S. P. Udayakumar(kudankulam)

S. P. Udayakumar is an Indian teacher, writer and social activist. He directs the South Asian Community Center for Education and Research (SACCER) at Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu to carry out community work, and educational and research ventures.

Personal Information

He was born at Nagercoil in 1959. He went to school and college in Nagercoil, did his first Masters in English literature in Kerala University (1979-81), the second in Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana (1989-90), and Ph.D. in Political Science at University of Hawaii (1990-96). He taught English in Ethiopian high schools for six years (1981-87) and studied and worked in the United States for 12 years. He teaches many courses in several universities around the world.In 1993 he and his wife Meera purchased 15 acres of land near the southern tip of India and founded SACCER in 1994. Udayakumar worked for the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota for three years, returning to India full time in 2001. He then led the anti-nuclear protests the Kudankulam nuclear plant in the neighboring district of Tirunelveli.

People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy

S.P. Udayakumar is leader of the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy. In March 2012, Udayakumar said: "We have been carrying out hunger strikes, rallies, public meetings, seminars, conferences, and other demonstrations such as shaving our heads, cooking on the street, burning the models of the nuclear plants. This struggle has been going on for the past 197 days and the morale of the people is still very very high"