Homage to a crusader

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When we met him a few months back at his residence, he hoped to visit the shrine of Mookambika at Kollur one day. It was almost sure that he would fulfill the wish. For, there sat this man, recounting his past flamboyantly, as though everything happened just recently. In fact, during the course of the decade he had published in Malayalam and English the book ‘Memoirs of a Socialist’, in four parts.Attingal Gopala Pillai had entered politics in the early 50s. The Chairman of the Praja Socialist Party and a crusader  against corruption, he later became a member of the erstwhile Legislative Assembly representing the same party during the late Achutha Menon’s Chief Ministership.He enjoyed the distinction of being the first politician to bring out the bill on anti-corruption, Kerala Advocates’ Welfare Fund Bill and one against The Land Reforms Act for the protection of marginal farmers who suffered as a result of the implementation. “But the then CM opposed the bill, saying that it will affect the party functionaries.”He also served as a member of the Public Accounts Committee. In his books, he voices loudly that he is still a “humanist to the core and a socialist to the fingertip” and feels proud to have lived a fruitful life.He has been instrumental in setting up the Thiruvananthapuram Railway Division and even raised placards demanding the same when the then Railway Minister Madhu Dandavate had arrived at the airport.During our conversation, he lamented at the present day political scenario and was quite shocked that the party comrades have changed a lot. He felt that to achieve their goals and to gain power, they would resort to any sort of machinations. He was vociferous, when he said, “self- aggrandizement has become the prime motive of the political leaders today”.There was a note of pride while describing the Travancore State he was born into, his educational pursuits, the friendships he had maintained and the family he was born into.Son of former pleader late Thampanoor  Narayana  Pillai, he had his home at Attingal, the place where his mother hailed from. He had his schooling there and after college did his law at The Law College at Belgaum where he got inspired by the speeches of veteran socialist Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and put on the garb of a staunch Socialist.Thereafter he took an earnest interest in trade union activities and later, as an advocate, he had handled cases mostly connected with trade unions.He has also rubbed shoulders with veteran politicians like late Pattom Thanu Pillai, whom he revered a lot.In his memoir, he has shared the minutest details of his life, such as his days at the Nair Union Hostel, his impressions on the first day at H H Maharaja’s College Of Science (the present University College) and how he, with his companion, had rushed to the Court Maidanam to hear the speech of Mahatma Gandhi on his visit to Travancore in 1936. He proudly states that he had sat right in front of the audience and heard Gandhiji say, “I see before my eyes an ocean of human faces”.Pillai took keen interest in maintaining relationships and his relatives too had taken the trouble to collect family details for compilation. He was particular about holding family get–togethers.It was with great pride that he narrated about his family members. There is a whiff of gentle romance when he dwells, in his book, on his ‘bride-seeing’ ceremony, rather late in life. His would-be wife, Indira, a Bar-at–Law ( from England) and an ML too, had queried then on his remaining unmarried for so long and he had ‘reparteed’ “because I didn’t meet you”.He shared that he was a proud father and grandfather too. Yet beneath his infectious moustached smile, his eyes revealed the sadness of having lost his young son.