THE EDITOR

The lesser known face of C. Kesavan was the fact that he was the founder-editor of Kaumudi, the first newspaper launched by C.V. Kunjuraman family in 1938 from Indira Printing Works, Pettah, Trivandrum. C. Kesavan was the founder of India Printing Works, named after daughter Indira, who later became the manager.

The implementation of responsible government in Travancore was the editorial policy of Kaumudi. Naturally, Kaumudi turned against the Maharaja of Travancore and his Diwan C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer. The license of Kaumudi was cancelled after one-and-a-half years.

C. Kesavan launched Navasakthi as the newspaper to fight for the people’s government. T.M. Varghese, K.T. Thomas, M.M. Varkey were on the editorial board. The writings in the paper irked Diwan and his wrath fell over the paper; and its license was cancelled. The revolutionary lion again roared: C. Kesavan launched Prabodhini. This time too Diwan proved sword is mightier than the pen! C. Kesavan never looked back, he plunged in political activity.

In 1957, C. Kesavan launched a weekly newspaper, Samatha with K. Damodaran B.A. as editor.