MGS, the conoclast who questioned, critiqued, and rebuilt history

Time of India

27-04-2025

Kozhikode
: "In high school, I used to despise
history
because if was filled with endless lists of massacres, genealogies, and war statistics. Later what I aspired to do away with these tedious elements and instead nurture history into a social science- enriching it with engaging and fascinating human stories, incorporating philosophy and economics.
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I thought and read a lot along that path. The book `Introduction to the Study of Indian History' by
DD Kozambi
published in 1956 showed me a new path. Even before that, I used to like
Karl Marx
's economic interpretation. However, I found his dialectics to be entirely foolish," these reflections of MGS in his autobiography 'Jalakangal: Oru Charithranweshiyude Vazhikal, Kazhchakal' capture both his scientific approach towards history and also his unabashed questioning zeal.
As a historian, MGS Narayanan was profoundly iconoclastic, boldly challenging entrenched deeply beliefs that many earlier historians had accepted without question. True to the academic nonconformist in him, he broke boundaries, sparked controversies, by not mincing words even while voicing political opinions and left an indelible mark for himself in the realm of history itself.
MGS constantly defied intellectual orthodoxy and the uncritical adherence to prevailing notions in history—-not for the sake of rebellion, but out of a core belief that the pursuit of historical truth be rooted in meticulous research and scholarly rigor.
That vision of MGS significantly shaped the development of historiography in Kerala.
To collect and analyse historical evidence, MGS went to extraordinary lengths. He mastered various scrips including Vattezhuthu, Kolezhuthu, Sanskrit and Tamil and had an 'open-air approach to history', by travelling far and wide and collecting inscriptions, visiting monuments, reading and re-reading and interpreting inscriptions.
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He refused to accept traditional narratives without scrutiny and always tried to peel back the layers of myth to reveal the realities of Kerala's early medieval past. MGS took a critical approach rooted in epigraphy and he also took evidence form archaeology, literature and through socio-economic analysis.
His PhD thesis on 'Perumals of Kerala' was groundbreaking, and represented one of the earliest serious attempt by a historian to write and interpret Kerala history on the basis of epigraphic evidence.
The research was a meticulous exercise of empirical reconstruction of the history of Kerala under the reign of the Cheras of Makotai (Mahodayapura) between the eighth and twelfth centuries. Eminent Indologist Prof A L Basham, who was one of the external examiners didn't limit words while lauding the work by saying that it was '...one of the ablest and most thorough Indian theses that I have examined'.
The thesis not only filled important gaps but also corrected many premises put forward by his mentor Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai.
For instance, using epigraphical evidence disproved the accounts of a 100 years' war between Cheras and Cholas, a premise which was put forward by his Elamkulam himself.
Historian A M Shinas said MGS could be regarded as the first true professional historian of Kerala. He noted that Kerala histeriography can be clearly divided into periods before and after MGS. "There had been many who had written about Kerala history before MGS like KP Sankunni Menon, an administrator, K P Padmanabha Menon, a lawyer, and Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai who was a linguist.
But MGS was the first who rigorously followed historical methodology, including scientific identification and analysis of primary and secondary sources and wrote history on the basis of evidence," said Shinas.
Shinas added that instead of simply dismissing many legends and myths as absurd, MGS examined their social function. For example, he interpreted the myth of Parashurama reclaiming the land of Kerala from sea by throwing his axe was one designed to reaffirm the land rights of Brahmins.
MGS re-interpreted the Keralolpatti chronicle and suggesting- based of circumstantial evidence from inscriptions and literary works- that the the last Perumal's conversion might have taken place at a much later date in AD 1122. MGS also conducted extensive research on Bhakti Movement in South India and also on the early history of Thamizhakam which too brought out fresh insights and reshaped understandings in these fields.
Perhaps the lasting contribution of MGS in Kerala historiography would been the generations of historians he had trained in his long teaching career. Many of his students such as Keshavan Velluthat, Gopalankutty, have themselves become eminent historians..
MGS was also a true institution- builder. Under his leadership the department of history at Calicut University rose to national prominence. It hosted Indian History Congress for the first time in South India, after Mysore and Thiruvananthapuram, in 1976 which was attended by 1200 delegated including from foreign countries.
Under his reign as head noted historians like Romila Thapar, Bipin Chandra, and R. Champakalakshmi were frequent visitors to the campus.
For EMS Narayanan there were no sacred cows who was above criticism. He showed the intellectual courage to counter even CPM ideologue and state's first chief minister EMS Namboodiripad on Marxist ideology and practice.
Though MGS accepted historical materialism, he rejected the idea that Marxist historiography could serve as a total explanatory framework for all historical processes.
He also frequently clashed with CPM on issues including politization of universities and academic spaces and suppression of alternative views. At one point. his pension was withheld by Calicut University for 10 years, an act he described as a vindictive move orchestrated by the Left establishment.
While the appointment of MGS as ICHR chairman in 2002 was seen by Left circles as a reward for his anti- Left stance, he soon fell out of favour with the Central government and was removed from the position in 2003.
MGS had reacted strongly to the removal saying that some bureaucrats and Sangh Parivar academics, are promoting obscurantist policies in the field of history in India and he was removed because he fought against the communal agenda and stood strongly for the cause of historical research.