N. E. Balaram

N.E. Balaram (Njalile Veettil Edavalathu Balaraman) (20 November 1919 – 16 July 1994) was one of the founding leaders of the communist movement in Kerala, India. A Marxist ideologue, scholar in Indian Philosophy and a well known literary critic in Malayalam, he wrote on the history of the communist movement in Kerala, which is considered as the most authentic record of the early period. He also authored several works in history, philosophy, politics, and literature. Balaram was born on 20 November 1919 in Pinarayi, a village near Tellicherry Town in the Kannur District of India. Incidentally, Pinarayi is the birthplace of the Communist Party of India in kerala, where it held its first meeting in 1939. Young Balaram (His real name was Balaraman, which was somehow shortened to Balaram) was an active member of that landmark conference held in a house near the village library, hardly 200 meters away from his home. He did schooling at a nearby village school. He studied up to 8th standard, which was considered (comparatively) a good school education at that time. After completing school, he became a faculty in a nearby school for a while. By then he was a known scholar in Sanskrit and Indian philosophy and had a good taste for spirituality which ultimately took him to the Ramkrishna Mission in Calcutta. There he spent several months learning more about the Vedas, the Upanishads and other ancient texts. He was dissatisfied with the ashram activities and returned to Kannur, a discontented young atheist. Immediately upon return he jumped into political activities as a Congress worker. A socialist group had already been formed in the Congress by that time at the national level and some of the Kerala leaders showed interest in that group. Within a short while Balram too became a member of the Socialist group. In 1938 he attended the 51st session of the Indian National Congress held in Haripura, Gujarat, where the socialist group came out openly against the policies of the Congress.