M.P., the indomitable: the man who electrified the imagination of Kerala’s youth

Dr. M.P. Parameswaran, fondly called M.P. by his numerous friends, is no more. His going is certainly a loss to many in Kerala and the rest of India who knew him or of him.

A young nuclear engineer-turned-political and social activist during the second half of the 1960s, M.P. got attracted and then immersed in building up a small organisation of writers of science called Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad into a people’s science movement. Of course, there were forerunners like P.T. Bhaskara Panicker who had already opened a way for mobilising young teachers, professional experts and students. M.P. electrified the imagination of the youth especially in rural areas by his book, rather booklet, titled Nature, Science and Society. KSSP activists conducted more than thirty thousand classes during 1974-76 based on this booklet talking about the interrelationship between nature, science and society.

Marx to Gandhi

Then followed a book on Kerala’s economy prepared by a collective for which I was invited to contribute. That set off a personal relationship that lasted half a century. M.P. started, as was the case with many youth in Kerala, as a Marxist to understand the socioeconomic problems afflicting one’s society. But his young Marx grew into a dynamic Gandhi over time. He then wrote, lectured and acted to formulate a decentralised governance system, applying it to Kerala, to attain what he called sustainability in all spheres, ecological , economic and social. His party punished him with expulsion for straying away from the officially adopted Marxist path. He did not rebel or complain. He worked tirelessly and published a large number of books and articles on how to translate his dream of decentralised development for sustainable living.

Despite impressive awareness about environmental sustainability and a rather passive and patchy awareness of the desirability of decentralised governance, Kerala is miles and miles away from the dreams of the likes of M.P.

I feel fortunate to have closely associated with him for about half a century in pursuing our common dreams, howsoever inconsequential it may seem.

(The author is a development economist and Honorary Fellow, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram)