Thekke Arangath Rajendran, popularly known as Nawab Rajendran (1950 – 10 October 2003), was an Indian social activist and journalist from

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. He was the founder of ''Nawab'', a local newspaper, and was a popular litigant who, through his prolific use of

public interest litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). It refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and demonstrates the availability ...

, helped bring many cases into public notice for nearly three decades, including a number of cases against late

K. Karunakaran Kannoth Karunakaran (5 July 191823 December 2010) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the chief minister of Kerala in 1977, from 1981 to March 1982, from May 1982 to 1987 and from 1991 to 1995. He is the founder of the Indian ...

, former Union Minister of Commerce and Industries and

Chief Minister of Kerala The chief minister of Kerala is the chief executive of the Indian state of Kerala. '' De facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the Kerala Legislative Assembly, the state's governor usually invites th ...

. ''Nawab Rajendran: Oru Manushyavakasa Porattathinte Charithram'', a biography by Kamalram Sajeev, details Rajendran's social activism.

Biography

T. A. Rajendran was born in 1950 to Kunjirama Poduval and Bhargaviamma at

Payyanur Payyanur (), is a municipal town and a taluk, a sub-district administrative unit, in the Kannur district of Kerala, India. Payyanur is the first municipality in Kerala to establish libraries in all its wards. On 10 March 2018, Kerala Chief Min ...

, in

Kannur district Kannur () is one of the 14 Districts of Kerala, districts along the west coast in the state of Kerala, India. The city of Kannur is the district headquarters and gives the district its name. The old name, Cannanore, is the anglicized form of th ...

in the South Indian state of

. He started his career as a journalist by founding a local daily, under the title, ''Nawab'' and started publishing anti-corruption stories regularly which earned him enemies due to which he suffered several assaults and was remanded on many occasions. Soon, unable to stand against the opposition, he had to close down the daily permanently. However, the daily earned him the moniker ''Nawab Rajendran''. Subsequently, he resorted to the use of

s to fight against corruption and social injustices and filed many cases against prominent personalities, starting with the infamous Thattil Estate Murder case against

. He was involved in a number of cases against

and his biography details the encounters, including allegations about how the political leader used the services of

Jayaram Padikkal R. Jayaram Padikkal was an IPS officer. He had served as the Director General of Police (DGP), the highest rank in the force in the period 1993–94. Early years Jayaram Padikkal I.P.S. was born in Peruvemba village Palghat in Kerala as the ...

, then Deputy Inspector General of

Kerala Police The Kerala Police is the law enforcement agency for the Indian state of Kerala. Kerala Police has its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. The motto of the force is "Mridhu Bhave Dhrida Kruthye" which means "Soft in Temperament, ...

, took away documents supposedly incriminating K. Karunakaran. Rajendran, mostly seen in public wearing a knee-length kurtha and carrying a cotton shoulder bag, was diagnosed with cancer towards the later part of his life. On 10 October 2003, he was found unconscious in a lodge and was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. His body was cremated against his wish to donate his body to a medical college and the action of the authorities also generated public criticism. Rajandran once received an award for his social activism which carried a cash prize of of which he donated to the

General Hospital, Ernakulam General Hospital Ernakulam is a state-owned hospital, with excellent super speciality facilities for training and treatment in cardiology, ctvs, nephrology, urology along with internal medicine, general surgery in Kochi, India. It is managed as ...

. The amount was used to form a charitable organisation, The Manawa Seva Trust, and the organisation collected additional funds to build a modern mortuary complex at the hospital.

In popular culture

Vakkalathu Narayanankutty ''Vakkalathu Narayanankutty'' () is a 2001 Indian Malayalam-language legal comedy-drama film co-written and directed by T. K. Rajeev Kumar, starring Jayaram, Mukesh,Kalabhavan Mani, Manya and Jagathy Sreekumar. It was actor Bobby Kottarakkara's ...

'', a 2001 Malayalam film featuring

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965), is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema, in addition to Tamil cinema, Tamil, Telugu cinema, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Bhojpuri language films. He is also a chenda ...

, was loosely based on Rajendran's life. His life has been documented by Kamalram Sajeev, in a biographical work, ''Nawab Rajendran: Oru Manushyavakasa Porattathinte Charithram'', published in 2015. A tele film, ''Nawab Rajendran'', has been made by Mandhath Creations, which is a documentary on Rajendran's life.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajendran, T.A. 1950 births 2003 deaths People from Kannur district Deaths from cancer in India Journalists from Kerala Indian activists Malayali people History of Kerala (1947–present)

Biography

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading

External links