C. K. Govindan Nair was born in Thalassery in Kannur district in 1896. He started his political career by participating in a student agitation in support of the freedom movement in Palakkad in 1917. Due to this reason, he was suspended from college, and consequently, he became a full-time leader of the Indian National Congress. When he was a law student, he met Gandhiji and Ali Brothers which changed his life.
Following the footsteps of Gandhiji, he boycotted foreign clothes and actively participated in the meetings and processions of the freedom struggle. He participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1932 and was imprisoned in Kannur and Calicut jails for six months. Later in 1933, he was again arrested in a public meeting in Malabar.
He was at the forefront of the flood relief activities in Malabar. C. K. Govindan Nair participated in the Quit India Movement in 1942 and was arrested and imprisoned for three years at Vellore jail in Tamilnadu. Later, in the election to the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1946, he was elected from Malabar. He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 1964. He passed away on 27 June 1964.