Prof M.K. Sanu: Remembering The Legendary Author & Human Rights Advocate
On 2 August 2025, Prof M K Sanu — writer, critic, academic, biographer, orator, editor, legislator, and fierce humanist died at the age of 98 in Ernakulam, succumbed to pneumonia.
His death ends not just a luminous literary era but a rare moral force that consistently held truth above all, even in the face of institutions, power, and orthodoxy.
Born on 27 October 1928 in Thumpoly in the erstwhile Kingdom of Travancore, Sanu’s nearly century-long journey was defined by an unflinching commitment to language, reform, and justice.
He authored more than 36 books across genres, literary criticism, biography, autobiography, children’s literature, translations, interpretations, and memoirs — each carrying his unmistakable voice: incisive, courageous, and deeply human.
Beginning his academic career in 1955 as a lecturer at Sree Narayana College and later at Maharaja’s College, Sanu retired from teaching in 1983. But teaching, for him, was never confined to classrooms. It was a larger vocation, carried forth through his essays, orations, political interventions, and editorial stewardship.
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In the following decades, he would assume a series of roles that positioned him at the forefront of cultural leadership in Kerala. In 1984, he became President of the Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham, a progressive cultural front.
The next year, he was appointed director of the Sree Narayana Study Centre at the University of Kerala. In 1997, he held the Sree Narayana Chair at Mahatma Gandhi University — a fitting tribute to a thinker who deeply engaged with the life and message of Sree Narayana Guru.
His political commitment culminated in his election as MLA from the Ernakulam Assembly constituency in 1987, a period marked by articulate advocacy for the marginalised and for secular democratic values.
His celebrated biography Basheer: Ekantha Veedhiyile Avadhoothan earned him the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2011. The same year, he was also honoured with the Abu Dhabi Sakthi Award for his overall contribution to literature.
Over the years, recognitions poured in: the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram (2013), P. Kesavadev Literary Award (2015), and a D.Litt. from Mahatma Gandhi University (2022), among others.
Yet Sanu remained remarkably unseduced by titles. In 2019, he resigned from the Vayalar Ramavarma Memorial Trust, not due to ill health as initially assumed, but because of pressure to alter the selection of that year’s literary award.
In an unusually candid interview, he revealed his refusal to compromise the integrity of the evaluation process, standing by his support for Nireeshwaran, as stated by V. J. James, which was eventually awarded. It was a characteristic act, principled, quiet, and firm.
Among his most enduring contributions are his lucid and empathetic biographies. From Sahodaran Ayyappan and Narayanaguru Swami to Parvathy Amma and Yukthivaadi M.C. Joseph, Sanu chronicled lives that stood at the edge of social transformation.
He did not merely write about their lives; he meditated on their ethical legacies, bringing forth their contradictions and brilliance with the rigour of a historian and the insight of a philosopher.
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Well into his eighties and nineties, Sanu continued to speak at public forums, engage with literature, and mentor the younger generation. He was a founding member of Mithram, a school for mentally handicapped children in Mulanthuruthy, reflecting his enduring belief in inclusive human dignity.
His books, such as Karmagathi (autobiography), Unnathathmakkalude Jeevaraktham, Ezhuthinte Naanarthangal, and his interpretations of the Ramayanam and Bhagavatham, reveal a writer never shackled by genre or dogma.
There was no hierarchy in his gaze; children’s literature, philosophical commentary, literary criticism, and memoir all bore equal weight and care.
