Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

tenant conflict was acutely represented. It was also an area which had better educational
opportunities, being provided with more schools and had access to the opportunities in
Calicut. Even a cursory examination of the population of Vallikkunnu shows that most of
the families had relatives or other forms of close links with Calicut, and hence they
shared the cultural features with Calicut. The Congress activity reached Vallikkunnu
through the educated youth, from where it spread to the adjacent Thenhippalam.
K.Madhavanar, the one of the early secretaries of the KPCC, and the joint Secretary of
the All India Peace Council was the most important. The congress committee was formed
in Vallikkunnu in 1929 and was reconstituted in 1930.The conditions of misery and
destitution outlined above, and the resulting intensification of the landlord –tenant
conflict in the area made a number of them shift to radical politics and eventually to
Communist Party. Pannatt Kunhiraman nair (who passed away while this report was
being prepared), Puthiyattil Kesavan nair, Perunthani Thumpan, and U. Kandankutty
were among the early communists in the area, and under their influence Vallikkunnu has
developed into a packet with a very strong Left influence. Thenhippalam and Peruvallur
also witnessed Communist activity although not to the same scale. There the communists
were mainly instrumental in organizing resistance against some of the major landlords
such as Mangalasseri mana, Vellimattath Mussad and Neduvancheri Mussad.
Parappanangadi also witnessed Communist activity, and drew in its ranks a member of
the powerful Janmi family of Chiramangalam mana, Yajnamurti namputirippad, and a
member of the powerful Naha family, Koyakunju Naha. However, Communists did not
succeed in organizing any major struggles of the scale of North Malabar in the crucial
period of the forties and fifties. The reason appears to be that the Communists were
unable to develop a powerful organization that would undertake such struggles but
depended on the personal abilities of a few active workers. Communists were also unable
to develop a powerful group in the crucial areas of Tirurangadi, where the miseries of the