THROUGH THE PAGES OF HISTORY
Prior to the formation of Kerala State, the region was divided into two powerful regional powers – the northern part under Samoodiri and the southern portion ruled by the Raja of Travancore, with the weak Cochin state as a buffer. The three developed into ethnically, economically and culturally different entities.
Samoodiri(Samurin) had close association with the Arab traders who, later, became Muslims. When Portuguese traders tried to do trading in pepper and cardamom, the Arabs tried to stall the new comers.
Samoodiri preferred the Arabs, resulting in military clashes with the powerful Portuguese navy, capable of firing cannon balls from a comfortable distance. In this unequal war, the native navy under the famous Kunjali Marakkar, with his swift moving, small vessels managed to harass the enemy. He and his men were Muslims locally known as Moplas who are practically amphibians, capable of remaining under water for half an hour. (They were specially brought from Malabar, for investigating the river bed at Kota, as the bridge pier was shaky. This was told to me, in answer to a query about the purchase of large quantity of coconut oil by the Executive Engineer, when I was auditor there.The oil is liberally applied on the body of the divers)
Two members of each Hindu fisher mens’ family were ordered by the Hindu Samoodiri to join Islam and enlist in the navy. Landless semi tribal farm workers known as cherumakkal, too, were ordered to be converted into Islam, for strengthening the navy.The number of such people came down considerably, as now they are listed as Muslims, as pointed out by Logan in his Malabar Manual. It shows that in those days, no significance was attached to religion.
The Malabar region came under direct British rule, after the fall of Tippu Sultan.It became just an appendage of Madras province. It was neglected all the while.Practically no development works were undertaken at any time.The Silent valley hydel project would have considerably mitigated the woes of the people, but this was abandoned under pressure from environmentalists.
Even now the capital Thiruvanthapuram is too far, both physically and politically.
The local dialect cannot be understood by the southerners. When I was a teacher at Durga High School, Kanhangad, I told my students to strike off something I had dictated. I said: vetti kalayoo . The students, both boys and girls, looked aghast. It was unprintable vulgar term.And they speak too fast.
In Malayalam, mala means mountain and nadu means region for which the Arabic word is bar. This is how the outsiders began calling the area Malabar. Literally, the area is full of hills enclosing valleys where they grow rice. As mountains encroach into the Arabian sea, there are no plains in geographic terms.Ezhimala was spotted by the Portuguese sailors even from a distance.
Another feature is the proximity of Mysore and the passes in the Western Ghats which enabled Tippu to attack Calicut, now renamed Kozhikode.In Travancore, there are no mountain passes, but the great, twenty three miles gap in the Ghats and the southern tip of Kanyakumari plains enabled free flow of men and merchandise, greatly influencing the life and culture in these parts.The laying of railway line from Madras to Calicut (May 1862)and the annexation of Tippu’s possessions decided the fate of Malabar which became a baggage of Madras state to be exploited and neglected politically. Have things changed? Even recently Keralam lost the railway establishment at Shoranur and part of the divisional office at Palakkad.
Prior to the formation of Kerala State, the region was divided into two powerful regional powers – the northern part under Samoodiri and the southern portion ruled by the Raja of Travancore, with the weak Cochin state as a buffer. The three developed into ethnically, economically and culturally different entities.
Samoodiri(Samurin) had close association with the Arab traders who, later, became Muslims. When Portuguese traders tried to do trading in pepper and cardamom, the Arabs tried to stall the new comers.
Samoodiri preferred the Arabs, resulting in military clashes with the powerful Portuguese navy, capable of firing cannon balls from a comfortable distance. In this unequal war, the native navy under the famous Kunjali Marakkar, with his swift moving, small vessels managed to harass the enemy. He and his men were Muslims locally known as Moplas who are practically amphibians, capable of remaining under water for half an hour. (They were specially brought from Malabar, for investigating the river bed at Kota, as the bridge pier was shaky. This was told to me, in answer to a query about the purchase of large quantity of coconut oil by the Executive Engineer, when I was auditor there.The oil is liberally applied on the body of the divers)
Two members of each Hindu fisher mens’ family were ordered by the Hindu Samoodiri to join Islam and enlist in the navy. Landless semi tribal farm workers known as cherumakkal, too, were ordered to be converted into Islam, for strengthening the navy.The number of such people came down considerably, as now they are listed as Muslims, as pointed out by Logan in his Malabar Manual. It shows that in those days, no significance was attached to religion.
The Malabar region came under direct British rule, after the fall of Tippu Sultan.It became just an appendage of Madras province. It was neglected all the while.Practically no development works were undertaken at any time.The Silent valley hydel project would have considerably mitigated the woes of the people, but this was abandoned under pressure from environmentalists.
Even now the capital Thiruvanthapuram is too far, both physically and politically.
The local dialect cannot be understood by the southerners. When I was a teacher at Durga High School, Kanhangad, I told my students to strike off something I had dictated. I said: vetti kalayoo . The students, both boys and girls, looked aghast. It was unprintable vulgar term.And they speak too fast.
In Malayalam, mala means mountain and nadu means region for which the Arabic word is bar. This is how the outsiders began calling the area Malabar. Literally, the area is full of hills enclosing valleys where they grow rice. As mountains encroach into the Arabian sea, there are no plains in geographic terms.Ezhimala was spotted by the Portuguese sailors even from a distance.
Another feature is the proximity of Mysore and the passes in the Western Ghats which enabled Tippu to attack Calicut, now renamed Kozhikode.In Travancore, there are no mountain passes, but the great, twenty three miles gap in the Ghats and the southern tip of Kanyakumari plains enabled free flow of men and merchandise, greatly influencing the life and culture in these parts.The laying of railway line from Madras to Calicut (May 1862)and the annexation of Tippu’s possessions decided the fate of Malabar which became a baggage of Madras state to be exploited and neglected politically. Have things changed? Even recently Keralam lost the railway establishment at Shoranur and part of the divisional office at Palakkad.
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