A. Sreedhara Menon

A. Sreedhara Menon
Born (1925-12-18)18 December 1925
Died 23 July 2010(2010-07-23) (aged 84)
Occupation Historian

Alappat Sreedhara Menon (18 December 1925 – 23 July 2010) was a historian from Kerala, India. He received the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honour, for Literature and Education in 2009.[1]

Menon was a noted academic, having taught history across the universities in Kerala. He was the Registrar of the University of Kerala and authored the official history of the University in two volumes.[2] Menon edited eight volumes of Kerala Gazetteers[3] and was on the editorial board of journals including the Journal of Indian History and Journal of Kerala Studies, both published by the Department of History, University of Kerala.

Early life and education

A. Sreedhara Menon was born on 18 December 1925 in Ernakulam, Kerala. His parents were Kovilakathu Parambil Padmanabha Menon and Alappat Narayani Amma.[4]

Menon passed the Secondary School Leaving Certificate in 1941 with First Class and proceeded to the University of Madras where he passed the Intermediate Examination in 1942 with distinction in Hindi, Indian History, and Modem History. In 1944, supported by the Maharaja's scholarship, he completed his Bachelor of Arts from the Maharaja's College, Ernakulam, winning the Karimpat Rama Menon Gold Medal and the Rama Varma Shashtiabdapurthi Memorial Prize for English. He then continued his Master of Arts at Madras University completing it in 1948 with a First Rank in history.

From 1944–49, he worked as a teacher in St. Thomas College, Thrissur and subsequently joined the University College, Thiruvananthapuram in 1949 as a member of the teaching staff in the departments of History and Politics. In 1953, he was granted the Smith Mundt Scholarship and the Fulbright Travel Grant by the US Educational Foundation in India for higher studies at Harvard University where he obtained his master's degree in political science, specialising in International Relations.[5]

Academic career

On his return to India, he was appointed by the Government of Kerala as the State Editor of Kerala Gazetteers in 1958. During the next ten years, Menon compiled eight volumes of Gazetteers (out of nine districts of Kerala)[6] – Thiruvananthapuram (1961), Thrissur (1961), Kozhikode (1962), Kollam (1964), Ernakulam (1965), Alappuzha (1968), Kannur (1972), Kottayam (1975). The speed with which the work was done and the quality of the contents of the gazetteers won praise from all quarters including the Central Gazetteers Unit, Government of India..

From 1968–1977, Menon functioned as the Registrar of Kerala University. He worked as a visiting professor in the Department of History, University of Calicut under the UGC scheme from 1977–78. From 1979–81 he was a professor in the Institute of Public Administration (now the Institute of Management) under the Government of Kerala.

Menon was a member of several academic bodies like the Senate, Academic Council, Board of Studies, Board of Examiners etc. in universities in South India. Among the endowment lectures he delivered, the most important was the Bhaktavatsalam Endowment Lectures on National Integration and Chitti Babu Thiruvizha Endowment Lectures in Madras University. In 2000 he was elected the President of Vishakappattanam South Indian History Congress. He was as President of Senior Citizens Association of Thiruvananthapuram for three years and President of Trivandrum District Unit of Kerala State Consumer Protection Council for a few years..

Menon died on 23 July 2010, aged 84, after some years of suffering ill-health. He was survived by his wife and two children.[7]

Views

Sreedhara Menon stayed away from ideological leanings towards any organisation or political party. He refused to write a history of the freedom struggle for the Indian National Congress because he "did not want to be known as a historian of the Congress."[8] The leftist E. K. Nayanar Government also requested him in 1997 to document the freedom struggle but later refused to publish it due to differences with his stance on the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising. He remarked on the issue, "It is not an objective historian's job to collect facts to suit theories. A true historian is a judge and not a lawyer... politicians can act only as lawyers."[9] His work on the freedom movement in Kerala was later published privately.[4]

His book on the history of the University of Kerala was also ignored by the University until Vice-Chancellor B. Ekbal decided to publish it.[10]

Awards

  • 1990: INDIS award from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies, Thiruvananthapuram
  • 1999: Senior Fellowship ICHR
  • 2000: National Fellowship ICHR
  • 2007: P Thomas Foundation Award for outstanding work in Kerala History
  • 2009: Padma Bhushan for Literature and Education[11]

Selected list of works

Menon wrote nearly 25 books in English and Malayalam.[7]

English
  • A Survey of Kerala History. Sahitya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society. 1967. OCLC 555508146.
  • The Legacy of Kerala
  • Cultural Heritage of Kerala: An Introduction. East-West Publications. 1978. OCLC 475358916.
  • A Political History of Kerala
  • Social and cultural history of Kerala. Sterling. 1979. OCLC 6629548.
  • Kerala History and its Makers
  • A Concise History of Modern Kerala (1885–1957)
  • Modern India — A History Since 1707
  • Triumph and Tragedy in Travancore: Annals of Sir CPs Sixteen Years
Malayalam
  • Kerala Charithram and Samskaram
  • Kerala Charithra Shilpikal

See also

References

  1. Padma Bhushan Prof Alappat Sreedhara Menon, Literature & Education (Kerala)
  2. The University Herald, Kerala University, Vol No.1 Issue No.4 Pg 11, "KU publishes its History"
  3. Prominent Keralites honoured with Padma awards
  4. 1 2 "A. Sreedhara Menon dead". The Hindu. 24 July 2010. Retrieved 2017-07-14.
  5. B. Sobhanan, "Prof. A Sreedhara Menon, Profile of a Historian", in A Panorama of Indian culture – Professor A. Sreedhara Menon Felicitation Volume, K. K. Kusuman, pp 1–4.
  6. Kerala council for Historical Research – Catalogue of Publications – District Gazetteers- authentic account of Geography, History, Culture and Resources
  7. 1 2 "Historian A Sreedhara Menon Dies". Outlook. 23 July 2010. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  8. Indian Express: Thiruvananthapuram "Truth is sacrosanct", Tiki Rajwi, 18 December 2009
  9. Marxist theories do not make history: Kerala historian
  10. History of the publication of the "History of the University of Kerala", Pleasant memories of my "Gurupranamam", Dr. B. Ekbal (Former Vice Chancellor, University of Kerala)
  11. "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
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