26-04-2025
MGS wrote about Kozhikode and had an active life here
Most history textbooks tell us that Portuguese traveller Vasco da Gama landed at Kappad near what was then Calicut on May 20, 1498, heralding the advent of colonial powers on Indian shores. However, historian M.G.S. Narayanan, who passed away here on Saturday (April 26, 2025), often termed it an outright lie.
Quoting the chronicles of the courtiers of Portuguese kings, MGS, as the historian was popularly known, used to say that such an incident had never happened. He often ridiculed the Archaeological Survey of India for installing a memorial stone for the traveller at Kappad. According to MGS, though Gama and his team could have anchored their ship off the Kappad coast, they did not land there. He used to say that Gama could have landed at Panthalayini near Kollam in Koyilandy because of a port there. Kappad did not have one.
MGS not only discovered such historical nuggets about Kozhikode, but was also a part of the city and wrote about it extensively. Calicut: The City of Truth Revisited and Kozhikodinte Katha are among the notable ones.
The late historian's connection with Kozhikode started in 1947 when he joined the Zamorin's Guruvayoorappan College as an intermediate student. MGS developed an interest in history after listening to the lectures of historian K.V. Krishna Ayyar, the author of Zamorins of Calicut. After completing his masters in History from Madras Christian College in 1953, he returned to his alma mater in Kozhikode as a faculty member. From then on, for MGS, a native of Parappanangadi, Kozhikode was home.
According to his close associates, MGS shared a deep personal bond with the major writers of the time, such as M.T. Vasudevan Nair, and other cultural activists, as he was also interested in literature and painting. Old timers recall the lively debates and discussions they used to organise in various parts of the city.
When the University of Kerala set up a postgraduate centre at Guruvayoorappan College, he was appointed there in 1965. When the centre became part of the University of Calicut in 1968, he joined there as a lecturer. He retired in 1992 as Professor and Head of the Department of History, and also Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences.
As modern-day Kozhikode has few historical structures, MGS wrote repeatedly about the need for a proper museum to showcase the city's past. He was among the first to criticise the demolition of the Hajur Kacheri at Mananchira, the administrative headquarters of Malabar and a specimen of the Anglo-Indian style of architecture.
He was active in socio-political spheres as well. M. P. Vasudevan, a member of the Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu Road Action Committee, recalls that MGS was elected its president when the forum was set up in 2012. 'Without his involvement, the road-widening work would not have reached its present advanced stage. He was part of all the agitations that we took up,' Mr. Vasudevan says. MGS also associated himself with some cultural groups as their patron until recently.
