About Malabar

The treaty of Seringapatanam in 1792 brought the whole of Malabar under the British. It was converted into a district of the Madras Presidency and Major Mac-lod was appointed the first Principal Collector of Malabar. The subsequent progress of Malabar was on a low key when compared with the spectacular advancements made in Travancore and Cochin.

The British first addressed themselves to evolve a judicial system for Malabar. The early arrangements made by the Joint Commissioners were reformed in 1802. In that year the judicial and executive functions were separated. The first notable step was the establishment of a Provincial Court at Tellicherry and Zilla Courts at Tellicherry and Calicut. Many more changes were made since then. In the end the district was divided into two district judgeships of North and South Malabar. Their seats were Tellicherry and Calicut.

To bring about considerable improvements in communications, was a great need of the district. A network of splendid roads was constructed. The Periya Ghat road and the road from Cannanore to Coorg were the most vital roads made by the British. Between 1861-1907North and South Malabar were connected by a railway line.

Through the efforts of government as well as private agencies, much economic development was brought about in Malabar. A spice plantation was started by the English East India Company at Anjar-akandi. Here Coffee, Cinnamon, pepper and several other cash crops were cultivated on a large scale. Perhaps this is the largestplantation of its kind in the whole world. In Wynad sector, tea gardens came up even before the end of the nineteenth century. Much attention was also lavished on the industrial development of the district. In this field the initial steps were taken by the Basel Evangelical Mission.

In the field of education meritorious service was rendered by the Basel Mission. The Primary school which they started at Kallayi was the nucleus of the present Malabar Christian College. The first English school at Tellicherry in North Malabar was also their contribution. Dr. Guntert the founder of the Basel Mission, was the first Government Inspector of Schools, in Malabar and South Canara. Likewise the Tellicherry Bren-nen school which the mission started in 1862 became the present Government Brennen College. The Victoria College, Palghat and the Guruvayurappan Colleges were the other landmarks in the field of higher education.
The Madras Town Improvement Act of 1865 initiated the establishment of Municipalities at Calicut, Tellicherry, Cannanore, Palghat and Fort Cochin. These local bodies also started schools and dispensaries.

Mappila Riots
Malabar passed through violent disturbances when the district was getting transformed into a progressive unit of the Madras Presidency. They were called "Mappila Riots". During 1836-56, it is presumed, there were twenty two such outbreaks. The causes of these riots are much debated. According to T.L. Strange, a judge who enquired into the causes, was of the opinion that these were more pre-planned acts of religious fanaticism. So he recommended that they should be mercilessly crushed. When the disturbances were crushed with an iron hand, the Mappilas, murdered H. V. Connolly, the District Magistrate of Malabar. This was only the tip of the iceburg. As the unrest continued with undiminished ferocity, it seemed that these were the results of agrarian grievances and poverty. Logan, special officer appointed for inquiring into land tenures to spot out the root cause also felt that the denial of any rights on land to the Mappilas and the recognition of the Hindu Janmi as the real loard of the soil were the real causes of the unrest. By a series of measures the tense situation was made to cool down.

Nationalist Movement British Malabar played a leading role in the nationalist movement. The Indian National Congress had ardent members from this region. It is interesting to note that Sir C. Sankaran Nair, a noble son of Malabar, presided over Amrawati Session of the Congress. Since then, Malabar was in the vortex of nationalist political movements. As early as 1908 a District Congress Committee was founded in Malabar. A branch of the All India Home Rule League was also functioning in Malabar. K.P. Kesava Menon served as the Secretary of the District Congress Committee. A series of political conferences were held in Malabar from 1916, which kept up the tempo of national movement.

Home Rule Movement The Home Rule Movement produced its echo in Malabar. Following the announcement of the Montague-Ch-elmsford reforms, it was possible to see the rising tempo of the nationalist movement. The District Congress had its fifth political session at Manjeri in 1920. This was presided by Annie Beasant. This meeting adopted a resolution declaring the unsatisfactory nature of the reforms. Following this there was a split in the Congress. The landlords and affluent members left the Congress and the party slipped into the hands of the extremists, who stood for the cause of the peasants.

