Kayyara Kinhanna Rai (8 June 1915 – 9 August 2015) was an Indian independence activist, author, poet, journalist, teacher and farmer.

He also delved into journalism and contributed his writings to newspapers like Swabhimana, Madras Mail and The Hindu.

[13] One of his main goals was to seek the implementation of the Mahajan Committee Report, which urged the inclusion of the northern part of Kasaragod district (to the north of the Chandragiri river) into Karnataka.

[14] He founded the Kasargod Merger Action Council (Kasaragod Vileeneekarana Kriya Samithi) in 2002 to work towards this goal.

Describing the goals of this council Rai said that the linguistic minorities in the district were not against the Malayalis or Kerala State, per se, but were demanding the implementation of the Justice Mahajan Commission report, vis-a-vis the fulfilment of promises made by the former Chief Ministers, E. M. S. Namboodiripad, C. Achutha Menon and Pattam Thanu Pillai, in this regard.