P. Jeevanandham (21 August 1907 – 18 January 1963), also called Jeeva, was a social reformer, political leader, litterateur and one of the pioneers of the Communist and socialist movements in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

[1] He was not only a socio-political leader, but was also a cultural theoretician, an excellent orator, journalist and critic; and above all, a relentless fighter for the deprived.

A down-to-earth person with a clean record in public life, Jeevanandham was held in high esteem by ordinary people.

P. Jeevanandham was born in the town of Boothapandi, near Nagercoil, in the then princely state of Travancore (presently in Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu) into an orthodox middle-class family on 21 August 1907.

The orthodox and religious background of his family exposed Jeevanandham to literature, devotional songs and the arts, early on in his life.

He grew up in an era when caste-based rigidity was widely prevalent, and from early on in his life he resented the very idea of untouchability and could not tolerate his Dalit friends being denied entry into temples and public places and being humiliated.

Even as a schoolboy he became averse to Varnasrama Dharma, a Hindu religious code that stratifies society on caste lines and facilitates the practice of untouchability.

Jeevanandham took his Dalit friends into the streets and public places where, usually, entry was denied to them, which earned him the displeasure of his family and orthodox caste members in his village.

When he joined an ashram run by V. V. S. Aiyar at Cheranmadevi, he found that Dalits and ‘upper-caste’ students were fed in separate halls.

His hopes of getting the national movement merged with the Congress Socialist Party were dashed when Periyar began dragging his feet.

Before enrolling himself as the first member of the CPI in Tamil Nadu, Jeevanandham was an active participant in these two earlier movements.

After joining the CPI, Jeevanandham and Ramamurthi organized rickshaw-pullers and factory workers on Marxist lines.

They had already organized workers and formed unions in industrial towns such as Madurai and Coimbatore when they were functioning as socialists.

Alongside industrial workers, agricultural laborers and small farmers were also organized in Thanjavur and other districts.

In the first general elections in post independent India, Jeevanandham won a seat for the Legislative Assembly from the Wasermanpet constituency in Madras.

After being elected to the Legislative Assembly, he put pressure on the government to initiate action on issues relating to development schemes and reform measures.

Jeevanandham was the first to take to cultural politics and cited his long struggle for nationalising Subramania Bharati’s songs.

About two lakh (200,000) people attended his funeral and paid their last respects to one who had toiled all his life for the common man, who symbolised the simplicity of Gandhism and who had a Periyar-like zest for social equality and the Marxist spirit to fight exploitation.