Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

Kaprat family has left the place, and the large tharavad house remains. Similarly the
tharavad house of Kulavoor Chempazhi nayars, another large landlord family can be
seen, but they are reduced to minor landholders.
There are a few remains of landlord culture also. The kalarithara of Kathiniiri, related to
Thottassiiri Panikkar can be seen, but the kalari is not used. Kattuvachira temple, where
Thottassiri held their Urayma, is now run by a popular committee. Ullanam and Pappanur
Devaswams, run by landlord families such as Chiramagalam Mana and Velimuttath
Mussad, also are run by Committees. Many of the festivals run by landlord families are
no longer conducted, although there have been attempts to revive them recently. The
families of artisans, brought and settled by the landlord families, are now without
employment, or are forced to subsist on other means.
Land reforms did affect the major Muslim families also. Kizhakkiniyakath Nahas, the
largest landlord family of the area, have lost almost all their paddy fields in the process of
land reform, and so were families like Achampattu, melevittil, Puthiya nalakath, Naduvil
puthiyakath, Eramakkakath and so on. However, majority of the Muslims had paramba
lands, and different members of the same family had their holdings registered as
individual property, and hence, as family collectives did not lose as much as the
Nambutiris and Nayars. It should be remembered that the Muslim personal law permitted
women to retain their individual property, and in the settlements of 1905 and 1935, a
large number of women, belonging to the large landlord families were holding property.
This system allowed a large number of Muslim households to retain a substantial share of
the lands, provided the individual segments did not cross the land ceiling regulations.
At the same time a substantially large number of land transactions were taking place. A
casual examination of the owners of parambas bearing the names of identifiable
landholding families showed that they were transferred several times before coming to