I am pretty sure most of you don’t know who Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyer is. Some of you might be remembering this name from history text books and wondering “Isnt this the dictator who tried killed farmers in Punnapra Vayalar” ?
Our history text books have done injustice to Sir CP by portraying him merely as a dictator. But Kerala cannot ignore him easily because his foot prints are all over kerala.
- Temple Entry Proclamation
- Indian Aluminum Company
- FACT
- University of Travancore (Kerala University)
- Travancore Bank (State bank of Travancore)
- Travancore Rayons
- Pallivasal Hydro electric power project
- Pechippara Hydro electric power project
- Known as the father of south Indian dams.
- First Cement Highway in India (Kanayakumari – Trivandrum)
- Midday meal scheme in schools
- Abolished capital punishment
The list does not end here, refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Ramaswami_Iyer and CPR Foundation for more details on his life and work.
Even after doing all of this, CP is still portrayed as a negative character, maybe one of those rare things that the congress and the communist party jointly promotes.
When analyzing a personality we have to consider the political climate in which that person lived. History teaches us about the “Great Alexander” king who also can be seen as a blood thirsty plunderer.
CP was not in favor of joining the Indian Union. I don’t think any sane ruler would accept a merger request with out any conditions. Some historians consider Jawaharlal Nehru as a power hungry leader whose selfish decisions caused the partition of India. Same goes with Jinnah also.
If we think about CP without any bias or emotions he was the best ruler Kerala ever had.
And Ceased Manorama.
Unfortunately its all in history.
Comment by Ben Jacob — November 13, 2009 @ 1:47 pm
Never knew he was behind all these things. As u said, all I’ve heard are the negative history of CP
Comment by Praveen — November 13, 2009 @ 6:20 pm
About 10 years back, while I was trying to locate an old missing relative, the search did end in a n old age home, somewhere in the suburbs of Kottayam town. A pretty old building, at least 60 years of age. Was checking the faded inscriptions on the building. The old age home was built under under Sir. C.P’s initiative.
Comment by Nataraj — January 18, 2010 @ 6:26 pm
The man behind the industrial revolution, self sufficiency in food, power, water etc for Travancore. The only verdict that has come in favour of Travancore in the case of Mullaperiyar dam…all because of this non keralite personality with very high foresightedness. Travancore was considered as one of the most developed states in British India. Our administrators cannot make the Pazahavangadi junction free from water logging – both left, right middle political parties failed. Punnapra, TNQB, Seizure of media were part of an admin saga… who have not done all this in this free india, we had muthanga, we had thankamani, we had rajan case… so why History books taught us wrong things about Sir CP….
Comment by bhagwat — April 24, 2010 @ 8:33 am
I am doing freelance research on the life and teachings of Sree Naryana Guru and in the course of my research I came to know about some essays written by Sir C.P. about the Guru. If anybody anything about them, pls inform how I can get a copy of them.
Comment by P R Sreekumar — December 5, 2011 @ 11:26 am