Today, June 15 is observed as Father’s Day. In fact one name that continues to echo in Kerala’s political and emotional landscape is that of T.V. Eachara Warrier. A retired Hindi professor from Thrissur, Warrier was not a man of power or influence but his courage, born out of grief, shook the foundations of a state government during one of India’s darkest political chapters: the Emergency.
His son, Rajan, was a bright engineering student at Calicut REC (now NIT Calicut), known for his academic excellence and political awareness. On March 1, 1976, Rajan was picked up by the Kerala Police from his college hostel. It was the height of the Emergency a time when civil liberties were suspended, dissent was crushed, and the courts had effectively turned away from upholding fundamental rights.
A Father’s painful search for his son
After Rajan was taken, Warrier began a desperate and painful search. He visited police stations, government offices, and influential officials, only to be stonewalled. No one admitted to knowing anything. Witnesses confirmed the arrest, but the police denied it. The trail went cold. But Warrier did not give up.
What made his struggle so profound was that he did it alone without legal training, political backing, or even certainty that his son was alive. When the Emergency ended on March 21, 1977, Warrier filed a habeas corpus petition in the Kerala High Court, demanding that the state produce his son. This simple act of legal resistance would soon become a landmark case in Indian history.
What was the truth?
In the courtroom, the truth slowly unraveled. Rajan had been held at an illegal police torture camp in Kakkayam. There, he was brutally tortured and allegedly killed. His body was never found. The case, known widely as the “Rajan case,” turned public opinion against the then Congress-led state government and led to the resignation of the then Home Minister, K. Karunakaran.
Karunakaran had consistently denied knowledge of Rajan’s arrest, but the court’s adverse remarks in the case forced him to step down. This was more than a political blow it was a moral reckoning.
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Warrier’s personal tragedy became a public crusade. His fight became symbolic not just of a father’s love, but of resistance against authoritarianism. In 2004, his memoir, Oru Achchante Ormakkurippukal (Memories of a Father), won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award.
Warrier wrote:
“I shall stop. The rain is still lashing out. I remember my son when this heavy rain drums my rooftop… Let the rain lash inside and drench me. Let at least my invisible son know that his father never shut the door.”
The metaphor is powerful. Even in death, Warrier refused to close the door on his son’s memory. He imagined Rajan standing outside in the rain, unacknowledged and unheard just as he had been by the state.
Warrier died in 2006, never knowing the full truth of Rajan’s final hours. His wife Radha had passed away earlier in 2000. They had two daughters besides Rajan, but it was the son they lost that consumed the remainder of Warrier’s life.
On this Father’s Day, as families gather in joy and gratitude, the story of T.V. Eachara Warrier reminds us of the other side of fatherhood: unrelenting love, profound grief, and an unshakable sense of justice. His legacy is not only personal but political a lesson in how one man’s refusal to be silent lit a torch of accountability in the face of state cruelty.
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