Prakash Karat was born in Rangoon, Burma on February 7, 1948. His father worked with the British Railways. The Karats are Nairs from Elappully, Kerala. Prakash Karat lost his father while still in school and moved to Madras with his mother Radha and sister Kamala. The sister died in her teens and the mother took up a job as an LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India) agent. Karat was educated at the Madras Christian College as an undergraduate student of Economics,where he won the prize for the best all round achievement and was a resident of St.Thomas's Hall. He graduated with a gold medal and won a scholarship to Britain’s University of Edinburgh, for a Masters’ degree in politics. It was at Edinburgh that he met with Professor Victor Kiernan, the famed Marxist and became a strident communist. His political activism began with anti-apartheid protests at the University, for which he was expelled. The expulsion was later reversed based on his good behaviour. Karat returned to India in 1970 and joined the premier institution, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Karat was one of the founders of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the CPM’s student wing, in Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was involved with student politics and was elected the third president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student's Union. He also became the first President of the Students Federation of India between 1974 to 1979. He worked underground for one and a half years during the Emergency in India in 1975-76. He was arrested twice and spent 8 days in prison. He was also instrumental in defining the basic paradigm of the JNU Students Union constitution, perhaps the most revolutionary students union manifesto of its time. Prakash Karat married Brinda Karat, then a party colleague, in 1975. Brinda has also risen through party ranks and both are active members of CPI(M). They have decided that they will not have any children in the wider interest of the party.
