Sri Narayana Guru, a monk who followed the Advaita tradition, is considered one of the most prominent social reformers from Kerala. The term social reformer has, however, fallen out of fashion in recent times, and the preferred term now is renaissance leader. The word renaissance implies a rebirth or a revival. Of course, it is in this sense that the term is used when we speak of the European Renaissance. In the European context, the Renaissance was seen as a revival of the values and spirit of the classical Greek world. Although there was a conscious effort in India to reimagine and reinterpret aspects of Hindu religiosity, it is doubtful whether any such revival was ever the goal or outcome of the progressive movements here.

That, however, is a topic for another discussion. For now, let us return to Sri Narayana Guru. Active from the closing decades of the nineteenth century through the first quarter of the twentieth, Guru was born into a family belonging to the Ezhava community, one of the communities that was considered socially and economically backward. After his extensive travels across India, Guru eventually settled in Kerala. He composed numerous devotional hymns dedicated to the Hindu pantheon, and his poems and elegies are still regarded as some of the finest works in the language.

At the heart of his thought and teaching was a radical rejection of the caste system: he proclaimed that there is, and can be, only one caste: the human caste. He initiated people into sannyas without bothering about their caste. He consecrated deities in temples, something that, according to conservatives, he was not supposed to do as someone from a backward caste.

Guru proclaimed that all religions, whether Hinduism, Christianity, or Islam, convey the message of compassion. He was a radical religious figure. He attacked the caste system and held that all religions are essentially the same. Yet one could argue that his rejection of caste was deeply rooted in Hindu texts themselves, especially when one compares some of his aphorisms with texts like the Sāṃkhya Kārikā.

Guru passed away — or attained samadhi, the term traditionally used to describe the passing of sannyasis — in 1928. Three years earlier, in 1925, the Communist Party of India had been formed. Although the party was founded in 1925, it was still not affiliated with the Communist International and did not have a full-fledged programme. That happened much later, in 1934. Later still, socialist ideas inspired by the October Revolution and the formation of the USSR began to attract the attention of a few young and active politicians in Kerala. In 1937, the first Communist Party group in Kerala was formed, which operated within the Indian National Congress.

It took many years after Guru’s passing for the Communist Party to establish itself in Kerala. Yet, decades later, one of the most prominent images the party displays in its posters, from local meetings to election rallies today, is that of Guru. He remains a key icon of the Communist Party in Kerala. The party intelligentsia often organises seminars and public discussions on Guru, and his messages are regularly quoted by........

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