RIP KR Gowri Amma: What happened to legendary Communist leader, how she died and other details

In an unfortunate development, Kerala's veteran politician and member of the first Communist government headed by E M S Namboodiripad in 1957, K R Gowri Amma died in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. She was 102.

What happened to the legendary Communist leader?

Legendary Communist leader K R Gowri Amma had been admitted to a private hospital due to age-related ailments.

How Gowri Amma died?

She breathed her last at 7 am on Tuesday while undergoing treatment in the ICU, hospital sources said, as per a report in PTI.

Gowri Amma: One of the most powerful women leaders in Kerala

-Considered to be among the most powerful women leaders in Kerala, Gowri Amma, as she was fondly called, was the lone surviving member of the first Kerala legislative assembly.

-After being expelled from the CPI(M) in 1994, Gowri floated a new political outfit -- Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithi (JSS) -- which became a constituent of the Congress-led UDF in the state.
She was married to the late T V Thomas, who was also her cabinet colleague.

-Gowri, who was the revenue minister in EMS Namboodiripad ministry, is credited with playing a key role in bringing the revolutionary Agrarian Relations Bill, which set the ceiling on the amount of land a family could own, paving the way for the landless farmers to claim excess land.

-After the split in the Communist Party in 1964, Gowri joined the CPI (Marxist), while her husband remained with the CPI.

-Born on July 14, 1919 in the sleepy Pattanakkad village of coastal Alappuzha to K A Ramanan and Parvathy Amma, Gowri was attracted to politics at a young age.

-She was jailed in 1948, the year she joined the Communist Party, and defied adversities to build the organisation.

-Gowri, the tallest woman politician of the state who never minced words to put her thoughts across, was elected to the Travancore-Cochin legislative assembly in 1952 and 1954.

-After her successful foray to the state legislature in 1957 from Cherthala in Alappuzha, there was no looking back.

Com. K R Gauri was a brave fighter, dedicated her life to end exploitation, build an egalitarian society. She made seminal contributions in building the Communist movement & as an administrator. Let's show respects, by pledging to build a more progressive society. Red Salute! pic.twitter.com/NYzyv8wyjD

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) May 11, 2021

Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, tweeted, "Com. K R Gauri was a brave fighter, dedicated her life to end exploitation, build an egalitarian society. She made seminal contributions in building the Communist movement & as an administrator. Let's show respects, by pledging to build a more progressive society. Red Salute!"