Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

Malabar Rebellion in Tirurangadi
It is in the background of these general changes that we have to discuss the incidents of
the Malabar rebellion at Tirurangadi. The causes and course of the Malabar rebellion has
been adequately documented and analyzed elsewhere that it is unnecessary to repeat them
in this context.(Dale,1980; Dhanagre1983; Panikkar 1989;Wood 1987)The question that
we address here is the reason why Tirurangadi became the ‘nerve centre’ of the rebellion.
The answer seems to lie in the trends discussed above. The British had already made
Tiruranagdi one of their operative centers, with the Katchery, police station and jail
located there and a Munsiff Court at Parappanangadi not far away. The old Kakkad-
Parappanangadi road provided the link that connected all these places. Old people of the
area remember the jutka carts drawn by horses in which the ‘sahibs’ and their ‘madams’
used to travel, and one old man remembered the awe with which they, as children used
to gape at these carts. The alien ‘saheb’ presence was very much there in Tirurangadi.
The old people also remembered the story of building Panampuzha Bridge that linked
Kooriyad with Kakkad. According to the story, the bridge was made at the request of the
wife of a British officer who was killed by the insurgents (according to tradition, this
officer was Connolly and the widow believed that if there was abridge across Kadalundi
River, her husband would have been able to evade the assailants. But as we have seen,
Connolly was killed in West hill and not near Panampuzha Bridge and hence, the story
must have been built around another British officer who was killed during the rebellion).
However, the presence of the British was there earlier also, but then there was
Mamburam Thangal as the alternative power centre.
Tirurangadi was also the Centre of the indigenous Mappila cultural tradition. As we have
seen a number of Arabi Malayalam works were being printed and were in circulation,
which included the Asaif-al bathar, which might have attracted the new literate groups