Non-cooperation
The National movement in Malabar took an entirely different turn with the coming of Gandhi's leadership. The non-cooperation movement produced its echo in Malabar. There was widespread boycott of foreign goods, courts and educational institutions. The Khilafat movement also produced a tremendous impact in Malabar. Since the Congress supported the movement, the Hindus and Muslims participated with understanding and co-operation. In this connection, Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Shaukat Ali came to Malabar. In 1921 was called together the first All Kerala Political Conference at Ottappalam and it was presided by T. Prakasam.

Malabar Rebellion, 1921
The Khilafat agitation, when gathered momentum in Malabar, the government let loose a reign of terror. There were frequent clashes, sometimes even reaching the pitch of vandalism among the Mappilas, leading to attacks of police stations, looting of government treasuries and destruction 6f government offices. The ring leaders of the rebellion were Kunjahammed Haji, Sithi Koya Tangal and Ali Musaliar and they succeeded in shaking the British rule in Malabar to its foundations. The British .rushed fresh troops and Martial Law was clamped. Among the atrocities committed by the government, the most heinous was the 'wagon tragedy in which 61 rebels out of a total of 90 died of suffocation because they were transported from Tanur to Coimbatore in a locked goods wagon. This was in 1921. Following this the rebels were mercilessly suppressed with an iron hand. It is reported that over 10,000 people perished in this rebellion.

Journalism
In the meantime Malabar witnessed the emergence of revolutionary journal ism. Following the suppression of the rebellion, although the Congress activi ties were slow-pedelling, the congress measage was brought to the doors of the people through the Mathrubhumistarted in 1923 by K.P.Kesava Menon and others. Likewise the Al Amin edited by Muhammed Abdul Rahaman spread the message of nationalism among the Muslims. Political activities were soon renewed in Malabar under the Indian National Congress. The people of Malabar stood united in their opposition to the Simon Commission. The All Kerala Political Conference had its fourth session at Payyannur in 1928 under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru and it passed a resolution on "Puma Swaraj".

Salt Satyagraha
In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi started his Salt Satyagraha. It was well received in Malabar. Payyannur was the main centre of the Salt Satyagraha in Malabar. With the arrest of Gandhi, the government adopted a series of repressive measures to crush the Satyagraha. The Payyannur camp was raided and the Congress workers were malhandled. All the leaders like K. kelappan, Muhammed Abdur Rahman and K. Madhavan Nair were arrested and imprisoned. But the government could not suppress the rising tide of the national movement. The Civil Disobedience Movement was also spreading in Malabar despite repression. But it was called off in 1931 with the release of Gandhi. The fifth All Kerala Political Conference was however, held in 1931 as usual and important resolutions were passed in support of the national movement.

Civil Disobedience—1932
The Second Round Table Conference held in 1931 was a failure and once again the Civil Disobedience Movement was started in 1932. The Congress was outlawed. Yet people in their thousands ' participated in the movement. The Sixth All Kerala Political Conference held at Calicut in 1932 was unique is that it was represented by large number of women. In 1935 the Civil Disobedience movement was withdrawn.

Split in the Congress
The withdrawal of the Civil Disobedience Movement rent asunder the Malabar Congress into two factions the Rightists and the Leftists. The leftists formed themselves into the Kerala Unit of the All India Congress Socialist Party formed in 1934. Its leaders were E.M. Sankaran Namboothiripad and P. Krishna Pillai. The Nationalist Muslims formed themselves into an 'extremist' group under the leadership of Muhammad Abdul Rahman. The meeting of the Kerala Provincial Congress Committee held at Shornur in 1934, expressed its lack of faith in the efficiency of Gandhian tactics. In spite of the internal groupism, in the elections held to the Madras Legislature, all Congress candidates from Malabar won by sizeable majority.

