Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

ebellion, natural calamities and epidemics of 1920s and1930s , destitution during the II
world war period, and gulf migrations are some such happenings, better described as
serialties as they do not necessarily conform themselves to a single linear time- span.
While such serialties have to be definitely narrated, but an account of their impact on
socio-cultural processes and livelihood patterns is a different question altogether.
The existing primary and secondary sources illuminate some of the happenings of a
political or ideological nature mentioned above, but they fail to give sufficient
information on some of them, such as the natural calamities and cholera epidemic.
General information on the patterns of landholdings, information on different forms of
occupation, information on education, health, cultural forms, caste, religion etc., are
available, but the information is mainly intended as revenue statistics, information on law
and order, activities of the state such as public works, which are definitely important, but
insufficient for understanding socio-cultural processes that shape the livelihood patterns.
At the same time standard forms of social analyses, such as field surveys, participatory
modes and interviews cannot take us much further than a few generations at best. Hence,
discovery of the relations between past and the present, in a micro-historical context
remains a problem.
A local history movement has been gradually developing in Kerala in recent years. A
number of enthusiasts were collecting and publishing historical information on villages,
towns and sometimes larger regions. Many such works have provided useful information,
but are often mixed with myth and legend, and sometimes guilty of fanciful
constructions. Writing local histories were attempted more seriously in the background of
the people’s planning campaign, and during the last few years a number of local histories
have been published. They were mainly attempts at writing histories of Panchayats and
sometimes Districts. History of Kasargod District, Histories of Vaniyamkulam (
Palakkad) Pilicode( Kasargod), Avinisseri( Trissur), Valayanchirangara(Ernakulam)