Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

It is in the background the rise of the Ba alawis of Mamburam will have to be examined.
As we have seen Ba alawis had already become the spiritual leaders of the people of
Tirurangadi even before the coming of the British rule. In the medieval milieu the
autonomy of such leaders was not questioned, but the new institutions like the catchery,
the police station, the court and the jail, the office of the sub registrar of assurances along
with the new revenue collection mechanisms provided a new challenge. It is not
surprising that the Ba alawis, called Taramal Thangals, would try to uphold their
customary privileges, but there is no evidence that there was any open confrontation
between the Thangals and the Colonial State in the early phase. It should be remembered
that in the early wave of rebellions against the British Mappila leaders like
Unnimuuttamooppan and Chemban poker against the British and that Pokker
surrendered, and the Ba alawis or any of the other Thangals did not intervene in the
rebellion at all. One should also note that Chemban Pokker probably belonged to the
Tirurangadi region and served as a daroga under the British. The Chembans are still one
of the powerful families in the area. It is possible that Sayyid alawi was in the process of
establishing as the spiritual leader, which would offset the ‘secular’ authority of the
British and establish him as the final arbitrator, adviser and healer. The Makham built by
Sayyid Alawi (1750-1844) in Mamburam was the beginning of consolidation of this
process. This process was apparently facilitated by the establishment of a number of
mosques in the area. The historians of Sayyid Alawi credit him with the foundation of
four mosques; Vatakkeppalli at Tanur, Otungat chenakkalpalli at Munniyur, Muttiara
Mosque and the mosque at Ponmundam. Local traditions associate Sayyid alawi with
other mosques, as having laid the foundation of Kunduchena valiya jumaat mosque at
Velimukku and involved in the erection of the Jumaat mosque at kodinji. It is clear that
one of the projects of Sayyid alawi was to establish mosques in all the Muslim centers in
the region, so that brought into a spiritual network of which Mamburam was to be the