Muslim League
Muslim established in 1906, came to have a branch in Malabar as early as 1917. It was not at all a powerful force in Malabar. But with the electoral victory of the League candidate in 1934, defeating a Congress candidate it was proved beyond doubt that it had developed into a powerful political force. In 1937 it had as its President Abdul Rahman Ali Raja of Cannanore.

Rise of the Communist Party
The Congress Socialist group in the. Congress organisation developed into the Communist Party in 1939. Following the Second World War and the resignation of the Congress Ministers in 1939, the K.P.C.C. refused to approve the lukewarm policy of the Congress Working Committee. In Malabar, demonstrations and meeting were held everywhere. Violent clashes took place in several places between the police and the people. As these steps had not the sanction of the Congress Working Committee, they were construed as indisciplinary actions. The K.P.C.C. was therefore suspended. This was enough for the leftists to break away from the Congress and establish the Communist Party.

Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement did not produce much impact in Malabar. However, the Socialist group organised meetings and demonstrations in defiance of government ban. The Journal, Swatantra Bharatham came into existence during the period.

Independence and After
After independence Malabar continued to be an integral part of the Madras State. In the elections of 1951, the Congress was unable to secure a majority from Malabar. With the States reorganisation Malabar was incorporated into Travancore-Cochin to form part of the new State of Kerala.

Politicial Movements in Travancore and Cochin
The Princely States of Travancore and Cochin also were centres of political movements and agitations from the beginning of the British rule. The earliest agitation in Travancore can be traced back to 1799. In that year Velu Tampiled a popular revolt against the misrule of the advisers of the king. The Raja was forced to accede to popular demand, dismiss the wicked advisers and appoint leaders of the people as Ministers.

The Malayali Memorial 1891, Ezhava Memorial 1896
In the history of political agitation in Travancore, the most significant event which happened in Travancore was in 1891. Tavancore then was forging ahead in education and hundreds of educated people were languishing in the state without proper employment when the government had been following the policy of importing Tamil Brahmins from outside the state. The resentment of the people reached such a pitch that, a mass petition embodying the grievances of the people and signed by 10,028 persons belonging to all castes and creeds, was submitted to the Maharaja, requesting him to frame rules for providing reasonable share of higher grades of public service to the children of the soil. This is the famous 'Malayali Memorial'. The most significant result was that it roused the political consciousness of the people and alerted them against all injustice on the part of the government. No sooner did the ink on the Malayali Memorial get dry than the Ezhavas, a predominant Hindu community in Kerala submitted another memorial to the Maharaja counting out the grievances which the community had suffered long. This has come to be known as the Ezhava Memorial of 1896.

Swadesabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai
The reign of Sri Mulam Tirunal, which witnessed the memorials, was a time of intense political unrest. The Dewan P. Rajagopalachari was unpopular and many actions of the government were coming under fire. K. Ramakrishna Pillai, the editor of Swadesabhimani, lost no time in exposing the evils of the administration. The government retaliated by deporting the editor and confiscating the press and cancelling its licence. Ramakrishna Pillai died at Cannanore as a political exile. The action of the government came in for severe criticism from all sections of the people within the state and without.

Early Political Activities of the Congress
The tense political atmosphere in Travancore was capitalised by the Indian National Congress in establishing a Congress Committee at Trivandrum in 1919. The early stalwarts of the Congress were A.K. Pillai and V. Achutha Menon. The princely State of Travancore was overcharged with so much enthusiam that in 1922, they organised a students' strike following enhancement of fees by Dewan Raghaviah. The agitation was suppressed mercilessly. Another significant development was the Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924, which triggered off a stir in the state. The States People's Conference, held in 1929 under M. Visweswariah, initiated resolutions demanding responsible government in the state. With the formation of the Youth League in 1931, a further boost was given to political ac- tivities in Travancore. The Civil Disobedience Movement in Travancore got intensified through the efforts of the youths.

