Peasant protests and revolts in Malabar 817007102X, 9788170071020

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PEASANT PROTESTS AND REVOLTS IN MALABAR

Editor

K. N. PANIKKAR

INDIAN COUNCIL OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH AND PEOPLE’S PUBLISHING HOUSE

MARCH

1990

© Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi

Price : Rs. 160.00

ISBN 81-7007-102-X

Co-published by Indian Council of Historical Research, 35 Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi and People’s Publishing House Private Limited, Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi and Printed by P.P.C. Joshi at the New Age Printing Press, Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi-110055.

PREFACE This volume contains a selection of documents available in English regarding peasant protests and revolts in Malabar during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These documents have been compiled from the following sources: records of the administration of the British government, newspapers and journals, native newspaper reports and proceedings of the legislative assembly. Since Malabar was a district of the Madras Presidency, the government records relating to its administration, including the district records for the first half of the nineteenth century, are lodged in the Tamilnadu State Archives, Madras. Consequently a majority of govern¬ ment documents have been collected from this repository. They are drawn from the district records, the proceed¬ ings of the board of revenue and the proceedings of various departments of the secretariat. They have been supplemented by the records available in the India Office Library for the nineteenth century uprisings and the National Archives of India for the revolt of 1921. The records of British administration are indeed very useful for reconstructing the history of colonial India, as they document the state policy and administrative action as well as reflect the opinion of government officials functioning at different levels. They also con¬ tain, even if viewed from the standpoint of the adminis¬ tration, the response of the subjected people. Yet, what is recorded by the state functionaries, particularly about popular resistance to the colonial state and its collabo¬ rators, has an inherent bias. Naturally no history of peasant unrisings can base itself on government records. An important source which can serve as a partial corrective is newspapers. The two important newspapers of South India for the period covered in this volume are The Hindu and The Madras Mail. The extracts from The

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Peasant Protests and Revolts in Malabar

Hindu are included, but unfortunately The Madras Mail

could not be used as its back issues were not easily available for consultation. There were several newspapers and journals in Malayalam during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of them, with a few exceptions like Nasrani Deepika and Malayala Manorama, are not extant. However, the reports on native newspapers, though not an adequate substitute, are quite informative. They mostly contain the perceptions of the educated middle class, but the accounts of participants themselves are not altogether wanting, even if as indirect narratives. This volume was prepared as a part of the scheme initiated by the Indian Council for Historical Research in 1974 to publish sources relating to peasant revolts and movements. The manuscript was submitted to the Coun¬ cil in 1979 which, perhaps with other volumes in the series, remained unattended for ten years. However, I would like to thank the Council for sponsoring this work and for undertaking its publication. I am indebted to the staff of the following archival offices and libraries for giving me access to their collec¬ tions and for providing copies of documents: the Tamilnadu Archives, Madras, the Kerala State Archives, Calicut, the National Archives of India, New Delhi, India Office Library, London and the Connemara Library, Madras. Shri P. Chandramohan assisted me in the collection of material and I would like to acknowledge his contribution to the making of this volume.

Centre for Historical Studies, Javoaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

K. N. Panikkaf;