V. Viswanatha Menon

Who is V. Viswanatha Menon?

Vadakkoot Viswanatha Menon, known among friends as Ambadi Viswam, was a firebrand political activist in his youth, one of the accused in the Communist attack on the Edappally police station. He was a leader of Communist Party of India in Kerala. Starting his awe-inspiring career as a Student Activist & Leader for the Freedom Fight in his almameter Maharaja's College, he became popularly known as "Ambady Viswam" among his peers, colleagues, seniors & near ones as his father belongs to the famous nair family of cochin "AMBADY", and was one of the popular youths in Kochi at that time, due to his frank & fearless Opinion & actions against any injustice & oppression. A follower of Gandhiji from Childhood, he was inclined towards Communism & Socialism during his Student Days, due to the influence of many prominent personalities around him, one of them being his cousin A.K.Damodaran.

V.Viswanatha Menon was one of the earliest members of CPI in Kochi & essayed an essential role in erecting its base here amidst the Monarchic & Imperailistic Period of the 1940s & 1950s, along with other stalwarts like M.M. Lawrence & A.P. Kurien, working selflessly among the Party Ranks for the Growth & Against the Suppression of the Oppressed & Down-Trodden, after sacrificing his Royal & rather Luxurious Life in his highy influential Patriarchal Family, thus, incurring the wrath of many orthodox Nair & other upper-caste families of the time, who always stood for the Monarch & the Powerful in order to sustain their own survival, influence & power in the society. These malafides & atrocities were those that really angered 'Ambady Viswam', who had a soft-corner for the downtrodden from his Childood Days, and inspired him to take a giant feet in the world of Socialism.