Kizhakke Potta Kesava Menon (1886-1978) was a patriot, idealist and Indian independence activist

Indian independence activists

This is a listing of people who campaigned against or are considered to have campaigned against foreign domination and cultural imposition on the Indian sub-continent...

. He had born in Tharoor village of Palakkad

Palakkad

Palakkad , formerly known as Palghat, is a municipality and a town in the state of Kerala in southern India, spread over an area of 26.60 km2.The city is situated about north of state capital Thiruvananthapuram. It is the administrative headquarters of Palakkad District...

 as the grandson of the Maharajah of Palghat and as the son of Bhiman Achan. He graduated in Arts from Madras University and Bar-at-law from Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1915 and served as the secretary of the Malabar branch of the Home Rule League after setting up practice in Calicut. He was a member of the Home Rule League under Annie Besant

Annie Besant

Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...

 which proceeded to London to present a memorandum to the Secretary of State in 1917. He also wrote a dozen of books and collections of essays. Menon was the founder of Mathrubhumi

Mathrubhumi

Mathrubhumi is a Malayalam language newspaper that is published from Kerala, India. Mathrubhumi was founded by K. P. Kesava Menon, an active volunteer in the Indian freedom struggle against the British.-History:...

, a popular daily newspaper which earned the second place in circulation in Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

.

Kesava Menon married Akathethara Manikyamelidam Laxmi Nethyaramma (daughter of the then Maharajah of Palghat). Palakkatsseri Valiyaraja Manikyamelidam Shekhari Varma (the current Maharajah of Palghat) is the second of his five children (Since the first and second Rajas are residing outside India, it is the third Raja, KK Itti Pangi Achan who performs the religious duties on their behalf). The other four children are: Chellamma, Thankam, Padmini and Leela.

Kesava Menon established Mathrubhumi in 1923. He was its Chief Editor from the beginning till his death, except for a brief interregnum he moved oput of Kerala and went tp practice law in Malaysia and Singapore. There also he was actively involved in nationalist movements. His autobiography has been published by Mathrubhumi Books.