Simon Britto Rodrigues (27 March 1954 – 31 December 2018) was an Indian politician and writer. He was an

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...

member in the

Kerala Legislative Assembly The Kerala Legislative Assembly, popularly known as the Kerala Niyamasabha, is the State Assembly of Kerala, one of the 28 states in India. The Assembly is formed by 140 elected representatives. Each elected member represents one of the 140 c ...

during the term of

Left Democratic Front The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the state of Kerala, India. It is the current ruling political alliance of Kerala, since 2016. It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the oth ...

government from 2006 to 2011.

Early life

Simon Britto Rodrigues was born to Nichlos Rodrigues and Irin Rodrigues on 27 March 1954, in Pongikkara,

Ernakulam District Ernakulam, ; ISO: ''Eṟaṇākuḷaṁ'', in Malayalam: എറണാകുളം), is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala, that takes its name from the eponymous city division in Kochi. It is situated in the central part o ...

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 ...

. Britto was an active member of

Students' Federation of India The Students' Federation of India (abbreviated as SFI) is an Indian left-wing student organisation politically aligned to the ideologies of Independence, Democracy and Socialism. Currently, V. P. Sanu and Mayukh Biswas are elected as the All ...

(SFI), he was a former student of St. Albert's College,

Ernakulam Ernakulam () is the Central Business District of the city of Kochi in Kerala, India and has lent its name to the Ernakulam district. Many major establishments, including the Kerala High Court, the office of the Kochi Municipal Corporation a ...

Government Law College, Ernakulam The Government Law College, Ernakulam, also known as His Highness the Maharajas Government Law College, Ernakulam is an prestigious institution for undergraduate and post-graduate legal education in , Kerala, India. Founded in 1874, it is the ...

Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram also known as GLC Trivandrum is one of the institutions imparting graduate and post graduate legal education in India. Affiliated to the University of Kerala, it is the second law college in Kerala ...

Kerala Law Academy Law College Kerala Law Academy (KLA), also referred to as the Kerala Law Academy Law College, is a self financing law college in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Founded in 1967, it is the first, and was for many years the only, self financing law instit ...

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

Lalit Narayan Mithila University The Lalit Narayan Mithila University (LNMU), formerly Mithila University, is a public university in India. Began in 1972, the university initially functioned from the Mohanpur House at Sara Mohanpur village of Darbhanga-Sakri route. In 1975, ...

in his college days during 80's. He was paralysed in 1983 after he was stabbed by the workers of

Kerala Students Union The Kerala Students Union (abbreviated KSU) is a students organization in Kerala, India. It functions as the student wing of the Indian National Congress in the state. KSU was founded in 1957 at Alappuzha, with M. A. John as its main organiser ...

(KSU)- the students' wing of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

at Maharajas College, Ernakulam, although he was not a student of the college. Even after the attack, Britto was active in mainstream politics and continued to be in office until 1988. Ten years later he married Seena Bhaskar. From 2006 to 2011, he was a nominated MLA representing the Anglo-Indian community. With his wheel-chair, urine bottle, and walker, he had travelled across the country. Britto was last seen in public as a part of mourning Abhimanyu, an SFI activist from Maharaja's College, who was murdered by his political opponents on 2 July 2018, with whom he had a very special relationship. He then remembered that Abhimanyu, whom he met during a TV interview, was a regular visitor to his home, and was like a son to him. He also remembered the help given by Abhimanyu, and strongly condemned his murder. He also switched on the biopic about Abhimanyu, titled 'Padmavyoohathile Abhimanyu', in which he starred as himself, at Sree Kerala Varma College in Thrissur, on 9 October 2018. Britto died suddenly of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

at a hotel room in Thrissur on 31 December 2018, aged 64. He is survived by his wife Seena, a journalist, and daughter Nilavu.

Literary contributions

Britto authored a couple of novels: Agragami and Maharandram. Agragami won the

Abu Dhabi Sakthi Award Abu Dhabi Sakthi Award is a literary award instituted by UAE-based Abu Dhabi Sakthi Theatres and awarded to writers in Malayalam literature Malayalam, the lingua franca of the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep an ...

in 2009, and Patyam Gopalan award. He was a state representative of Kerala Grandhasala Sangam. He wrote "''Maharaja's Abhimanyu''", a book in the memory of

Abhimanyu Abhimanyu is a legendary warrior from the ancient Hindu history ''Mahabharata''. He was born to the third Pandava prince Arjuna and the Yadu princess Subhadra, who was Krishna's younger sister. The ''Sambhava Parva'' of the Adi Parva sta ...

who was killed in Maharajas College by

Campus Front of India The Campus Front of India (CFI) is the student/campus wing of the banned Islamist organization, the Popular Front of India. CFI was launched at New Delhi on November seventh at the National Students Convention 2009. The founder and president ...

activists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Britto Rodrigues, Simon 1954 births 2018 deaths Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Kerala Indian male novelists Indian politicians with disabilities Kerala MLAs 2006–2011 Malayalam novelists Malayali people Novelists from Kerala People from Ernakulam district Recipients of the Abu Dhabi Sakthi Award