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M M Thomas
Remembering M M Thomas, a man who believed that every revolutionary situation was created by the relation between power as political expression towards justice, the opposition of the counter-revolutionary force of the established order and the misdirection and corruption of it leading to the betrayal of the end of justice by the revolutionary forces.
In these times, when free speech is under heavy attack, the use of the word “Azaadi” invites sedition charges, journalists and researchers are assaulted and deported from Chhattisgarh for reporting on the destruction of Adivasi livelihoods by mineral mining companies, supported by coercive forces of the state, the political legacy of a Madathilparampil Mammen Thomas (M M Thomas), a towering figure of the Ecumenical movement from its formal inception in 1948, is all the more relevant. Unfortunately his name does not figure in the present political discussions on democracy and secularism. It is important to fill this gap.
The Christian Marthomites celebrate their famous son, who is known worldwide, but they also do not like to remember him as a Marxist in his youth, who was refused ordination of his church just because of this. And the Marxists were embarrassed to offer him party membership, because he could not renounce his faith in god. His brother, M M Cheriyan, was a party member, but he was not an active member of the Mar Thoma Church.
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