Kerala - History
There are various legends about the state. The most popular legend is that Kerala was raised from the depths of the ocean. Several Hindu rulers ruled the state like Venad (in the Travancore area), the Cheras rulers, the Zamorine etc. Vasco De Gama landed in this state at Kozhikode (Calicut) in 1498 A.D. in the reign of Zamorin dynasty. The Arabs also played a useful role in transmitting the culture of this state. The Muslim ruler of Mysore, Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan had their sway over Kerala till the British arrived.
The British took northern Kerala under their direct rule and thereby came the Malabar area under the British with Calicut as the principal city. The southern part of this state, Cochin (now Kochi) and further south the state of Travancore were granted separate existence by the British. After independence first, two major princely states of Kerala, Cochin and Travancore, were merged into a single state and in 1956 when the states of India were recognised on a large scale, the state of Kerala was created with separation of Malabar region from Madras and its merger with the Travancore-Cochin combined state. It is believed that the name Kerala is derived from Ker, the Coconut tree, although some scholars hold a different view.
Kerala's history is closely linked with its commerce, which until recent times revolved around its spice trade. Celebrated as the Spice Coast of India, ancient Kerala played host to travellers and traders from across the world including the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, French and the British. Almost all of them have left their imprints on this land in some form or the other and that helped mould and design a special way of interacting with the world.
It is said that Kerala was reclaimed from Arabian Sea by Parasurama for Saints to perform their penance. Parasurama threw his axe from Gokarna and the sea between Gokarna and Kanyakumari, where the axe has fallen, retreated to form a tract of land and that reclaimed land was gifted to Brahmins by Parasurama, and majority of that reclaimed land fall under the present Kerala state.
The maritime history of Kerala is opulent and it can be tracked back to the period of Ramayana. Lord Rama, while assigning his trusted lieutenant Hanuman to search Sita, who was abducted by Ravana, had asked Hanuman to look for Sita at ‘Mujiri’ also. Mujiri was one of the famous ports of Kerala coast on the banks of river Periyar, that was frequently visited by Arabs, Chinese and Persians even before the era of Christ. St. Thomas’s first visit to India for Gospel in AD 40 was through Mujiri port, in an Arab vessel.
Though their peculiar customs and manners clearly distinguished the people of Kerala from their neighbours, they were similar to their brethren in the other parts of India in their gross neglect of historical study. Since the early modiaeval period was dominated by religion, the poets and writers of those days generally wrote on other worldly topics. A treatise on purely secular, to say nothing of political or historical theme was almost unknown and always unpopular among the higher sections of the society.
In the 19th Century the history of Kerala was almost a terra in-cognita dismissed with a few words in treatises on general Indian history. Kerala or Oberamandalam was an integral part of Tamilakam not only in the Sangam Age and before but also in the days of Tirumular, who refers in his Tirumandiram to the five Tamil mandalams. The distinctive features of the civilieation of Kerala began to take shape in the ninth century, which witnessed the advent of Sankaracharya, the decline of Buddhism, the passing away of the regime of the Perumale, and the foundation of the Kollam Era (AD 825).
The end of the Chera monarchy and the assumption of independence by its ministers and feudatories, the ascendency of the Nambutiris and their attempt at imposing a theocracy on the land and its people; the growing influence of Brahmanism at the expense of Buddhiam; the prominence of the matrilineal Nayars as opposed to the patrilineal Tamils of the formor period, and the gradual establishment of cultural homogeneity in the face of political disunion, all those characteristic features of the 9th century marked the endof an old order and the beginning of a new one, in fact the transition from the Dark to the Middle Ages in Kerala.
The rise and fall of the Zamoring of Calicut marked the beginning and end of the Middle Ages in Kerala. The Nambutiris and the Nayare, like the Church and the Baronage in Mediaeval Europe, checked royal autocracy and Martanda Varma of Travancore (1729-57) admninistered the coup de grade to the long-standing feudalism of Kerala.
The history of Kerala, like the history of any country, can be divided into three periods, ancient, mediaeval and modern. But these periode do not correspond to the traditional division of European History. Mediaeval period in European History started with the dissolution of the Western Empire.Though Gibbon represented this period as "a long night of ignorance and force" it had its own special features which contributed to the civilisation of Europe. The history of Mediaeval Kerala begins only after 300 years of its beginning in Europe and ends after a corresponding 300 years -- from the 9th to the 19th century.
