Dismissal of the first Communist ministry in Kerala and the role of extraneous agencies

Abstract

The Communist Party of India came into power in Kerala in 1957 during one of the tensest periods of the Cold War. Introducing landmark legislation on land, education and administration, the initiatives of the Communist ministry in Kerala, provoked vested interests in countering Soviet influence in the region, thus making India a theatre of the Cold War in South Asia. Efforts to counter the Communist ministry's political inroads in Kerala from within the country came to be known as the 'liberation struggle', which ultimately succeeded with the dismissal of the ministry. However, the ouster was part of a US-backed campaign of containment of communism in Asia. This paper explores how US-based agencies overthrew the democratically elected government in Kerala with the backing of Union Congress ministers and with the aid of the Indian Intelligence Bureau.