The Angamaly Firing was an incident that took place in
Angamaly
Angamaly (''Aṅkamāli''), , Malayalam : അങ്കമാലി Situated about north of the city centre, the town lies at the intersection of Main Central Road (MC Road) and National Highway 544. MC Road, which starts from Thiruvananthapu ...
,
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
, on 13 June 1959, when police opened fire on protesters who had been demonstrating against Kerala's
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
government. Seven people were killed resulting in the intensification of
Vimochana Samaram
The Liberation Struggle in Kerala (1958–59) was a period of anticommunist protest against the first elected state government in Kerala, India, which was led by E. M. S. Namboodiripad of the Communist Party of India. Organised opposition to ...
, a protest against the then communist led government.
Background
In 1957, a communist government was elected in Kerala for the first time under the leadership of Shri.
E. M. S. Namboodiripad. Subsequently, a revolt propagated against the government. At Angamaly, the prime centre of Kerala
Saint Thomas Christians
The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, ''Marthoma Suriyani Nasrani'', ''Malankara Nasrani'', or ''Nasrani Mappila'', are an ethno-religious
An ethnoreligious group (or an ethno-religious group) is a grouping of ...
, the intensity of fury was broke into open violence. On 13 June, Saturday, 1959 police mindlessly opened fire on an innocent mob. The innocent mob was fired upon without provocation, yet police killed 7 people in cold blood.
But, the version of Communist government was different, saying that the police was forced to open fire on what they claim was a violent mob, who allegedly attempted to attack the police station.
Aftermath
On the next day - Sunday, 14 June - the dead bodies were taken to the nearby town of Kalady, accompanied by a huge crowd. The bodies of the victims were taken out in a motorcade comprising more than 300 cars and buried at the cemetery of the St. George Syro-Malabar Catholic Forane Church, Angamaly in a common tomb. This event enraged the people of Kerala
and intensified the