Malabar Kudiyettam
The migration of farmers from central Kerala was started in 1920s. It
was first initiated by a group of Syrian Christians. Majority of the migrants were small
peasant farmers
who went to make Malabar their permanent abode. In the beginning it
was only an isolated attempt of landless and enterprising few. But gradually households having
more land also started settling in Malabar.
By the end of 1920s almost the entire cultivable area in Travancore was
brought under cultivation. So the peasants of Travancore
had to seek opportunities
outside theregion/state.
For migration to take place the potential migrants should know about the
places where lands are available. Though the people of the two regions- Travancore
and Malabar speak the same language, there was practically no administrative, political
or economic links between them. Some of the peasant farmers of
the interior parts of Travancore got to know from the Mappila
laboureres information of the availability of
cultivable lands. Some potential migrant farmers took the trouble of visiting Malabar
and finding out the actual conditions in Malabar.
The presence of earliest settlers, no doubt, helped the new
settlers in understanding the
topography of the area and the extend of available lands for cultivation. During the
period 1941-1951 the percentage of increase in the total population of Malabar was
21.09%, while the increase of Christian population in the period was
97.69 %. This indicates that the period 1941-1951 witnessed the peak period of migration.
However the trend continued up to 1971. The total number
of Syrian Christian in the region was
estimated to be 1,23,219 in 1960. But this increased to 2,92,815 in 1970.
The process of early migration seem to have followed a common pattern.
First an investigatory trip was undertaken by one or two persons. They used to visit the
areas where Christian mission stations or churches has already been established by the
catholic Diocese of Calicut. When the capital had been raised,
they took a second trip,
in which land was purchased and then migrated to
Malabar along with one or two
neighbouring families. The individual farmers from different villages of Travancore started moving to
several parts of Malabar from early 1920s onwards. The three midland taluks of Travancore
viz. Meenachil, Muvattupuzha and Thodupuzha were the major
places which contributed to Malabar migration.
Several of the migrant households had to pay a high cost in the initial
period of migration. They felt as if they were alien followed with heavy destruction of
crops and lives by wild animals, financial loss and death of young and aged members of
the family due to diseases and absence of proper treatment. ' As a result a sufficiently
substantial number of families have returned back broken in health and fortunes, to
their native homes'.
Empirical studies with the migrant households indicate that the migration
of farmers from central Kerala to Malabar region is unique and is distinct from many other
regional, national and international migrations. It is a
community or group migration
wherein a group- a homogenous people along with their close kin migrated together to
another region with a sole purpose of ascendance in
the status ladder by earning a
livelihood through farming. Hence most of them sold away their entire property in the
motherland ( with no hope to return ) and settled in clusters in several parts of Malabar.
Thus it was a planned, permanent and 'settler migration'. As a result they developed a
sound mind to withstand the initial hurdles and constraints that they had to face in the
new land.
The Thalassery diocese
The history of the Malabar Migration and that of the ecclesiastical province of Thalassery are closely connected. The Thalassery diocese took up the struggle of the settlers, who were mostly Syrian Catholics not accustomed to Latin Rite ceremonies. As the migration started, the few priests of the Calicut Diocese could not look after the spiritual life of the settlers. Petitions were sent to the Holy See by the Bishops of the settlers, who had migrated to the British Malabar since 1930, requesting for a diocese of their own. Ultimately, Cardinal Tisseant the Prefect of the Oriental Congregation came to Malabar and personally saw the pitiable situation of the settlers.
The ecclesiastical province of Thalassery came into existence on December 31, 1953 through the Papa bull `Ad Christi Ecclesiam Regendam' issued by Pope Pius XII. Sebastian Valloppilly was appointed the Apostolic Administrator. He is Bishop Emeritus since 1989. Mar George Valiamattom was the first Archbishop. The ecclesiastical province was bifurcated into the Diocese of Mananthavady and Diocese of Thalassery in 1973 and in 1986, the diocese of Thamarassery was erected.
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Tellicherry is an archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, which is an Eastern Rite Catholic Church in communion with the See of Rome. The boundaries of the Thalassery ecclesiastical province were extended to include Mangalore, Chickamangalore, Mysore, Shimoga and Ootty as there were settlers in the neighbouring States. The diocese covers an area of 18,000 Sqr. km and a Catholic population of 273,826. In 1995, the Thalassery diocese was uplifted as an archdiocese. In 1999, the Diocese of Belthangady was created to serve the needs of the Syrian Catholics of Dakshin Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu in Karnataka.