Intro:

Kocheril Raman Narayanan (About this sound listen (helpinfo); 27 October 1920 9 November
2005) was the tenth President of India.
Born in Perumthanam, Uzhavoor village, in the princely state of Travancore (present day Kottayam
district, Kerala), and after a brief stint with journalism and then studying political science at the
London School of Economics with the assistance of a scholarship, Narayanan began his career in
India as a member of the Indian Foreign Service in the Nehru administration. He served as
ambassador to Japan, United Kingdom, Thailand, Turkey, People's Republic of China and United
States of America and was referred to by Nehru as "the best diplomat of the country".[1] He entered
politics at Indira Gandhi's request and won three successive general elections to the Lok Sabha and
served as a Minister of State in the Union Cabinet under former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Elected
as the ninth Vice President in 1992, Narayanan went on to become President in 1997. He was the
first - and, so far, only - member of the Dalit community, to hold the post.


Early Life
K.R. Narayanan was born as Kocheril Raman Narayanan in a small thatched hut in the village of Uzhavoor in
Perumthanam in Travancore in the present Kottayam district of Kerala state. He was born as the fourth of seven
children to Kocheril Raman Vaidyar and Punnaththuraveettil Paappiyamma. His family was extremely poor and
belonged to the Paravan caste, who were required to pluck coconuts according to the caste system. However,
his father was highly respected since he was a learned physician of traditional Indian medical systems of Siddha
and Ayurveda.
He was born on 4 February 1921, but his uncle, who accompanied him on his first day in school,
did not know his actual date of birth, and arbitrarily chose 27 October 1920 for the records;
Narayanan later chose to let it remain official.
[3]


Schooling and Education:
Narayanan attained his early formal education at Government Lower Primary School at Kurichithanam in 1927
and later went to Our Lady of Lourdes Upper Primary School at Uzhavoor from 1931-35. Due to his family's weak
financial status, Narayanan walked 10-15 km daily to reach school through paddy fields. And often, he attended
his lectures by standing outside the class due to his inability to pay the school fees on time. His brother, K.R.
Neelakantan who was confined to home due to asthma helped Narayanan with his studies by borrowing books
and copying down notes for him. Narayanan went to St. John's High School, Koothattukulam from 1935-36 and
later matriculated from St. Mary's High School, Kuravilangad in 1937. He completed his intermediate studies from
CMS College, Kottayam in 1940 through the support of a merit scholarship. In 1943, he attained his BA (Hons)
and MA degrees in Literature from University of Travancore (now University of Kerala), with first position in the
university. With this, be came the first Dalit to complete his degree with first class. However, he refused to accept
the degree and job offered by the college since he belonged to a lower caste.
He worked as a journalist for The Hindu and The Times of India from 1944-45, but was keen on studying abroad.
During this period, he even interviewed Mahatma Gandhi in Bombay on 10th April 1945. However, the fees
demanded were extremely high, particularly for a guy like Narayanan, and there were no scopes for scholarships
during those days. As such, he wrote a letter to JRD Tata requesting him to support with his financial needs. Tata
came to his rescue and Narayanan traveled to London to study political science at the prestigious London School
of Economics in 1945. He was honored to study under the guidance of renowned scholar Harold Laski