Any exploration into the life of my father makes me more than humble. Our father, comrade K. Damodaran was recognised as an intellectual who instilled Marxism into the minds of Keralites from its early stages. I tried my level best to find out how many years our father spent in jail. Even now, I do not really know. The information I have received is between 12 to 16 years in total. If it is 16 years, he spent one fourth of his life in jail. If it is 12 years, then he must have spent around one fifth of his life in jail. The underground period is different. In fact, there is an interesting story around it.
Once he received permission from Kannoor jail on parole, to go to his house for four days. On his way, he stopped at Ponnani. Ponnani beedi workers' union was initiated by K. Damodaran. There was a strike of the beedi workers union for better wages at that time. Naturally, he got involved with it instead of going home. He gave a speech quoting Quran at that time. Ponnani was filled with Muslim beedi workers. The merit of K.Damodaran was that he was well versed with Bible, Qur'an and Sanskrit texts of the upper caste Hindu spiritualities. I am convinced that this guy is the first liberation theologian in India. Liberation theology entered India only in 1968. But he spoke about it in India a couple of decades before. After the speech among the striking beedi workers, K. Damodaran was arrested. Then he told the inspector who arrested him: `You can't put me in jail. You have no authority.' The inspector asked him: `Why not?' And he said: `I am already in Kannoor Jail. I have come out on parole. It is physically impossible for me to be in two jails at the same time.'😊 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyouth/CAEuZ0T0yivoZn9E4%3DSz20UvLstuf4Z276%2BypWBPc9eBoiibHqg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
