Ammu Swaminathan

Ammu Swaminadhan
Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) for Dindigul
In office 1951–1957
Prime Minister	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
Preceded by	None
Personal details
Born	1894, Palakkad, Kerala
Died	1978 Palakkad, Kerala
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Dr. Subbarama Swaminathan
Profession	Politician
Religion	Hindu

Ammu Swaminadhan or Ammukutty Swaminadhan (1894–1978) was an Indian social worker and political activist during the Indian independence movement and a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.

Ammukutty Swaminadhan was born into the Vadakkath family of Anakkara in Palghat district, Kerala. Her father Govinda Menon was a minor local official. Both of Ammu's parents belonged to the Nair caste, and Ammu was the youngest of their numerous children. Ammu received an informal education at home. She lost her father at a young age, and her mother struggled to raise her children and arrange marriages for her many daughters. Resultantly, when Ammu was 13, her mother arranged an alliance for her which conformed to the Sambandam system which was well accepted in Kerala society. Her consort was Dr. Subbarama Swaminadhan, an educated Brahmin gentleman who was more than twenty years older than Ammu.

Subbarama Swaminathan, born into a middle-class Tamil Brahmin family, had struggled hard in his early life to gain an education and rise above his situation. He had studied with scholarships at Edinburgh and London Universities before obtaining a doctorate in law from Harvard University. His extended stay abroad and financial situation had prevented him from marrying until he was in his mid-30s. The arrival of the very young and sheltered Ammu fulfilled deep emotional needs for Subbarama and he devoted a large part of his life to nurturing her development in every way. Indeed, he formally married Ammu at a registry office in London at a later point. This was necessary because Sambandam relationships, while traditionally acknowledged, did not constitute marriage and the children of such a union belonged only to the family of their mother and not their father. Both of Ammu's daughters were to recount in their memoirs that while their paternal family acknowledged them (as was traditional) by including them at family events such as weddings, they would be served their food separately from other family members and subtle distinctions would be evident in the way they were treated.

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