Prof. Joseph Mundassery

Prof. Joseph Mundassery was born on 17th July 1903 was an academician, writer and Indian politician from the state of Kerala. He was specialised in the Malayalam language and literature. In Kerala politics, he will be always remembered as the Education Minister who was behind the controversial Education Bill of the first EMS communist ministry of 1957.

Joseph Mundassery was born at Kandasankadavu, a place in the Thrissur district of Kerala state. After completing his schooling in his native place, he took his BSc degree in Physics and later he got double MA in Sanskrit and Malayalam. He was the Head of the Department of Foreign Languages at St. Thomas College, Trichur til 1952. Mundassery joined politics through the Kochi Prajamandalam and was a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) of the princely state of Cochin in 1948 from the Aranattukara constituency. Later, he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Council in the Travancore-Cochin Assembly from Cherpu in the year 1954. In the year 1956, Kerala state was formed and Mundassery won the Assembly election in 1957, from Manalur constituency, and went on to become Education Minister (1957–59) in the first communist ministry headed by EMS Nampootiripad. After some years, in 1970, he was elected as an MLA from Trichur constituency.

Prof. Mundassery had served as the President of the Kerala Sahithya Parishad from 1965 to 1967. He also served Keral Sahitya Academy as a fouding member and executive. Prof. Mundassery played a pivotal role in the formation of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi. Prof. Mundassery authored the divisive Education Bill of the First communist ministry of Kerala which led to Vimochana Samaram and the subsequent downfall of the first communist ministry headed by EMS Nampoothiripad in 1959. Even though the education bill failed in the Assembly, many of its clauses were later implemented by subsequent governments, with amendments. Mundassery played a crucial role in the establishment and restructuring of some of the early universities and prime educational institutions of the state, as he had experience as the Vice Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology. Mundassery took his last breathe at the age of 74, in the year 1977. As a memorial of Mundassery, Prof. Joseph Mundassery Smaraka Government Higher Secondary School in Kandassankadavu, Thrissur is named after him.