3 min readNew Delhi, ThiruvananthapuramMar 10, 2026 07:00 AM IST
First published on: Mar 10, 2026 at 07:00 AM IST
Distinguished historian, academic and Marxist scholar KN Panikkar passed away in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. He was 90.
Panikkar, known for his extensive works on modern Indian cultural, intellectual and social history, had taught at Jawaharlal University in New Delhi, served as the Vice-Chancellor of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit in Kerala and the Chairman of Kerala Council of Historical Research.
As a Marxist historian, he studied history through the lens of class relations and social conflicts. He approached the peasant movements in Kerala with a Marxist perspective.
Historian Aditya Mukherjee said Panikkar is remembered for his work on the Moplah riots, which, by using a Marxist framework, he had interpreted as a case of class conflict that was diverted along communal channels. He was referring to Panikkar’s seminal work Against Lord And State: Religion and Peasant Uprisings in Malabar, where the late scholar showed the complex interface between economic and religious factors. On why Hindu tenants did not take part in the riots while Muslim Mappila tenants did, Panikkar argued that religion became a social constraint for Hindu tenants who were exploited because of shared subordinate religious and social bonds with their Hindu landlords. Muslim tenants, however, had no such bonds with the landlords. Panikkar said that there was a religious context, but not necessarily a religious content, in it.
Other important works of Panikkar include Culture and Consciousness in Modern India and Culture, Ideology, Hegemony – Intellectuals and Social Consciousness in Colonial India. Historian Yogesh Sharma of JNU said that despite his stature, Panikkar was very accessible, both to his students and colleagues.
Panikkar began his career as a lecturer in the Department of History at Rajasthan University in 1962, and after a short stint as a researcher at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, he moved to the University of Delhi. In 1972, he joined the Centre for Historical Studies at JNU – where he taught modern Indian history for decades and went on to become a professor. He taught the course ‘History of Ideas’ in JNU till his retirement. It was during his days in Rajasthan that he got married to his wife Usha and had two daughters.
After retiring from JNU in 2000, Panikkar moved to Kerala, where he became the chairman of Kerala Council for Historical Research. At the helm of KCHR from 2001 to 2007, Panikkar led several archaeological and historical studies including the excavations at Pattanam in Ernakulam (to find archaeological evidence on the ancient port city of Muziris). He was the first vice-chairperson of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, from 2007 to 2011.
Panikkar was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, said Mukherjee, and spent the last years of his life at his home state Kerala.