THE EZHAVAS

A CALL TO RELIGIOUS CO-EXISTENCE

Abstract

The traditional habitat of the Ezhava caste in modern Kerala, the land Of Malayalam-speaking people. was the former princely states of Travancore and Cochin and the British Malabar district. The British first established themselves in Malabar and then in Travancore and Cochin. When the British Parliament took over the government of India by the proclamation of Queen Victoria after the Sepoy revolt in 1857, Kerala became part of the British Empire with the rest of India. The three constituent parts of Kerala, however. had separate political histories because of the separate administration Travancore and Cochin had under local rulers, and in Malabar under the direct control of the British. The British power over Travancore was firmly established when they cmshed the first local revolt against them under Diwan- chief executive Of the King,- Velu Thampi in 1899. After the reign of Saktan Tampuran (1790- 1805) the British appointed Col. Munro as Diwan in Cochin in 1812 in order to reorganize the administration of the state and Cochin remained under the direct rule of the British until independence. The Malabar district of Kerala was making progress in judicial organization, communications and in local self-administration under the direct control Of the British. These political dispensations were instrumental, to a certain extent, in maintaining the diversities in the manners and customs and religious practices of the Ezhavas spread in the northern, central and southern parts of the State.