The Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, the apex body for performing art forms functioning under the Department of Culture, Government of Kerala, India, was inaugurated on April 26, 1958 by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, as a cultural initiative formulated by the intellectual and political leadership of E.M.S. Namboothirippad , the first Chief Minister of Kerala and Prof. Joseph Mundassery, the then Education Minister, who was also Kerala’s leading literary critic. The KSNA was created as an autonomous body under the State Government, modelled upon the...