Narayana Guru was a spiritual leader and social reformer in India. Born into a family of the Ezhava caste in an era when people from such communities were regarded as Avarna. He led a reform movement in Kerala, against the injustice in the caste-ridden society of Kerala in order to promote spiritual enlightenment and social equality.
Secular National Dravida Party, was a political party in the Indian state of Kerala. The party was founded on 7 January 2004 by elements of the Ezhava caste organization Ezhava Mahajana Sabha. Founding chairman was S. Suvarnakumar. The party professed itself to 'Sreenarayanism', the teachings of Shree Narayana Guru. The party also demanded higher representation for the Ezhava caste in the political process.
R. Sankar was the third Chief Minister of Kerala from 1962 to 1964. He was also the Deputy Chief Minister of the State from 1960 to 1962. Sankar apart as a politician is known as a statesman, administrator, orator, educationist, writer and editor.
Cherthala is a town located in the district of Alappuzha, in the state of Kerala, India. It is 31 km to Kochi and Kottayam and 22 km north of Alappuzha town, on the Kochi-Alappuzha National Highway NH 47, as well as the coastal rail route. The coastal town is also about 20 kilometers from the historical town of Vaikom Via Ullala -Chempakassery house and the popular tourism destination Kumarakom.
C. Kesavan was the Chief Minister of Travancore-Cochin during 1950–1952.
Kumbalathuparambu Ayyappan, better identified as Sahodaran Ayyappan or Pulaya Ayyappan, was a social reformer, thinker, rationalist, journalist, and politician from Kerala, India. A vocal follower of Sree Narayana Guru, he was associated with a number of events related to the Kerala reformation movement and was the organizer of Misra Bojana in Cherai in 1917. He founded Sahodara Sangam, and the journal Sahodaran and was the founder editor of the magazine Yukthivadhi.
Padmanabhan Palpu LMS, DPH (Cantab) FRIPH (London) was a bacteriologist and social revolutionary. Ritty Lukose describes him as the "political father" of the Ezhavas, who are numerically the largest caste in the region now encompassed by the state of Kerala. In 1903, he founded the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana that had as its first president Narayana Guru, the guru who sought an end to the caste system and preached his concept of "one caste, one religion, one god."
T. K. Madhavan was an Indian social reformer, journalist and revolutionary who was involved with the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP). He came from Kerala and led the struggle against untouchability which was known as Vaikom Satyagraha.
Sree Narayana Trust, also known as the SN Trust, has been an educational organisation in the Indian state of Kerala since 1952. The headquarters of Sree Narayana Trust is in Kollam city. It is named after Sree Narayana Guru. The institutions operated by the Trust follow his footsteps, trying to create strength through organisation and to seek liberation through education. The Trust aims to realize the high ideals of its namesake, who professed the welfare of all without any discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or religion. It was formed by a former Chief Minister of Kerala, R. Sankar, in 1952 to manage the Sree Narayana College, Kollam. Later, educational institutions were started in other parts of Kerala for the upliftment of the socially and educationally backward sections of society.
The Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) was founded in 1903 with the guidance and blessings of Sree Narayana Guru. The SNDP is a charitable society working for the spiritual and educational upliftment of the Ezhava community for the past 102 years.It is the social development of Ezhava from mere ‘owner of thalappu and ladder” to the present state. It is also the shining story of the change of an almost food-gathering society into a cosmopolitan world order. Yogam is the first organisation which envizaged Kerala as a whole. And one of the powerful caste in India.
Advaita Ashram - the ashrams in Aluva, founded in 1913 Sree Narayana Guru in order to reach, propagate as well as live the Advaita philosophy. Here he also established a Sanskrit school to restore the sanctity of the language through which universal spiritual teachings can be grasped and imparted to dedicated disciples.
Changaramkumarath Krishnan Vakkeel was a community leader, banker, social reformer, and journalist from Kerala, India.
Mannanthala Anandavalleshwaram Devi Temple is a Hindu temple in the Mannanthala suburb of Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Gokulam Gopalan is an Indian businessman, film producer and distributor from Kerala. He is the owner of Gokulam Group of Companies.
The SAS SNDP Yogam College is the first college in Konni, Kerala, India. It was started by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), in 1995. resolved to establish a college at Konni in Memorial obeisance to the great philosopher and social reformer, Sahodaran Ayyappan, an ardent disciple of Sree Narayana Guru to provide better, higher educational facilities mainly for the backward classes of the region.
Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) is a political party in Kerala, India which is led by Thushar Vellapally, the son of the General Secretary of the SNDP Yogam, a social organisation in Kerala. BDJS is a political party formed with the aim of the well-being and development of the entire Hindu communities in Kerala.
The Reformation movement in Kerala refers to a socio-cultural movement that began towards the end of 19th century and led to large scale changes in the social outlook of the southern Indian state of Kerala.
The Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam also known as SNDP was founded in 1903 with the guidance and blessings of Sree Narayana Guru. The SNDP is a charitable society working for the spiritual and educational uplift of the Ezhava community for the past 114 years. The SNDP Yogam drew inspiration from the ideas of Narayana Guru, which suited the aspirations of the upwardly mobile Ezhava middle class, who were the main benefactors of the movement. In both religious and social matters, the Guru was a traditionalist who strove to create a modern outlook among the masses. Narayana Guru conceived of the temple as a social space where everybody could meet and exchange ideas. While pursuing his spiritual mission, he advocated education, industrialization, and abolition of caste as necessary prerequisites for social regeneration. Guru stood against caste-based discrimination that was largely prevalent in Kerala, as also across India. This work demonstrates that the SNDP was an organization of an emerging Ezhava middle class, which worked as both its strength and weakness. It focused on such issues as education, employment in government service, industrialization, abolition of cyclical rituals and caste, anti-alcoholism and the demand for a new law of inheritance. However, some mismatch between principles and practice exist in the functioning of the SNDP Yogam.
Thushar Natesan Vellapally, better known as Thushar Vellapally is an Indian politician and businessman from Kerala state. He currently serves as the President of the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), a political party and an ally of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He is the state convener of NDA in Kerala, and holds a position in Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP).
