Name K. Menon | Died October 4, 2007 | |
K. RadhaKrishna Menon (18 January 1924 – 4 October 2007) also known as Radhettan or Baba, is viewed as an ideal Gandhian who, through his life, showed the world how the teachings of the Mahatma could be implemented in a modern world. Local people saw Gandhiji in Menon, learned about Gandhiji through Menon, and named him after Gandhiji.
Radhakrishna Menon was born on 18 January 1924, to Karumathil Pokkavil Kurungottu Lakshmikutty Amma and Vappala Kunhunni Menon, who was a circle inspector under the British rule. Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s close aide V.P. Menon was his uncle. Radhakrishna Menon did his M.A. (Hons) in economics from Madras Christian College, where he had friends like P.P. Ummer Koya and K.N. Raj. After his degree, he reached Kolkata and edited a paper called Sathi. From Kolkata, he reached Mahatma Gandhi's Sewagram Ashram in Wardha, where he learned the crux Gandhian education ‘Nayee Taalim’. Nayee Taalim is a "Life centered education" system conceived by Gandhi who sincerely believed that freedom without wisdom would lead to anarchy. Gandhi wanted India to be well prepared to handle the freedom and he had a vision to create a new education system to educate the students not for exams but for life and prepare them as responsible and wise citizens. Radhakrishna Menon got deeply inspired by this and realized that the real freedom of humanity could be achieved only through the Nayee Taalim basic education. It was here that he met his future wife Nirmala Manjarekar who was the daughter of noted Gandhian Dadabhai Naik's younger sister.
Radhakrishna Menon spent several days with Gandhiji at Wardha Ashram and had close association with Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Kripalani, Kelappaji, Acharya Vinoba Bhave. After Indian independence in 1947, there were also Gandhians who felt that their work was not yet completed. An "army" of constructive workers who believed in Gandhi's Philosophy went to the villages to restructure the society. RadhaKrishna Menon was one such unsung hero who devoted his energy, time and effort for promoting human welfare and restructuring the society.
Radhakrishna Menon came back to Ramanattukara, a small village then in the Kozhikode district of northern Kerala in South India and founded the first basic school of Kerala, "Sevamandiram"(the temple of service). The initial capital for the establishment of the school, Rs.5000 was donated by Jawaharlal Nehru, then Prime Minister of India. Radhakrishna Menon later was also given the responsibility of being the guardian of a village named 'Navodaya Danagram' (New Dawn Gift Village). Navodaya Danagram was given as 'bhoodan' under the 'bhoodan movement' by [Vinobha Bhave]. This was a complete new concept introduced by Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave and supported nationwide by Gandhian Sarvodaya activists including Jayaprakash Narayan, where the rich and landlords donated lands for the landless people. This was ideologically very different from Communism where though the ends were probably similar, the means were different. Unlike communism where the driving force was a dictate from the state, the driving force in the Bhoodaan movement (literal meaning: Land donation) was a change in mindset from "Ownership" to love, compassion for and urge to help the landless fellow human being. Radhakrishna Menon and his wife Nirmala Manjarekar motivated many landlords to donate a small piece of their lands and created a whole village from this donated land for landless poor people. This village was named Navodaya Danagram (Sanskrit, literally meaning Newly risen / borne / awakened village of donation) The highly educated couple actually settled there to practice what they preached- a wholesome village development. Apart from building this new village, the couple carried out a lot of community works in the society around them. Some of the institutions founded by RadhaKrishna Menon and his wife Nirmala Manjarekar includes Navodaya Danagram Bala Vikas Mandal, Seva Mandir Post Basic School and Seva Mandir Teacher Training Institute
When people described his friend Kelappan as Kerala Gandhi, RadhaKrishna Menon was called Ramanattukara Gandhi. Radhakrishna Menon died of age related complications on 4 October 2007 in a private nursing home in Kozhikode.