Team News Riveting
Kochi, October 15
Mahakavi Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, who passed away today morning, has to pay a heavy price for deserting Marxism and embracing Hindu universalism.
The 94-year-old great poet passed away today morning. He was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Thrissur for age-related ailments.
Malayalis across the world had celebrated it when Akkitham became the sixth writer to bring Jnanpith Award to Malayalam literature in November last year. The COVID-19 lockdown delayed the award handing over ceremony.
The Jnanpith Award came in Mahakavi Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri’s way rather late, though his name is said to have figured on the list of candidates on many occasions in the past.
The 94-year-old Akkitham (as he is popularly known) is one of the most revered poets of Malayalam literature. In 2007, there was near unanimity on his name among the members of the award selection committee. But Sachithanandan, a staunch Marxist, former Secretary of the Sahitya Akademi and a member of the jury, allegedly played the spoilsport and lobbied for another poet, who was much younger to Akkitham.
Being a Communist, Akkitham was a renegade who had deserted the party ideology and joined forces with the ‘class enemy’. If the Marxists had their way, even now Akkitham would not have got the award.
Akkitham was conferred with the 55th Jnanpith award for his lifetime contribution in the field of literature last year.
Born on March 18, 1926 in Kumaranalloor in Palakkad district as the son of Vasudevan Namboothiri and Parvathy Antharjanam, Akkitham was drawn to revolutionary reform movement initiated by VT Bhattathiripad to end social evils in his Brahmin community. Akkitham wholeheartedly participated in the movement. To learn English education, he cut his tuft and adopted western dress, which was a taboo among Brahmins then.
As a student, he participated in the Congress movement and wanted to contribute to nation-building. He took part in the Quit India movement and other agitations against the British and got arrested. The purpose of his social and political activity was to establish an egalitarian society.
He supported casteless marriages, widow remarriage and women education. Endowed with a fertile mind, Akkitham was attracted to socialism and Marxism and worked closely with Communist leader EMS Namboothiripad. The Communist Party twice tried to give him party membership which he declined.
By that time, the incisive thinker in him realised the limitations of Communism. He strayed into Indian philosophy, which he found more profound and complete, much to the chagrin of the Marxists. His unending quest brought him close to Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy. One of the persons who left a lasting impression on Akkitham was Gandhiji. In one of his poems, he compares him to Krishna and says both have taken birth for ‘dharma sansthapanam’ (re-establishment of dharma).
