K.R. Gowri Amma

K. R. Gowri Amma (born 14 July 1919) is a major Indian politician hailing from Kerala. She heads the Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy (JSS), a political party based in Kerala, India. Prior to the formation of JSS she was a prominent figure in the communist movement in Kerala. She was the first female law student coming from the Ezhava community. She was a Minister in the communist-led Ministries in Kerala in 1957, 1967, 1980, and 1987. She also became a Minister in the Congress-led Cabinet from 2001 to 2006.

Gowri was born at Pattanakad village in Alappuzha district of Kerala as the seventh daughter of K. A. Raman and Parvathi Amma. She attended schools at Thuravoor and Cherthala and completed her graduation from Maharaja's College, Ernakulam. She also received a Law degree from Government Law College, Ernakulam

She is one of the longest serving politicians in Kerala politics. Under the influence of elder brother and trade union leader Sukumaran, she entered the vibrant world of politics at a time when women hardly found themselves in politics. Starting her public life through trade union and peasant movements, Gauri was jailed on a number of occasions for participating in political activities. She was elected to the Travancore Council of Legislative Assembly in 1952 and 1954 with an overwhelming majority against sitting MLA, P. K. Raman. She became Revenue Minister in the first communist ministry in 1957, headed by E. M. S. Namboodiripad (EMS). In the very same year she married T. V. Thomas, a prominent politician and also a minister in EMS' government. The Land Reforms in Kerala is one of her greatest achievements. In the first Communist Ministry, K.R. Gouri Amma served as Minister for Revenue, Excise and Devaswom from April 1957 to July 1959. It was she who piloted the revolutionary Land Reform Bill for the Communist Government. One of the first things the Communist Ministry did was to promulgate an Ordinance banning evictions of all tenants and kudikidappukar throughout the state. In due course a comprehensive Agrarian Relations Bill was drafted and piloted by the Minister for Revenue, K.R. Gouri Amma. The Bill sought to confer ownership rights on land to tenants including sharecroppers and fix a ceiling for the land a land owner could possess. It also had provisions for distributing the surplus land taken from the landlords to the landless poor. The vested interests rallied around them all kinds of reactionary, religious and communal forces and launched the so-called 'liberation struggle'. The Government was successful in passing the Agrarian Relations Bill in the Assembly before it was dissolved, but the Bill failed to get the President's assent.

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