Cheriyan Kandi Muhammad Koya (15 July 1927 – 28 September 1983) popularly known as C. H. Muhammad Koya was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Chief Minister of Kerala from October to December 1979. He is more often noted for being the Minister of Education of Kerala from 1967 to 1973 and again from 1977 to 1979. After his Chief Ministership, Koya went on to become the 2nd Deputy Chief Minister of Kerala from 1981 until his death in 1983. He is the first Indian Union Muslim League member to lead a state in independent India. As the Minister of Education, Koya championed the progress of the education of backward classes in northern Kerala. He also served as the Home Minister (1969–73) and the Deputy Chief Minister of Kerala (1981–83).

Life and career

Cheriyan Kandi Muhammad Koya was born in 1927 at Atholi in northern Kerala, to Payampunathil Ali and Mariyumma. Koya floated the Muslim Students Federation, the students wing of the All-India Muslim League, in Malabar District while he was at Zamorin's College, Kozhikode and later helped to organize an admirable reception for the prominent Muslim League leader Liaquat Ali Khan at Kozhikode (1945). He joined the Chandrika newspaper, the official organ of the Muslim League, in 1946. Koya was first elected to the Kerala Assembly in the 1957 legislative elections. He went on to hold several key Kerala cabinet posts (Minister for Education, Deputy Chief Minister, Home Minister, and Minister for Finance). He served under both Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India Chief Ministers (E. M. S. Namboodiripad, C. Achutha Menon, K. Karunakaran, A. K. Antony, and P. K. Vasudevan Nair). He was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 1962 (1962–67) and in 1973 (1973–77, by-elections, replacing recently deceased M. Muhammed Ismail). He was a Member in the Kerala University Senate and served as Chairman, Governing Body, REC, Kozhikode. Koya died suddenly due to a massive hemorrhagic stroke on 28 September, 1983 while serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Kerala. He was aged just 56 at the time of his death. His death came in Hyderabad, where he had gone for a meeting of state Industrial Ministers. His dead body was flown back to Thiruvananthapuram, and later transported to his native place, where he was buried with full state honours. He was survived by his mother, wife, three children and many siblings.

Legacy

Koya was known his eloquent oratory and was described by scholar R. E. Miller as "grassroots star of the Mappila community" and the "ranking hero of Muslim youth" in Kerala. He acted as a "bridge-builder" among various social and religious groups of Kerala. Koya is remembered for his "spirited" reply to Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India when the latter publicly criticized Indian Union Muslim League as "a dead horse" at Kozhikode (1955). As the Minister of Education, Koya championed the progress of the Mappila community in secular education. During Koya's tenure as the Minister of Education, the University of Calicut was established in northern Kerala. He also advocated higher standards in the 'Arabic Colleges'.

Member of Kerala Legislative Assembly

Source: Kerala Legislative Assembly (profile)

In Kerala council of ministers

Works

Source: Kerala Legislative Assembly (profile)