Nivarthana Agitation
In 1932, the Travancore Legislature was reformed. Despite their strength, the Ezhavas, Christians and Muslims were left with nominal representation in the legislature. The communities demanded that provision should be made for their just representation in the legislature on the basis of population. This demand remained unanswered for long that they organised themselves into a Samyukta Rashtriya Samiti or Joint Political Congress, under the able leadership of N.V.Joseph and C. Kesavan. This party exhorted the people to abstain from elections held under the reformed legislature. The Nivarthana Agitation spread all over the state. As it spread, C Kesavan was arrested in 1935 and sentenced to two years' regorous imprisonment. Meanwhile, the government was also not slow to understand the compulsions of the time and appointed a Public Service Commission to remove injustice in the representation of backward communities in the public service. He was also expected to widen the franchise by bringing down property qualification. The three communities which participated in the agitation were given fixed seats in the legislature. In the 1937 elections, a good number of of candidates who contested from the Joint Political Congress won. T.M. Varghese its representative was even elected its Deputy President. On a technical ground, he was later removed from that position.

The Travancore State Congress and the struggle for responsible Government
Political agitation in Travancore reached such a pitch that the people of the state created in 1938 a genuine political party in the place of the Joint Political Congress called the Travancore State Congress. Its president was Pattom A. Thanu Pillai. T.V. Varghese and C. Kesavan were the other early stalwarts. The new party had for its aim the attainment of responsible government in Travancore. Since passive resistance was of no avail, it lauched direct action to achieve the goal. On the eve of the agitation the party submitted a memorial to the Maharaja demanding dismissal of Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Ayyar, on a series of charges.
The government on its part decided to suppress the agitation. But the Travancore State congress and the Youth League were banned. A mass Civil Disobedience Movement was launched. Many leaders were arrested and incarcerated. There was police firing in Neyyattinkara and a General strike in Alleppy.
Later the action council decided to organise a mass demonstration at the time of the birthday of the Maharaja. In order to base the tense situation, the ban on the Congress and the Youth League was lifted and political prisoners were released. In order to create a situation for talk, the memorial submitted to the Maharja was withdrawn. The radicals in the Congress left the congress on this issue and created the Communist Party.

Punnapra-Vayalar Upheaval-1946
The "Quit India" movement did not produce any deep impact in Travancore. Most of the leaders were in jail. When the war ended, C.P. Ramaswamy Ayyar lost no time in announcing constitutional reform with an irremovable executive, just like the "American Model." The Congress rejected it and the communists fearing that freedom would be mortagaged away under cover of reform, organised a violent upheaval in Alleppy. Punnapra and Vayalar were the important centres of the mass upheaval. Martial law was clamped on Alleppy. The Dewan himself assumed the supreme command of the operations. Undeterred by the superior fighting strength of the army, the workers in their hundreds plunged into open clashes with government forces. It was a heavy sacrifice in which several hundreds lost their lives. With this incident public opinion turned massively against the Dewan and people in one voice demanded his immediate dismissal.

Responsible Government in Travancore
The Punnapra-Vayalar incident was immediately followed by another development in the year 1946-47. The Indian Independence Act liberated all Princely States from British paramountcy. Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Ayyar announced in 1947 that Travancore would become an independent state as soon as the British, leave India. This was received with a volley of trenchant critizism not only from the public in Kerala but also from outside. A bitter controversy arose and the government resorted to repressive measures to overcome the challenge. A few days later the police fired at Pettah (Tri vandrum) and three persons were killed. Subsequently an attempt was made on the life of C.P. Ramaswamy Ayyar, when he was attending a function organised in the Swathi Tirunal Academy of Music, Tri vandrum. Thereupon the Maharaja informed Lord Mountbatten, his intention to" join the Indian Union.
Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Ayyar resigned the office of the Dewan in 1947 and P.G.N. Unnithan took over the resposi-bilities of the high office. On March 24, 1948 the first popular ministry took the oath of office. Pattom A. Thanu Pillai, T.M. Varghese and C. Kesavan became the Ministers. After a short while, the ministry resigned on October 22, 1948. A new ministry came to power with T.K. Narayana Pillai as the leader. A little later on July 1, 1949 Travancore and Cochin were integrated.

