I had the great honour of travelling to Wayanad recently to present this year’s Padmaprabha Book Award to author Rajasree, and to do so in the land of the man for who it is named, M.K. Padmaprabha Gowder.

Born in 1915, he died in 1962; he lived only forty seven years. But Padmaprabha Gowder shone for all he did for society. Born into a wealthy janmi family, he could have lived a very comfortable life. He chose a harder road. Most relevantly, he was a reader, who built one of the finest private libraries in Wayanad district.

CPM Gen Secy MA Baby detained in Delhi during Left parties’ protest against CEC Gyanesh Kumar

“Shocking situation”: Shashi Tharoor alleges voters’ rights being denied amid SIR Row

Tharoor urges paid maternity leave for informal-sector women as breastfeeding rates fall

Modi meets BJP's new office-bearers as party turns focus to nationalism, poll-bound states

From his reading he came to socialism, not as a slogan, but as a way of looking at other human beings. He stood with the plantation workers, with the landless farmers, with the deprived people (leading a celebrated agitation at Noolpuzha). In 1952 the people of Wayanad sent him to the Madras Legislative Assembly.

His house in Kalpetta was not a quiet one. Jayaprakash Narayan, RamManohar Lohia, and George Fernandes, among others, came to it. The great arguments of Indian socialism was carried on under this family's roof, far away from Delhi. Think of the Wayanad of those years: Colonial landlords. Janmis. Labour recruiters. Bonded workers. Settlers arriving from the plains. Adivasi families losing ground under their own feet. In that Wayanad he spoke for equality. He never asked a man his caste or his religion first. Sixty four years after his death, we are still saying his name. That is not a small achievement.

His family could have remembered him with a statue: statues are easy to erect. They chose literature instead. They decided to remember a great reader by honouring writers. I think that is the most intelligent form of remembrance a book-lover can image. His son Veerendra Kumar, the Editor-Publisher of Mathrubhumi, began this award in his father's memory. His son and successor........

© Mathrubhumi English