Kerala's own Jhansi Rani on threshold of century

“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety..” What Shakespeare said of Cleopatra, Queen of ancient Egypt, one can well say of K. R. Gowriamma. A woman so versatile, so full of personality power, she’s a colossus on Kerala’s political stage that no one can ignore or take for granted. Gowriamma’s centenary year will begin on July 1 st when she celebrates her 99 th birthday.  I met the legendary K. R. Gowri for the first time when she was Agriculture Minister in A.K. Antony’s cabinet in the nineties. Decades later when she had turned 95 I went to her home in Alleppey to pay my respects. I asked her a few questions about the Punnapra Vayalar case and was stunned by her reply. She knew everything. I had read the court verdict and wanted to know why the name of a prominent leader was conspicuously absent. She said he was nowhere near the scene of action. ‘Where was he’ I wanted to know. He was hiding at...she mentioned a location. Why was he hiding? He was wanted by the police. Why were they looking for him? Oh, some petty case! OMG! Memory intact. Faculties intact. Fearless, unrestrained, irreverent.

She was rather coy when she spoke of her late husband T. V. Thomas – a fact that really surprised me. She showed me various photographs and explained the context. It was both an education and a revelation. And what’s more, her hospitality had to be seen to be believed. The taste of the fish curry still lingers in my mouth.  Gowriamma was far ahead of her time. She was Revenue Minister in the EMS Ministry, the world’s first democratically elected communist government. Her land reform initiatives virtually changed the face of Kerala. Technopark was born during her watch. She has many feathers in her cap.

The Marxist party, however, was not very tolerant of free radicals. Where discipline and conformity are highly valued, free spirits have no place. K. R. Gowri and M. V. Raghavan were individualistic to a fault. They failed to toe the party line and therefore had to leave the fold. But today Gowriamma is back where she belongs, firmly in the leftist camp.  And even in her 100 th year she’s a force to reckon with. What’s special about her is that in a man’s world she made it on her own steam. Her business acumen, sharp insight and administrative ability could give any man a run for his money. A lone woman in a predominantly male environment, she was brusque to the point of rudeness. I’ve heard that she would throw files at the bureaucrats – maybe I was misinformed, or may be the fellows deserved it, I wouldn’t bet on it one way or the other. But the fact remains that everyone was terrified of her.