EMS Namboodiripad Quotes (20+ Inspiring Quotes)

• Born: June 13, 1909
• Died: March 19, 1998 (aged 88)
• Bio: EMS (Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad) was an Indian communist politician and thinker who ruled as Kerala’s first Chief Minister in 1957-59 then in 1967-69.

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EMS Namboodiripad Quotes

1. “I am proud of my individualism as a Communist, which Arundhati considers a weakness, and my lack of deviant sexuality, which Arundhati considers a merit.”
2. Some people perceive it as if we were the only ones in the wrong when we admit our mistakes. The truth is that they, just as we did, made errors of judgement just like we did. If there was an error made during the discussion of Roopa Bhadrata, it was made equally by persons like Mundassery.
3. You should spend every waking moment of your life doing all in your power to leave a lasting legacy.
4. “Sankara was one of India’s (and the world’s) tallest idealist philosophers, and his Advaita Vedanta is one of India’s most valuable contributions to the store of human knowledge.”
5. How and why did our nation go from its glorious antiquity to the backwards state it was in during the days of the British colonisation? The answer is that the defeat of the oppressed castes at the hands of the Brahminic overlordship, of materialism by idealism, constituted the beginning of the fall of India’s civilization and culture, which in the end led to the loss of national independence. This defeat of materialism by idealism took place during the Indian Renaissance.
6. “This new Dravidian superiority idea is as unscientific as the Aryan superiority theory. Because it contradicts all acknowledged historical research findings, which have decisively shown the inextricable linkages between social and familial structures on the one hand, and the level of civilization on the other.”
7. “In contrast to Europe’s two-stage transformation-slave to feudal and feudal to capitalist-India remained bound to the same old system in which the downtrodden and backward castes constituted the overwhelming majority of the population.” This is the core of India’s ‘unchanging’ culture, in which the village remained unaffected by the higher-level battles and upheavals, the British invasion being the first revolution.”
8. „The author has accused her own mother of aberrant sexual behaviour. Mary Roy, on the other hand, is proud of her daughter’s “wonderful work.” “Can you tell me why that is?”
9. “However, when individuals like Mundassery attempted to reform us, they separated form and substance and advocated for perfection in both. That was their reasoning. In truth, the competing categories of form and substance are not that distinct. There must be progressive form for progressive content. The ideal form is the same as the progressive form. Mundassery, for example, was unaware of the link between the two.”
10. “How and why did our nation degrade from its glorious antiquity to the pre-British era? The explanation is that the oppressed castes’ defeat at the hands of Brahminic overlordship, the replacement of materialism by idealism, marked the beginning of India’s civilisation and culture’s decline, ultimately leading to the loss of national freedom.”
11. “He identified with the people, their lives, problems, feelings, and goals.”
12. “The Buddha, whose near-materialist worldview enslaved the oppressed masses…Those from the materialist school had to wage an unfair battle and were chevaliers…
13. The materialists’ failure in this unequal conflict marked the start of a millennium-long period of intellectual and socio-political backwardness that culminated in the establishment of British domination in our country.”
14. “spent their time primarily denouncing the policies and programmes of bourgeois leaders, including Gandhi, rather than engaging in these fights and sharing their painful experiences. The upshot was a tighter relationship between the bourgeois elite and the masses.”
15. “It is a reality of life that a truth develops from the confrontation of two wrongs. Contradictions drive the evolution of civilization. Thus, although the Roopa Bhadrata argument that came from our debate was incorrect in one sense, it was true in another. When assessing the value of literature, we should never focus just on the substance. Mundassery was justified in insisting on evaluating form as well. It is not enough to have excellent substance, according to him; it must also have flawless shape. Roopa Bhadrata is her name. Isn’t that correct? Yes, it is. We acknowledge that we were mistaken on that point. We were political workers when we created the Jeevat Sahitya Sanghom. We also saw literature via political lenses. As a result, we did not pay enough attention to the literary creative framework. That was our blunder.”
16. “Like many historical figures in history, Gandhi had a massively complicated character. His doctrines, too, are incapable of over-simplifying assessments on the lines of him being “the encourager of the national movement who roused the masses to anti-imperialist action,” “the counter-revolutionary who did everything he could to prevent the creation of our national movement on innovative lines,” etc.”
17. “Even after I converted to Marxism, aspects of Gandhiism continued to play a significant role in both the way I lived my life and the way I thought.” While simultaneously voicing my fundamental disagreement with Gandhism, I became a political activist who defended the admirable principles of Gandhiism and tried to incorporate them into my own way of life.
18. “We were fighting on two fronts at the time, and we are still fighting on two fronts now.” On the one hand, our opponents include those who criticise us for allegedly “departing from the principles of nationalism and socialism” because we support “sectarian” causes, such as those of oppressed castes and religious minorities. On the other hand, our opponents include those who support these causes. On the other side, there are individuals who, under the guise of supporting the oppressed caste masses, actually separate those masses from the main current of the unified fight of working people of all communities and castes.
19. “It is quite far from the truth to state that the insurrection was a sectarian riot, that the purpose of the rebels was the annihilation of Hindu faith, and that the six months of rebellion were comprised of six months of anti-Hindu crimes… Despite all of this, however, it is not accurate to say that religious extremism did not play any role at all in the insurrection. The sheer number of forcible conversions that did take place cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be accounted for by any other cause than enthusiasm about a certain religion… However, it is possible and necessary to assert unequivocally that the primary driving force behind the uprising was not fanaticism, which was rather a by-product of the conflict.
20. In addition to this, he made it possible for Kerala to demonstrate its potential on both the national and international levels.
21. “EMS was in a very advantageous position to evaluate the several stages of the national struggle and the part Gandhi played in it.” He started his career in politics as a devoted follower of Gandhi. Throughout his whole life, although adhering to the Marxist global perspective, he embraced many of the Gandhian values of simplicity and personal austerity that are highly valued by Indians.
22. To argue that the uprising was a sectarian riot, that the purpose of the rebels was the annihilation of Hindu religion, and that the six months of the uprising were comprised of six months of anti-Hindu crimes is a statement that is quite far from the reality… Despite all of this, however, it is not accurate to say that religious extremism did not play any role at all in the insurrection. The large numbers of forced conversions that did take place cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be explained by any other motivation save fanaticism towards a certain religion… However, it is possible and necessary to assert unequivocally that the ideology of fanaticism, which was only a side effect of the insurrection, was not the driving force behind it.