K. R. Gowri Amma

She is one of the longest serving politicians in Kerala politics.[3] Under the influence of elder brother and trade union leader Sukumaran, she entered the vibrant world of politics at a time when women hardly found themselves in politics. Starting her public life through trade union and peasant movements, Gauri was jailed on a number of occasions for participating in political activities.[6] She was elected to the Travancore Council of Legislative Assembly in 1952 and 1954 with an overwhelming majority against sitting MLA, P. K. Raman.

She became Revenue Minister in the first communist ministry in 1957, headed by E. M. S. Namboodiripad (EMS). In the very same year she married T. V. Thomas, a prominent politician and also a minister in EMS' government. In the first Communist Ministry, K.R. Gouri Amma served as Minister for Revenue, Excise and Devaswom from April 1957 to July 1959.

Council of Ministers (1957 - 59)

After the split of Communist party in 1964, K. R. Gauri joined the newly formed Communist Party of India (Marxist). But her husband, T. V. Thomas, stood with the Communist Party of India.[3] This created fissures in their relationship and soon they parted owing to the differences in their political views.

The Land Reforms in Kerala is one the greatest achievements of Gowri Amma. It was she who piloted the revolutionary Land Reform Bill for the Communist Government. One of the first things the Communist Ministry did was to promulgate an Ordinance banning evictions of all tenants and kudikidappukar throughout the state. In due course a comprehensive Agrarian Relations Bill was drafted and piloted by the Minister for Revenue, K.R. Gouri Amma. The Bill sought to confer ownership rights on land to tenants including sharecroppers and fix a ceiling for the land a land owner could possess. It also had provisions for distributing the surplus land taken from the landlords to the landless poor. The vested interests rallied around them all kinds of reactionary, religious and communal forces and launched the so-called 'liberation struggle'. The Government was successful in passing the Agrarian Relations Bill in the Assembly before it was dissolved, but the Bill failed to get the President's assent.

The 1960–'64 United Front Government (anti-Communist) prepared a new Land Reform Bill giving several concessions to the landlords and taking away many of the benefits conferred upon the peasants in the Agrarian Relations Bill. The people of Kerala and K.R. Gowri Amma had to wait for another ten years before a Land Reform Bill abolishing landlordism and giving land to the tillers was passed and fully implemented.

In 1967 elections the Left Democratic Front Government under the Chief Minister-ship of E.M.S. Namboodiripad came to power. In it, K.R. Gowri Amma served as Minister for Revenue, Sales Tax, Civil Supplies, Social Welfare and Law from March 1967 to October 1969. She moved a number of progressive and radical amendments to the Land Reforms Bill passed by the previous Government. When it was implemented, landlordism was abolished in Kerala. 3.5 million tenants and about 500,000 Kudikidappukar were made owners of their land. More than one lakh acres of land was declared as surplus land and was distributed among the agro-labourers in rural areas.

From January 1980 to October 1981 K.R. Gowri Amma was made Minister for Agriculture, Social Welfare, Industries, Vigilance and Administration of Justice Minister in the First E. K. Nayanar ministry.[7]

In the Second E. K. Nayanar ministry (1987–91) also she was made Minister for Industries and Social Welfare, Vigilance and Administration of Justice. During the 1987 elections she was projected as the candidate for Chief-ministership. But when the Ministry was formed she was sidelined and later ousted from the Communist Party (Marxist) in 1994.

In 1994 she was expelled from CPI (M) on charges of anti-party activities.[5] Following this she established a new political outfit named Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy (JSS).[8] JSS went on to join the United Democratic Front, the arch-rivals of the Left Democratic Front to which CPI (M) belongs.

She served as the Minister of Agriculture in the third A. K. Antony ministry.

Oommen Chandy was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Kerala on 31 August 2004 after the controversial resignation of A. K. Antony on 29 August. Gowri Amma served as the Minister of Agriculture in the first Oommen Chandy ministry also.[9]

• K.R.Gowri Amma has been associated with numerous social and political movements:
• President of Kerala Karshaka Sangam from 1960 to 1984.
• President of Kerala Mahila Sangam from 1967 to 1976.
• Secretary of Kerala Mahila Sangam from 1976 to 1987.
• Secretariat Member of CPI State Committee.
• Established the Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy (JSS), in 1994.
• General Secretary of Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy.

K R Gowri Amma with a group of young volunteers of the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad at her residence in Alappuzha (May 1, 2015)

She has published an autobiography titled Atmakatha which won the 2011 Kerala Sahitya Academy Award.