K. Kunhikannan (or K. Kunhi Kannan in journals) (15 October 1884 – 4 August 1931) was a pioneer agricultural entomologist and the first Indian to serve as an entomologist in the state of Mysore. Aside from entomology related publications, he wrote two books The West (1927) and A Civilisation at Bay (1931, posthumously published). He was a friend and admirer of the humanist Brajendra Nath Seal and the British writer Lionel Curtis who sought a single united world government. As an agricultural entomologist, he identified several low-cost techniques to pest management and was a pioneer of classical biological control approaches in India.
Life and career
Kunhikannan was born in Kannur in the Kunnathedath family (and the initial "K." would stand for Kunnathidathil). He graduated from the University of Madras and was appointed as an assistant to Leslie C. Coleman, the first government entomologist in the State of Mysore (Coleman was the first entomologist to be appointed in any province or state of India) on 19 November 1908 at a salary of Rs 150 per month. He was sent to study at Stanford University and his Ph.D. dissertation was on The function of the prothoracic plate in mylabrid (Bruchid) larvae: (a study in adaptation) (1923). He visited Hawaii several times between 1920 and 1921 attending meetings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society and he also served as an Indian delegate (along with Swami Abhedananda) at the First Pan-Pacific Educational Conference from 11–24 August 1921. From 1914, with Coleman as director of agriculture, most entomology work was carried out by Kunhikannan. In 1923 he was made entomologist to the State of Mysore. Through his career, he took a special interest in cost-effective approaches to managing insect damage to crops and stored products. Kunhikannan was appointed to the board of Mysore University on 23 July 1927, the Vice Chancellor at the time being Sir Brajendra Nath Seal. When a proposal was made to offer marine biology at the Mysore University, Kunhikannan opposed it on the grounds that students needed to be able to relate to the environment immediately around them and not be far away from it.
An asthmatic from an early age, he was physically not very active. As a young man he held radical views about which he was outspoken while his father, well read in Sanskrit lore, advised that when you consider all aspects, you will feel convinced that your views are hasty. After his stay and travels to the United States and through Europe, he wrote about his views in a book called The West (1927), with admiration for some aspects and strong criticism of others. He saw first-hand, the lynching of blacks in the United States which disturbed him greatly and he wrote about the dangers of media control (by William Randolph Hearst in this case) and the fierce individualism that was encouraged by the West. An Indian reviewer considered it one of the fair reviews of the West at a time when eastern criticism had become fashionable. After receiving a lot of interest in his 1927 book he considered several other books, one on India and still others on education and other subjects. His book on India which was to be his comments on the Round Table Conferences to discuss the future of India was published posthumously in a book titled A Civilisation at Bay (1931). The book supported various Indian traditions with a chapter on the merits of the joint family, four chapters covering caste that include theories for its origin and rationalizations for its existence. In a talk delivered at Stanford, he explored the history and development of philosophy and science in India.
C.F. Andrews, friend and follower of Gandhi, quoted Kunhikannan's The West extensively in his book The True India (1939) stating that One of the reasons I have chosen to quote so largely from Dr Kunhikannan in this chapter is because the note of bitterness is absent from his writing. His desire to be fair to the Western system is transparent. D. V. Gundappa recounted that Kunhikannan was a member of a literature study group called Bangalore Study Club that ran in K.S. Krishna Iyer’s Irish Press near Siddikatte. Members included Anantapadmanabha Iyer, brother of Balasundaram Iyer a Municipal Councillor. Kunhikannan signed with his initials as "K. K. K." which was expanded jocularly as ಕ್ರಿಮಿಕೀಟಕಾಲಾಂತಕ (Krimi-Kīṭa-Kālāntaka = "Killer of germs and insects").