region . Nevertheless , rock-cut caves and Megalithic burial sites of the
Neolithic age have come to light in certain parts of the district.
The Thaliparamba- Kannur -Thalassery area abounds in rock -cut
caves, dolments, burial stone circles and menhirs , all of Megalithic burial
order.
It can be assumed that the first batch of Aryan immigrants into the
State entered the district through the Tuluva region.
Mooshaka Kings and Kolathiris
Early in the ninth century A.D., the Cheras re-established their
political supremacy in Kerala under Kulasekhara Varman. This second
line of Chera emperors ruled till 1102 A.D with their capital at
Mahodayapuram. The bulk of the area, comprising of the present Kannur
district, seems to have been included in this empire. A separate line of rulers
known as the Mooshaka Kings held sway over Chirakkal and Kasaragod
areas (Kolathunad) with their capital near Mount Eli. It is not clear
whether this line of rulers were attached to Mahodayapuram or whether
they ruled as an independant line of kings in their own right. By the 14th
century A.D., the old Mooshaka kingdom had come to be known as
Kolathunad and the rulers known as Kolathiris and had come into prominence
in north Kerala.
The Kolathiris were a power to reckon with at the time of the
arrival of the Portuguese towards the end of the 15th century. They were
political and commercial rivals of the Zamorins of Kozhikode.
During the medieval age, several Arab scholars visited the west
coast. Baliapatam, Srikantapuram, Dharmadom, Bekal and Mount Eli
(Ezhimala) are some of the places which figure prominently in their travelogues.
Vasco Da Gama
Though Vasco Da Gama, the famous Portuguese navigator, did
not visit Kannur on his way to Kozhikode in May 1498, he established
contacts with the Kolathiri ruler. His ships which had left Kozhikode on
August 29, 1498 were contacted by the boats sent by the Kolathiri and
Gama was invited to visit the palace. The aim of the Kolathiri was to gain
wealth and power with the help of the Portuguese, the same way the
Zamorin had acquired with the help of the Arabs. In winning the alliance
of the Kolathiri, Vasco Da Gama, in turn, had successfully exploited the
jealousies of the native princes and won for the Portuguese a virtual
monopoly of the pepper trade.
Francisco De Almedia was sent from Portugal with specific instructions
to erect forts at stratetgic points. He started constructing the
Kannur Fort in 1505 and it was named St. Angelo.
On March 16, 1506, the Portuguese effectively intercepted an armada
of Turks and Arabs, whom the Zamorin had launched against
Kannur. The Portuguese navy under Lorenzo Almedia engaged the
Zamorin's fleet in battle and the Portuguese ships won a decisive victory.
This naval victory resulted in the establishment of Portuguese naval supremacy
in the Indian seas.
Portuguese ascendency
An important political development which took place at this juncture
was the alliance between the Kolathiri and the Zamorin who were
till then sworn enemies. The Zamorin was able to convince the Kolathiri
of the real motives of the Portuguese in India and the perils inherent in his
policy of befriending them.
The Portuguese followed a policy of religious persecution and forcible
conversion. They therefore clashed with most of the native princes
and chieftains.
In 1558, the Kolathiri came openly into the field against the
Potuguese by providing active support to the Kunhjali Marrikkar of
Kozhikode. The Kolathiri and the Zamorin fought a common war against
the Portuguese and they besieged the fort of St. Angelo at Kannur,in
1564. But the Portuguese continued to maintain a precarious foothold at
Kannur till 1663 when the fort was captured by the Dutch in February
that year.
Arrival of the English East India Company
The English East India Company got its first foothold in the district
towards the closing years of the 17th century, when it acquired a site at
Thalassery for the erection of a fort and a factory.
The disintegration of the Kolathiri's dominion started in the latter
half of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century following dissensions
in the royal family by the extensive surrender of territory to consorts
of the ruling members.
In spite of the many difficulties it had to face in the initial stages,
the trade of the English East India Company prospered during the latter
part of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, by their liberal trade
policies. Further, unlike the Portuguese, they refused to interfere in the
religious and caste affairs of the local population.
Mysorean conquest
In 1725, the French captured Mayyazhi and renamed it as Mahe
in honour of the French captain Francois Mahe De Labourdonnais.
The most important episode in the political history of north Kerala
in the second half of the 18th century is the conquest of Mysore by Haidar
Ali and Tipu Sultan. Haidar Ali conquered Malabar in 1773.
In January 1788, Tippu Sultan descended on Kerala with a large
army and founded a new capital at Feroke for his Malabar province.
The treaties of Srirangapatanam, signed on 22nd February and
18th March, 1792, formally ceded Malabar to the British.
