Venkata Viswanathan (25 January 1909 – 16 January 1987) was an ICS officer who served several gubernatorial tenures across several states of India. He was the Chief Commissioner of

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

from 1950 to 1952 and of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

from 1964 to 1966, the Lieutenant Governor of Himachal Pradesh from 26 February 1966 to 6 May 1967 and Governor of Kerala from 15 May 1967 to 31 March 1973. Viswanathan hailed from Thrikkaderi in

Palakkad district Palakkad District () is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala. It was carved out from the southeastern region of the former Malabar District on 1 January 1957. It is located at the centre of Kerala. It is the largest district i ...

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 ...

and became the first

Malayali The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. ...

to be appointed the Governor of Kerala which was unusual given the convention of not appointing a native as the Governor of his home state in India. He studied at the Central College, Bangalore, University College, London and at the

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

before joining the Indian Civil Service in 1930. Viswanathan had a reputation of being the ‘eyes and ears of

’ and often took an anti-Communist line. He sparred with the then Chief Minister

EMS Namboodiripad Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad (13 June 1909 – 19 March 1998), popularly known as EMS, was an Indian communist politician and theorist, who served as the first Chief Minister of Kerala in 1957–1959 and then again in 1967–1969. A ...

and once almost precipitated a constitutional crisis, when he prepared his own address to the

Kerala Legislature 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 ...

. The then government rejected his draft and insisted that he read the address which the government had prepared. The Governor complied with this demand. In September 1968, Viswanathan made attempts to persuade EMS to resign. During his tenure, EMS Namboodiripad and C Achutha Menon served as Chief Ministers. He was also a part of the five member Committee of Governors constituted by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

V V Giri Varahagiri Venkata Giri (; 10 August 1894 — 24 June 1980) was an Indian politician and activist from Berhampur in Odisha who served as the 4th president of India from 24 August 1969 to 24 August 1974. He also 3rd vice president of India from ...

to look into norms, functions and powers of the Governors of States.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viswanathan, V Governors of Kerala Alumni of University College London People from Palakkad district 1909 births 1987 deaths Governors of Himachal Pradesh Lieutenant Governors of Delhi