In the early 1930s, a young Brahmin from south
Kerala gave up not only his enormous inherited property but also the mental encumbrance of
the supremacy of the caste to which he was born to enter public life. For the next seven
decades, whether in power or out of it, EMS was a frame of social and intellectual
reference. In the late '60s, he started off in Kerala a political fashion of coalition
governments which India was to adopt several years later. Ironically, he died within hours
of the BJP, a party that he loathed and branded as Enemy No. 1, taking over power in Delhi
on March 19.
In the early 1930s, a young Brahmin from south
Kerala gave up not only his enormous inherited property but also the mental encumbrance of
the supremacy of the caste to which he was born to enter public life. For the next seven
decades, whether in power or out of it, EMS was a frame of social and intellectual
reference. In the late '60s, he started off in Kerala a political fashion of coalition
governments which India was to adopt several years later. Ironically, he died within hours
of the BJP, a party that he loathed and branded as Enemy No. 1, taking over power in Delhi
on March 19. 
