Padmanabhan Palpu

Padmanabhan Palpu, born on November 2, 1863 in Trivandrum part of Indian princely state of Travancore, present-day Kerala, from a wealthy Ezhava family. Dr. Palpu was a contemporary and follower of Narayana Guru. He was a prominent Indian literary, physician, and philanthropist during the Indian Independence Movement. He was father of Nataraja Guru, who was the direct disciple of Narayana Guru. A London trained physician who later abandoned his profession to affect social and spiritual reform within his community.

Early life

He remains ever an example of the persecution that the backward communities suffered in Kerala in those days. In 1884 Dr. Palpu appeared for the pre-qualification entrance examinations conducted by the Travancore State Government and was ranked fourth. However, he was denied a seat to study medicine due to his lower caste which was a form of discriminations prevalent during this time in Kerala. Dr. Palpu Later gained admission at the famed Madras Medical College. He faced more obstacles when he returned to Travancore when the Government denied him a career in medicine for the same reason. A determined young Dr. Palpu went to Mysore, a neighboring state, and started his practice there at a princely sum of Rs. 100 a month. At the time the Government of Travancore was offering a salary of Rs5.

Formation of SNDP

Dr. Palpu sought the advice of the famed Indian saint Swami Vivekananda to unite and work towards the emancipation of the Ezhava caste. It was the advice given by Swami Vivekananda to associate with some spiritual person in his effort to fight for the rights of the Ezhavas that drew him to Sri Narayana Guru. The Swami asked Dr. Palpu to “Spiritualize and Industrialize the Masses”. Swami told him that the garb of spirituality was essential for any organization to be successful in India. In 1903 Dr. Palpu founded the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, known as SNDP. SNDP later became thus beacon for many social movements in Kerala. Little did he realize then that this organisation would later become the cornerstone of major social and religious reformation that would envelope the entire state. Although an Ezhava himself, Dr. Palpu was not limited to working within the bounds of his own caste.

Much of his earlier written works were press reports in local dailies and was in English. He later published a compendium of his journals and essays in ‘Treatment of Thiyas in Travancore’. The Malayalam translation of this book would become one of the earliest written records on the miserable condition of the masses of feudal Kerala.

Ezhava Memorial and other Initiatives

Ezhava Memorial was landmark in the struggle of the backward classes for gaining their legitimate rights from the Government that was representative of the mad social customs that prevailed in the state at that time. During that period, Malayali Memorial which was submitted to the Maharaja of Travancore in 1891 marked the beginning of the united social effort in the state to press the demands of jobs for locals. This mass petition in which Dr. Palpu was the third signatory complained about the ‘Divans’ (government officers) who came from outside the state, and appropriated a greater part of the jobs for their own people. The memorandum spoke about the pitiable condition of Ezhavas of the State who were denied even the lowest government Though jobs for their counterparts could occupy even higher jobs in the Malabar State due to the absence of any discrimination there. The government in its reply dated 1891 April 21st stated that since the Ezhavas were generally uneducated, it was better for them to pursue their present occupations like cultivation, coir making, and toddy tapping than trying to get education.

As Dr. Palpu was irritated by this humiliating reply from the authorities, he frequently visited the state to organize the backward people to protest against the callousness of the rulers. He realized that organized protest was the only way to put an end to the inhuman discretion that the government practiced against the majority of its own people. He soon formed the Greater Ezhava Association, and more than 300 hundred people attended its first meeting held at Thiruvananthapuram. The meeting decided to submit a mass petition to the government signed by ten thousand Ezhavas demanding the abolition of the discrimination against them. Dr. Palpu himself took the initiative to get the signatures, and on 1896 September 3rd the petition, the historically famous Ezhava Memorial, signed by 13176 people was submitted to the Government In the memorandum Dr. Palpu enumerated as an example the humiliations that the members of his own family had to suffer from Government

His next move was to bring to the attention of the British Parliament the injustices done by the Travancore Government to the Ezhavas, and the difficulties that they experienced in the social life in the state. Dr. Palpu sent Barrister G.P.Pillai with a letter secured from Sister Niveditha, the disciple of Swami Vivekananda, to England to get some Member of the British Parliament to represent the case of the Ezhavas. Dr. Palpu shared the major part of the expenditure. In addition to this, when he went to England for higher studies, he got Deadbeat Navroji who was a member of the British Parliament to raise a question regarding the condition of Ezhavas in the Parliament. With his help a memorandum was submitted to the State Secretary for India. All these measures taken by the doctor began to have results at home when the British Government began to enquire about the condition of the Ezhavas in the State.

Retirement

Dr. Palpu also started the Malabar Economic Union. A large portion of the proceeds of this venture was spent of welfare and philanthropy. Dr. Palpu died on January 25, 1950. A day before India became a Republic. He has influenced the works and lives of several noted personalities in Kerala like Kumaran Asan, T.K. Madhavan.

References

• Biography http://www.geocities.com/guruforum/drpalpu.htm
• www.ezhavas.com