T. V. Thomas
T. V. Thomas was an Indian communist leader from Alleppey, Kerala. He was the Minister for Labour and Transport in the First E. M. S. Namboodiripad ministry, Minister for Industries in the Second E. M. S. Namboodiripad Ministry and in the Second Achutha Menon Ministry. He was also the Opposition Leader in the Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly.
He completed his pre degree from SB College Changanasserry and attained his degree from Maharajas College Ernakulam.
He entered politics through Travancore State Congress and was its State Committee member. He later joined the Communist Party of India when it finally took shape in Kerala in the early 1940s. When the Communist Party split in 1964, he chose to remain with the parent party, CPI.
He was one of the first generation trade union leaders in Kerala and was actively involved in the Indian independence movement. He was also instrumental in organizing coir workers and farmers in Alleppey and was the leader of Punnapra-Vayalar uprising. Thomas was a visionary leader and as Minister for Industries, he was responsible for building up infrastructure for the industrial sector in Kerala which had blazed a path of industrialization but unfortunately was not carried forward by the succeeding ministers.
His second marriage was to a veteran politician and former minister K. R. Gowri Amma. At that time he already had a legally married wife and a son, whom he had abandoned.Their private life has been subjected to public scrutiny because when the Communist Party split in 1964, Gowri Amma joined the newly formed Communist Party of India (Marxist); Thomas remained with the CPI. Though they were both ministers in the United Front government in 1967, they were estranged and belonged to different political parties. The couple separated in 1965 on ideological grounds but lived together in the same house. Thomas died on 26 March 1977 aged 67, after a long battle with cancer.
Thomas was an atheist like most of his contemporary communist leaders. A controversy erupted in 2015 when former archbishop Joseph Powathil claimed that Thomas wanted to come back to Christianity and receive the Holy Communion while in his deathbed. However, several of his contemporaries including Gowri Amma rejected the claims, saying Thomas had never abandoned his faith in Communism.