Mannathu Padmanabhan (1878-1970)

MANNATHU PADMANABHAN was a great social reformer ,he was born on 02/01/1878 in PERUNA VILLAGE IN CENRAL TRAVANCORE now part of keral's state .his father eshwaran namboodiri of nilavana illam and his mother parvathy amma came from a poor but respectable nair family in changanacherry nair north travancore. IN 1893-padmanabhan started teaching in a government primary school,,and got a sallary of RS 5 per month IN 1905-he started practising law in Magistrates and soon he became a leading member in the bar. IN 1915he gave up a very succesful practice and became a full time secretary of NAIRS SEVICE SOCIETY(NSS)which started in 1914 he estableished,,expanded and enriched the society as its secretary for 31 yrs and became the prez for 3 yrs.

In 1924 he took part in the Vaikkom and Guruvayoor temple-entry and antiuntouchability agitation. He became a member of the Indian National Congress in 1947 and took part in the Travancore State Congress agitation against Sir C.P Ramaswamy Iyers administration in Travancore. In 1949 Padmanabhan became a member of the Travancore Legislative Assembly. In 1959 he led a united opposition against the State Communist Ministry which had become unpopular. This ultimately resulted in inviting Presidents rule to Kerala.
During all these years padmanabhan wrote lot of articles,an autobiography and travel book"OUR TRIP TO THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES" some criticisms and a novel,SNEHALATHA He set up schools,colleges,hospitals and industrial units,in appreciation of his valuble service the president awarded him the tiltle "BHARATHA KESARI" he passed away in 1970