In this Indian name, the name Kalathilparambil Raman is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Gouri.
K. R. Gouri (14 July 1919 – 11 May 2021[4]), born Kalathilparambil Raman Gouri, commonly known as Gouri Amma, was an Indian politician from Alappuzha in central Kerala.[4] She was one of the most prominent leaders of the Left movement in India.[4]
Gouri was the first woman from the Ezhava community to get a degree in law.[4] She famously refused an offer from C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, the Prime Minister of Travancore, to be appointed a government magistrate.[4]
She married her colleague T. V. Thomas in 1957 who at that time had a surviving legally married wife and son.[1] The couple was later estranged.[7]
In Travancore politics
K. R. Gouri started her public life with the Quit India Movement and later joined the agitation for the merger Travancore with the state of India.[6] She joined the Communist Party in 1948 (by this period, she had started working for the Party among coir workers in Alappuzha).[4] She unsuccessfully ran for office from Sherthalai Constituency in the 1948 Travancore elections.[4] Subsequently she underwent imprisonment and endured severe police torture.[4][8]
She was elected to the Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly in 1952 and 1954 (she was in prison throughout the election period).[1][4]
As the Revenue Minister in the first Kerala ministry, K. R. Gouri piloted the Kerala Agrarian Relations Bill in December, 1957.[4][6] Two major aims of the legislation introduced were the abolition of tenancy and the security for landless agriculture labourers or the hut dwellers.[9] The bill gave tenants the right to buy their land from the owner at a price set by regulations, placed ceilings on the amount of land a family could own, established procedures for determining a fair rent, made illegal any evictions after the formation of Kerala and set up Land Tribunals in every taluk.[9]
The Kerala Assembly passed the bill on 10 June 1959. The President refused to assent the bill and sent it back with recommendations. The new Congress-led alliance government passed the amended bill as Agrarian Relations Act in 1960 (which was declared unconstitutional by the Kerala High Court in 1963).[9]
In 1967 assembly elections resulted in the formation of the Communist Party of India Marxist-led United Front government in Kerala (Second Namboodiripad ministry). K. R. Gouri, a member from Aroor, was chosen as Minister for Revenue, Social Welfare and Law. She served from March 1967 to November 1969.[1]
From 25 January 1980 till 20 October 1981 K. R. Gouri served as Minister for Agriculture, Social Welfare, Industries, Vigilance and Justice Administration in the first E. K. Nayanar ministry.[11][1]
1987 assembly elections
The Left Democratic Front projected K. R. Gouri as the Chief Minister designate in the 1987 election assembly campaign.[4] But once the alliance emerged victorious, the party chose veteran leader E. K. Nayanar instead.[4]
In the Second E. K. Nayanar ministry (1987–1991), K. R. Gouri served as Minister for Industries and Social Welfare, Vigilance and Administration of Justice.[12][1]
K. R. Gouri served as the Minister of Agriculture in the third A. K. Antony ministry (May 2001 – August 2004).[1] She also a served as the Minister of Agriculture, Soil Conservation, Soil Survey, Warehousing Corporation, Dairy Development, Milk Co-operatives, Agricultural University, Animal Husbandry and Coir in the first Chandy ministry (August 2004 – May 2006).[14]
Later years
Gouri published her autobiography titled Athmakatha, which won the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award for best Autobiography/Biography in 2011.[15][16]
K. R. Gouri died on 11 May 2021.[4][17][3] She was cremated at the Valiya Chudukad in Alappuzha.[18]
^ abcJeffrey, Robin (1992). Politics, Women and Well-Being: How Kerala Became 'a Model'. Cambridge Commonwealth Series. Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 172–74.
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