The end of the rule of the last Perumal in 825 AD let loose centrifugal tendencies and political unity was completely broken up. The nobles and rulers of petty principalities who had owed allegiance to the Perumals assumed independence and increasing internecine warfare was the inevitable result. The Nayars with their matrilineal system superseded the patrilineal Tamils of the former period. Another sign of the new order way the rapid decline of Buddhism and the growing influence of the Brahmans, the Christians and the Muslims. Until almost the 9th century Buddhism had been widespread and prominent in the whole of Kerala.
Throughout this period the two institutions of feudalism and theocracy played as much an important part in the politics of Kerala as in that of mediaeval Europe. The Nambutiris who resembled the priestly class succeeded where their spiritual brothers had failed in Western Europe. They were able to impose a theocratic form of government on the land and its people. They were supported by the Nayar nobles in checking royal power so that the weakness of central authority became a common feature of the mediaeval period.
The history of mediaeval Kerala could be divided into two parts - the first from 825-1500 - ending withthe arrival of the Portuguese and the second (1500-1800) with the close of the Middle Ages. Some scholars regard the beginning of the 16th century as the end of the Middle Ages in Kerala. The arrival of the foreigners in this country changed the whole face of political history, but it did not mark the beginning of modern period. Vasco da Gama and his followers did not bringabout any change in the life of the people. There was hardly anything "modern" in the chivalrous Nayar soldiers who tried to stem the tide of Portuguese artillery. Feudalism continued to be the basis of civil and military organisation till the power of the Nayar nobility was broken by Martanda Varma in Travancore, and by Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan in Malabar and Cochin.
Conflicts between Kozhikode and Kochi provided an opportunity for the Dutch to oust the Portuguese. In turn, the Dutch were ousted by Marthanda Varma of the Travancore Royal Family who routed them at the Battle of Colachel in 1741. In 1766, Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore invaded northern Kerala , capturing Kozhikode in the process. In the late 18th century, Tipu Sultan, Ali's son and successor, launched campaigns against the expanding British East India Company; these resulted in two of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. He ultimately ceded Malabar District and South Kanara to the Company in the 1790s. The Company then forged tributary alliances with Kochi (1791) and Travancore (1795). Malabar and South Kanara became part of the Madras Presidency.
Feudalism and theocracy, the two outstanding and inseparable features of the Middle Ages, continued to exercise great influence in Kerala politics till the British occupation in 1792. Therefore the Middle Ages in Malabar lasted roughly from 825-1800.
Kerala saw comparatively little defiance of the British Raj. Nevertheless, several rebellions occurred, including the 1946 Punnapra-Vayalar revolt, and leaders like Velayudan Thampi Dalava, Kunjali Marakkar, and Pazhassi Raja earned their place in history and folklore. Many actions, spurred by such leaders as Vaikunda Swami, Sree Narayana Guru and Chattampi Swamikal, instead protested such conditions as untouchability; notable was the 1924 Vaikom Satyagraham. In 1936, Chitra Thirunal Bala Rama Varma of Travancore issued the Temple Entry Proclamation that opened Hindu temples to all castes; Cochin and Malabar soon did likewise. The 1921 Moplah Rebellion involved Mappila Muslims rioting against the British Raj.
After India gained its independence in 1947, Travancore and Cochin were merged to form Travancore-Cochin on 1 July 1949. On 1 January 1950 (Republic Day), Travancore-Cochin was recognised as a state. The Madras Presidency was organised to form Madras State several years prior, in 1947. Finally, the Government of India's 1 November 1956 States Reorganisation Act inaugurated the state of Kerala, incorporating Malabar district, Travancore-Cochin (excluding four southern taluks, which were merged with Tamil Nadu), and the taluk of Kasargod, South Kanara. A new legislative assembly was also created, for which elections were first held in 1957. These resulted in a communist-led government through ballot-the world's first of its kind-headed by E.M.S. Namboodiripad. Subsequent social reforms favoured tenants and labourers.
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