Punnapra-Vayalar

The Punnapra-Vayalar uprising was a popular uprising in the princely state of Travancore, under British India in 1946.

Punnapra-Vaya

The interpretation of this incident is still debated. The Communists in Kerala maintain this as a struggle for freedom against the oppression of the state by the Diwan. Some individuals argue this was neither an uprising nor a liberation struggle. They suggest certain Communist leaders instigated the coir workers belonging to the Ezhava community to wage a war against the then administration led by Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer. T K Varghese Vaidya, a leader of the struggle, had even gone on record saying it was a rehearsal for a larger revolution with the ultimate objective of establishing a Communist India. The historians like Prof. A Sreedhara Menon states that it was a proper political struggle by the communists against the Travancore Maharaja's government.

Punnapra-Vayalar

In 1946, Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, the Diwan of Travancore, proposed constitutional reforms which the communists opposed saying it’s for the creation of an "American model" of Executive in Travancore. The Communists opposed this move with the slogan "American Modal Arabi Kadalil" (chuck the American model into the Arabian Sea). The region around Alleppey was a Communist stronghold and the communist workers organised a mass upheaval in October 1946 against the authority of the Diwan, and practically established their own government in the region. This led to attacks and deaths of Travancore police officials and government officials in that region.

Atrocities were not one sided, and there are reports of murders of Travancore policemen after they had surrendered to the communists, during the early stages of the disturbances. Police Inspector Velayudhan Nadar had moved forward to reason out with the communists, but he was brutally stabbed to death. This hardened the stance of the police and the armed forces. Following the suppression of the communist local governments, the Travancore police used heavy-handed methods to repress the political movement in the region and detained many activists without any trial.

Location: It is situated at Punnappra, Alappy.