B.V.Kakkillaya, the doyen of the Leftist movement in Karnataka and a former Member of Parliament and the Karnataka Assembly, who passed away last week was a political leader of rare qualities. As a young fellow comrade wrote in his tribute to Kakkillaya “he had his heart on the left side and the colour of his blood was truly red.” He was a communist ideologue of high thinking as much as he was an activist on the ground. Above all the finest human being in him transcended the limits of all doctrines and set his eyes firmly on the goal of achieving a just, equitable and humane society. Well that is a very high goal but he did all that a human being could do within the limits of his faculties to make that happen.
Like many other Leftist leaders of repute he was also born into a family of rich Brahmin landlords but he threw himself to the workers’ struggles at an early stage in his life and remained committed to it till the last minute. In the last few years of his life he stayed away from the limelight and was known to only a close circle of leftist friends. However, that does not diminish the stellar role that he had played in shaping politics, policies and progressive movements in Karnataka in general and the undivided Dakshina Kannada District in particular. The socio-economic scene of the District has transformed so much over the past two decades that the current generation can hardly recognize the sacrifices and struggles of leaders like Kakkillaya in making that transition possible.
B.V. Kakkilaya being conferred Karl Marx Award -2010 at his residence in Mangalore
B.V. Kakkilaya being conferred Karl Marx Award -2010 at his residence in Mangalore
B.V. Kakkilaya (second from right) at the condolence meeting held for B.M. Idinabba in Mangalore
B.V. Kakkilaya (second from right) at the condolence meeting held for B.M. Idinabba in Mangalore
The service-sector revolution that pervades the coastal region was preceded by an economy dominated by the working and the peasant classes. The workers of beedi, tile and cashew industries alongside the subsistent peasantry had to bear the brunt of an exploitative early industrial sector and unequal land distribution pattern. It was at this stage of the growth of the region’s economy that the struggles that leaders like Kakkillaya led changed the shape of the things for the working class and the peasantry. If the subsequent generations of these classes are educated and are propelling the engine of service sector, it was made possible by a life of dignity that they came to enjoy thanks to a slew of welfare measures and workers rights. Behind each of such measures was a sustained struggle which called for an imaginative and informed leadership that people like Kakkillaya had provided. Kakkillaya’s contribution to what is now considered as revolutionary land reforms legislation that the Devaraj Urs Government brought about in Karnataka was especially noteworthy. So were his efforts at securing minimum wages and other welfare measures to the beedi workers. While there was a debate as to whether beedi workers could be considered factory workers at all, Kakkillaya came out with an insightful argument that beedi industry was unique in which it had converted every household engaged in beedi rolling as a factory and as a sweatshop. His biography titled Bareyada Dinachariya Mareyada Putagalu (Unforgettable Pages of an Unwritten Diary) chronicles how every moment of his time as a member of the Rajya Sabha for one term and of the State Legislative Assembly for three terms was devoted to the cause of the working class.
For him the ideology was an instrument to achieve larger humanistic goals and not one to capture immediate political power. So, the split of the Communist Party into the CPI and the CPI(M) left him deeply pained although he associated himself with the CPI. Being a versatile theorist that he was he could have easily remained a party-ideologue at the national level but he chose to draw on high theory for grassroots struggles which in turn refined his ideological positions and theoretical understandings. He has written a number of books on Leftist theories in Kannada for the common man. His works are a rare contribution to the social science literature in Kannada and one of them has rightly won an award from the Karnataka Sahitya Academy. His autobiography is certainly a must read for every aspiring political leader irrespective of party affiliation.
Above all what makes him truly great is that he was an apostle of humanism.
(The writer is a member of the Faculty of Social Sciences at a university in Bangalore)
Photos by Ahmed Anwar
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