The British entered into agreements with the Rajas of Chirakkal,
Kottayam and Kadathanand and all of them acknowledged the full sovereignty
of the Company over their respective territories.
The British Government divided the province of Malabar into two
administrative divisions - the Northern and Southern, presided over by a
Superintendent each at Thalassery and Cherpulasseri, under the general
control of the Supervisor and Chief Magistrate of the province of Malabar
who had his headquarters at Kozhikode.
While the British were busy with the political settlement of the
district, a serious revolt was headed by Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja of
the Padinjare Kovilakom of the Kottayam family. The potent cause of
the revolt was the unpopular revenue policy followed by the East India
Company in Malabar. He stopped all collections of revenue in Kottayam.
The Raja further threatened to cut down all the pepper vines if the
Company's officers persisted in revenue collection.
In April 1796, a determined effort was made by the Britsh to capture
the Raja in his own palace at Pazhassi. This was in vain.
On December 18, the British Commissioner issued a proclamation
forbidding the people to assemble or to assit the Pazhassi Raja and warning
them that if they did so, they would be considered as irreconcilable
enemies of the Company and that their property would be confiscated.
On December 30, a futile attempt was made to reconcile the differences
between the Raja and the Company.
On eighth January 1797, Pazhassi Raja's men launched daring attack
on the havildar's guard stationed at Pazhassi and the whole party
except one man was killed. In the battle fought on three successive days,
nineth, 10th and 11th March 1797, the detachment made by the Company
forces was overpowered by the swords, spears, bows and arrows of
Pazhassi Raja's men. As the situation was full of perils, a reconciliation
with the Pazhassi Raja became a matter of political expediency.
While South Canara and other parts of South India were being
brought under British imperial control, following the fall Srirangapatanum.
(1799), Pazhassi Raja raised the standard of revolt a second time and
shook for a while the very foundations of British power.
Colonel Stevenson's efforts early in 1801 cut off the Pazhassi Raja
from his adherents in South Malabar and by May the British troops hadmade much headway and with every port both above and below the
ghats in British hands and the whole country disarmed, the Pazhassi Raja
became a wanderer in the jungles accompanied by his wife and immediate
attendants.
On 24th May, 1804, Colonel Macleod issued a proclamation warning
the people that they would be treated as rebels if they failed to furnish
information about rebel movements and if they helped the Pazhassi troops
with arms, ammunition or provisions. Finally the proclamation of June 16
offered rewards for the apprehension of Pazhassi Raja, two other members
of his family and his principal lieutenants and declared their estates
and properties confiscated from that date.
On first November, Baber took direct charge of the operations and
on 30th November, 1805 he surrounded and shot the Raja dead in an
operation on the banks of a nullah. The Raja's body was cremated with
"customary honours". With the death of Pazhassi Raja, the resistance
movement in north Kerala came to an end.
Freedom Movement
Kannur district has played an important role in all the political movements
of recent times. The Indian National Congress, which was founded
in 1885, captured the attention of the people of this district from its very
inception. A district committee came into existence in Malabar in 1908.
A branch of the All India Home Rule League, Founded by Dr. Annie
Beasant, functioned in Thalassery during this period and among its active
workers was V.K. Krishna Menon.
The decision of the Nagpur Congress to give up constitutional methods
of agitation and resort to Non-Violent Non Co-operation as a means
of achieving Swaraj,led to widespread boycott of foreign goods, courts
of law and educational institutions in Kannur.
Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Shaukat Ali toured the district to
carry the message of the Non-Co-operation and Khilaphat Movements.The Khilaphat movement coincided with the famous Malabar Rebellion
of 1921 which was put down by the British with an iron hand.
Payyannur Conference
Kannur district came into the lime light of Kerala politics in May
1928, when the fourth All Kerala Political Conference was held at
Payyannur under the auspices of the Kerala Provincial Congress. This
conference was presided over by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The Payyannur
conference passed a resolution requesting the Indian National Congress
to adopt 'Complete Independence' instead of "Swaraj" as its goal at the
annual session which was scheduled to take place at Calcutta during that
year.
Salt Sathyagraha
Payyannur was the main venue of the Salt Sathyagraha in Malabar.
On 13th April , a batch of Congress volunteers under the leadership of K.
Kelappan started on foot from Kozhikode to the beaches of Payyannur
and broke the salt laws there on April 21. The Satyagraha camp at
Payyannur was raided and the campers were beaten up. There were
widespread demonstrations in Kannur, Thalassery and other parts of the
district and a number of Congress workers were arrested. The district
was always in the forefront in Civil Disobedience Movements and all
along Congress workers broke salt laws and picked foreign good dealers
and liquor shops.
