ROLE OF K.L. SANTHANAM IN THE ACHIEVEMENT OF LABOUR MOVEMENT IN KANYAKUMARI DISTRICT

Abstract

Labour movements were formed with the outspoken intention to protect the single working man against the tyranny and neglect of the bourgeoisie, in all branch industries. Their objects were to fix wages and to deal with employers as a power, to regulate the rate of wages according to the profit of the latter, to rise when opportunity offered, and keep it uniform in each trade throughout the country. The Labour movement in Kanyakumari is not of recent origin. The District was carved out from the erstwhile Travancore–Cochin and given to Tamil Nadu in the year 1956 based on the policy of formation of linguistic states. Before 1956, Kanyakumari was part of the Travancore region. K.L.S. Santhanam was born and brought up at Orumankulam in the district of Tirunelveli. In 1947, P. Kasi Udayam, a Trotskyite who worked among the Bolshevik group in Sri Lanka, came back to Nagercoil and started ‘Nagercoil Nagarasuddhi Thozilalar Sangam’ (Scavenger’s Union). K.L.S. Santhanam joined Kasi Udayam and started his trade union life at the age of fifteen. In 1951, K.L.S. Santhanam joined the Socialist Party. During 1952-53, he became the secretary of the South Travancore Socialist Youth League. In 1953, K.L.S. Santhanam visited the Kanyakumari district with Kavilaur Prabhakaran Nair for propaganda meetings where he spoke in Malayalam frequently. K.L.S. Santhanam was very much associated with the merger movement of Kanyakumari with Tamil Nadu. A conference of the Tamils was convened in December 1945 at Nagercoil. Tamil leaders Sam Nathaniel, K. Nagalingam, R.K. Ram, G.S. Moni, and K.L.S. Santhanam graced the function. K.L.S. Santhanam conducted a number of agitations to safeguard and highlight the genuine interests of the workers of various categories, such as scavengers, saltpan, haircutting, transport, cooperative, head load, and estate. K.L.S. Santhanam was the popular labour union leader of the southern region. He formed several labour unions in the Kanyakumari district.