Balaram (Njalile Veettil Edavalathu Balaraman) (20 November 1919 – 16 July 1994) was one of the founding leaders of the communist movement in Kerala, India.
[1] A Marxist ideologue, scholar in Indian Philosophy and a well known literary critic in Malayalam, he wrote on the history of the communist movement in Kerala, which is considered as the most authentic record of the early period.
By then he was a known scholar in Sanskrit and Indian philosophy and had a good taste for spirituality which ultimately took him to the Ramkrishna Mission in Calcutta.
Back in Malabar the Congress socialist group started the ground work to build a Communist movement in the state.
All the senior members of the team were very happy about the meeting and all of them congratulated the organizers and especially the young Balaram for his organizational abilities.
Then he became the Secretary of the National Council of the party as well as the Member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.
Once, he was invited by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh to help the team of archaeologists who held excavation in Vijaya Nagara, knowing fully that he was an expert in Pali language.
During his last days he vehemently opposed the Hindutva Movement under the Bharatiya Janata Party and wrote books and articles against their activities.
Balaram died of a cardiac arrest on 16 July 1994, while serving as a member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, aged 75.