scholars’ Association. It was comrade Sushila Gopalan who inaugurated our unit.
I was with SFI from 1969 to 1980. The organisation took the initiative to form women students’ wings across colleges in the state. When the women’s sub-committee was formed at the state level, I was elected as its first convener again, by the state committee led by Kodiyeri and MA Baby. I was also part of the praesidium of the 3rd All India Conference of SFI held at Patna in 1979. I recall a vehicle-rally which was organised in 1980 December, under the leadership of the state women’s committee. I was the captain of the southern jatha and K.P. Mary led the northern jatha. We organised huge public meetings in front of almost all major campuses in Kerala and both the rallies culminated in Thrissur.
There was an interesting incident. Before the concluding session in Thrissur, I had to address a reception organised by Sree Kerala Varma College’s SFI Unit. By that day, the rank list of new lecturers to be appointed in that college was published and I was awarded the first rank. It was therefore not appropriate to address students and their leaders of a college where I had to join as a lecturer in a few days.
In 1981, I joined the college, though my research had not been completed. Though I had received a Public Service Commission (PSC) posting to join the Govt. Arts College at Kozhikode in 1980, I rejected it due to the lack of political freedom there. In the Kozhikode University syndicate, comrades like T. Sivadasa Menon, and teachers union leaders like R Ramachandran and H K Pisharoti were with me. Following their advice, I soon joined Sree Kerala Varma college on January 1, 1981, and my long association with SFI came to an end. Those memories and experiences however, will guide, inspire and strengthen me for my whole life.
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