Early Political Agitations in Cochin
The people of Cochin were not slow to raise their protests against misrule. As early as 1834, they met and represented to the Governor of Madras details regarding the corrupt administration of Edamana Sankara Menon, the Dewan of Cochin. He was as a result dismissed from service. A similar political move was made later against Diwan Venkata Rao (1856-60) who met with a similar fate. Another signifciant development was the addication of Sri Rama Varma (1890-1914) as he could not meet eye to eye with the paramount power.

Activities of the Indian National Congress
As in Travancore a committee of the Indian National Congress was set up in Cochin in 1919. The Non-cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movements had their echos in Cochin also. The peasants and workers of Cranganore agitated for relief from economic burdens. By means of a few reforms this was conceded.
Electricity Agitation A very important agitation organised in Cochin in 1936, was the electricity agitation launched in Trichur. It arose as a reaction to the decision of the government to entrust distribution of electricity to a private company. Although not a wide-spread movement, it helped to unite all sections of the people under the banner of a mass movement.
Demand for Responsible Government and the Introduction of Dyarchy In 1937 the people of Cochin organised a Political Conference to whip up enthusiasm among the adhherents of the Congress. It was presided over by Pattabhi Sitaramiah. Following the Haripura Congress in 1938, the Indian National Congress followed a policy of keeping aloof from political agitations in Princely States. So, people of Cochin decided to organise an agitation for responsible government.

The Government of Cochin took the wise decision to announce a scheme of constitutional reform. This was incorporated in the Government of Cochin Act of 1938. A scheme of dynarchy, similar to the one sanctioned under the Government of India Act of 1919, was tried in Cochin. The leader voted by the majority of members of the Cochin Legislative Council thus became a Minister. The choice fell on Ambat Sivarama Menon, the leader of the Cochin Congress, with 13 members. The other party, the Cochin State Congress, with 12 seats had to stay away. On the death of Sivarama Menon, A.R. Menon, became Minister. Following a successful no-confidence motion, he gave way to T.K.Nair.

Praja Mandal
The scheme of dyarchy did not satisfy the people of Cochin. Therefore they made a new party in 1941 called Cochin State Praja Mandal. The professed aim of the new party was attainment of responsible government through an agitation. Being alarmed, the government resorted to repression. The first annual session of the new party was proposed to be held in 1942. Even against the government ban, several people attended the conference. Many were arrested and put behind the bars. The "Quit India" movement led to a revival of political activities in Cochin. In the elections of 1945,12 out of the 19 candidates fielded by the Praja Mandal came out victori-ans. The government soon transferred a few more departments to the legislature, to be looked after by a second Minister.
The second annual session of the Praja Mandal was held at Ernakulam in 1946. It was decided that the opening sessions of the Legislative Council be boycotted. A memorandum was then submitted to the Maharaja demanding the grant of responsible Government. On 17th August 1946, the Maharaja, through a message to the Council expressed his willingness to transfer all departments of the state to the legislature except finance, law and order. It was a hot cake to all and the Praja Mandal with the support of two other groups formed the first popular ministry in Cochin. It consisted of Panampilli Govinda Menon, C.R. Iyyunni, K. Ayyappan and T.K. Nair and was sworn in on September 9,1946. Soon this ministry resigned in 1947. T.K. Nair and two others formed a new cabinet, which remained in office until the new general elections in 1948.
In the 1948 election, the Praja Mandal won with a clear majority. Another remarkable development was the amalgamation* of the Praja Mandal with the Indian National Congress. Thus, it paved the way for the first Congress Ministry in the state with E. Ikkanda Warrier as the Chief Minister. It was he who merged, Cochin with Travancore on July 1,1949, to form the new State of Travancore-Cochin.