Tanisha R: basic added information further and fixed typos

2025-12-15T02:22:43Z

basic added information further and fixed typos

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← Older revision		Revision as of 01:55, 26 October 2021
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	*Prakash Karat: [http://pd.cpim.org/2006/0827/08272006_krishnapillai%20centenary.htm Kerala's 'First Communist']		*Prakash Karat: [http://pd.cpim.org/2006/0827/08272006_krishnapillai%20centenary.htm Kerala's 'First Communist']
	*R. Krishnakumar: [http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2117/stories/20040827003109700.htm A man and a movement]		*R. Krishnakumar: [http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2117/stories/20040827003109700.htm A man and a movement]
	*[http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2006081403510300.htm&date=2006/08/14/&prd=th& Birth Centenary celebrations at Vaikom]

	{{Authority control}}		{{Authority control}}

imported>Arjun Madathiparambil Muraleedharan at 18:51, 17 August 2021

2021-08-17T18:51:53Z

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{{short description|Indian Communist politician}}
{{more citations needed|date=May 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = P. Krishna Pillai
| image =Krishna Pillai Memorial at Chellikandathil House Hideout of.JPG
| imagesize = 250px
|office1 = First Secretary of the [[Communist Party of India]], Kerala State Council
|term_start1 = 1939
|term_end1 = 1948
|predecessor1 = Position established
|successor1 = [[C. Achutha Menon]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1906|08|19}}
| birth_place =[[Vaikom]], [[Kottayam]], [[Travancore]]
| residence = [[Vaikom]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1948|08|19|1906|08|19}}
| death_place = [[Muhamma]], [[Alleppey]], Travancore
| constituency =
| office =
| salary =
| term =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| party = [[Communist Party of India]]
| occupation =
| parents = {{ubl|Narayanan Nair|Parvathi Amma}}
| spouse = Thankamma
| children =
|
| footnotes = Founder of the [[Communist Party of India|Communist]] movement in Kerala
| date =
| year =
| source =
|caption=Krishna Pillai Memorial at Chellikandathil House}}

'''P. Krishna Pillai''' (പി. കൃഷ്ണപിള്ള in [[Malayalam]]) (19 August 1906 at [[Vaikom]], [[Kottayam District|Kottayam]] – 19 August 1948 at [[Muhamma]], [[Alappuzha District|Alleppey]]) was a [[Communism|communist]] revolutionary from [[Kerala]], India. He was one of the founding leaders of the [[Communist Party of India]] in Kerala, and a poet.<ref name='frontline_1'/>

P. Krishna Pillai was born in a middle-class [[Nair]] family of [[Vaikom]] as the son of Narayanan Nair and Parvathi Amma. He lost both his parents at an early age and consequently had to drop out of school at the fifth grade. Leaving his home in 1920, he travelled extensively in the north of the Indian subcontinent.

When he returned home two years later, he found Kerala seething with social unrest. Subsequently, he took part in a number of popular movements. He was an active volunteer of [[Vaikom Satyagraha]] (1924) and [[Salt Satyagraha]] march from [[Kozhikode]] to [[Payyanur]] (1930). In 1931 he became the first non Namputhiri Brahmin (he was from Nair Community of Kerala) to ring the temple bell of the [[Guruvayoor]] temple.

Krishna Pillai who began his political life as a [[Gandhian]] and a member of the [[Indian National Congress]] in his early youth had gradually transformed into a socialist with communist leanings. And when in 1934 Congress Socialist workers formed the [[Congress Socialist Party]] in [[Bombay]], Krishna Pillai was appointed its secretary in Kerala, all the while functioning under the banner of the Indian National Congress.

By 1936, Krishna Pillai who until then had concentrated his political activities to the [[Malabar district|Malabar]] region now campaigned in the [[Kingdom of Cochin|Cochin]] and [[Travancore]]. In 1938, he organized the famous worker's strike in [[Alappuzha]] (Alleppey), which turned out to be a great success and one of the inspiring factors behind the [[Punnapra-Vayalar Struggle]] of 1946 and the eventual downfall of the rule of [[C. P. Ramaswami Iyer]] in Travancore.

The successful transformation of the Malabar unit of the Congress Socialist Party into the Kerala unit of the [[Communist Party of India]] (CPI) was mainly due to the untiring work of Krishna Pillai. The formal formation of the CPI unit in Kerala was on 26 January 1940. Years later in 1948 when the CPI accepted the [[Calcutta Thesis]] which included in it the express need for an armed struggle against the Indian state, CPI faced a nationwide ban and most of its leaders including Krishna Pillai were forced into hiding.

While hiding in a worker's hut in [[Muhamma]], Krishna Pillai sustained a snakebite and succumbed to it, aged just 42.

P. Krishna Pillai's role in building the Communist party in Kerala is second to none. He was a great organizer who succeeded in reaching out to the oppressed masses of Kerala and making them aware of their rights and the need for uplifting their social and economic conditions of life. His dedication to the [[Communist]] party could be understood from a short sentence by which he proposed marriage to his prospective wife Thankamma. Krishna Pillai said: "Life with me will be difficult, different. My wife should stand by me, the party and its cause. Then alone will she be happy".{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}

== In popular culture ==
[[Samuthirakani]] portrays Pillai in the 2014 film ''[[Vasanthathinte Kanal Vazhikalil]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/vasanthathinte-kanal-vazhikalil-film-on-p-krishna-pillai/article6590825.ece|title=Ode to a brave patriot|first=Saraswathy|last=Nagarajan|date=November 13, 2014|work=The Hindu}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name='frontline_1'>[http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2117/stories/20040827003109700.htm A man and a movement, Frontline.in, Volume 21 - Issue 17, 14 - 27 Aug. 2004]</ref>
}}

==External links==
{{commons category|P. Krishana Pillai|P. Krishna Pillai}}
*Prakash Karat: [http://pd.cpim.org/2006/0827/08272006_krishnapillai%20centenary.htm Kerala's 'First Communist']
*R. Krishnakumar: [http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2117/stories/20040827003109700.htm A man and a movement]
*[http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2006081403510300.htm&date=2006/08/14/&prd=th& Birth Centenary celebrations at Vaikom]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pillai, P. Krishna}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:Indian independence activists from Kerala]]
[[Category:Indian National Congress politicians from Kerala]]
[[Category:Trade unionists from Kerala]]
[[Category:Communist Party of India politicians from Kerala]]
[[Category:Malayali politicians]]
[[Category:1948 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian atheists]]
[[Category:People from Vaikom]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian politicians]]

P. Krishna Pillai - Revision history

Tanisha R: basic added information further and fixed typos

->GreenC bot: Remove 2 citations usurped no archive. Wayback Medic 2.5

imported>Arjun Madathiparambil Muraleedharan at 18:51, 17 August 2021