The period following the withdrawal of the Civil Disobedience
Movement witnessed the emergence of a radical wing in the Kerala Provincial
Congress. Some of the radical elements in the Kerala Pronvircial
congress organiszed a Kerala unit of the Congress Socialist Party in 1934
and functioned as a seperate group within the Provincial Congress. The
leadership of this group was in the hands of persons like P. Krishna Pillai.,
A.K. Gopalan and E.M.S. Namboothiripad. An extremist group of Nationalist
Muslims also emerged within the Congress during this period
under the leadership of Mughammad Abdur Rahiman. The Congress Socialists
and the Nationalist Muslims made common cause against theGhandhian group known as the Right Wing which was led by such leaders
as K. Kelappan, C.K. Govindan Nair and K.A. Damodara Menon.
A notable development in the politics of Malabar during the thirties
was the rise of the Muslim League as a distinct political party. It was the
Muslim leaders of Kannur and Thalassery who played the lead role in
forming this organisation.
The leftist elements in the Kerala Provincial Congress were also
active in the politics of Malabar in the late thirties. They took active part
in organising the workers, peasants, students and teachers of Kannur
district under their banner. In the election held to the Kerala Provincial
Congress Committee in January 1939, in the righiest suffered a servere
setback. Muhammed Abdur Rahiman was elected as the president of the
K.P.C.C. and E.M.S. Namboothiripad as its general secretary. Towards
the end of the same year, a branch of the Indian Communist Party was
formally founded in Malabar. The Congress Socialist Party workers joined
the Communist Party block.
Morazha Incident
The K.P.C.C. gave a call to the people of Malabar to observe 15th
September , 1940 as Anti-Imperialist Day. The action was disapproved
by the Congress High Command, but there were meetings and demonstrations
all over Malabar on this day. Kannur District was the centre of
this agitation. There were voilent clashes between the people and the
police at several places and lathi charge and tiring were resorted to by
the police to meet the situation. Two young men were killed in a clash
between a mob and a police party at Morazha. In connection with the
latter incident, K.P.R. Gopalan, a prominent communist, was arrested on
a charge of murder and later sentenced to death. But, owing to the intervention
of several top ranking political leaders including Mahatma Ghandhi,
the death penalty was not carried out.
The 'Quit India' Movement of August 1942 also had its echoes in
Kannur district. A socialist group among the Congress workers under
Dr. K.B. Menon, provided leadership to the movement.In 1945, at the end of the War, the Congress leaders were released
from prison. The Muslim League had by this time become a decisive
force in Malabar politics. It supported the demand of the All India Muslim
League for the partition of India.
Famine and Peasant Struggles
The War period, especially from 1943 to 1945, had its ravages on
the district. Famine and cholera epidemic took thousands of lives from
the lower strata of society. On the initiative of the people under the leadership
of the Kisan Sabha, commendable services were rendered to tide
over the crisis.
The "Grow More Food Campaign" organised at Mangattuparamba
by the Kisan Sabha was a new chapter in the history of mass movement.
More than fifty acres of government land was brought under cultivation.
But the government suppressed the movement by force and destroyed
the farm.
Though the War ended in 1945, famine continued to haunt the
people. Karivellore, the northern most village of the present Kannur district,
made a historic stride in the struggle against poverty and famine.
The transporting of paddy from Karivellore to Chirakkal Kovilakom was
blocked and distributed to the people of the village. The movement was
led by peasant leaders like A.V. Kunhambu and K.Krishnan Master. One
Kannan and Kunhambu became martyrs in the struggle when police
opened fire.
During the month of December 1946, the people of Kavumbayi,
an eastern village of the district, raised their demand for punam cultivation.
A strong police contingent was sent to the spot. The peasants resisted
the armed forces which led to the killing of five peasants in the
firing.
The rise of the organised working class in the industrial sector was
another important phenomenon of the period that changed the course ofthe anti-imperialist movement. The struggle of Aron Mill workers in the
year 1946 is noteworthy in this regard.
Even after independence, the struggles of the peasantry formed
an important part in the history of the State. They fought against landlords
and their exploitation. Places like Thillankeri, Manyankunnu, Korom
and Paddikkunnu are memorable in the annals of the peasant struggles in
the post independence era.
The All India Conference of Kisan Sabha, held at Kannur in 1953,
resolved to initiate struggles for new tenancy legislations. The movement
for Aikya Kerala (united Kerala) also got momentum during this period
and all sections of the society rallied under the movement.
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