Malabar was a separate socio-economic and political entity during the pre-British occupation due to several historical forces and agrarian relations. It was not a political unit under one ruling power, but remained as a conglomeration of principalities. The rulers of Mysore, both Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan conquered these principalities and enforced a united system of administration under the Governors appointed by them. It led to frequent uprisings by the erstwhile chieftains and rulers, who maintained treaty agreements to support the British at the Tellichery factory against Tippu Sultan in the Third Anglo-Mysore wars. These wars were terminated in 1792 by the treaty of Seringapatanam, which resulted in the transfer of Malabar in favour of the English East India Company.
This was the political background of the transfer of Malabar under the British as a
province under the presidency of Bombay. Since 1792 to 1793, the Company was busy in making an administrative system in Malabar by negotiating with the chieftains and maintaining the British sovereignty over land and its people. The Bombay Commissioners and later the Joint Commissioners settled the affairs of Malabar and presented their report for decision of Sir John Shore, the Governor General.
Our present theme of this seminar is to make an assessment of this historical situation on the peasantry, tribals and dalits of the region over a period of hundred and fifty years. In other words it leads to a stock taking of the experiences of these sections of society under a new historical stage of Colonialism. Colonialism itself formulates a theory of extraction of surplus resources for the benefit of the mother country. Here it is for the benefit of the East India Company, a multi national company in the modern sense.
There were several stages in the growth of colonialism and they were not monolithic in their characteristic features. These features had resulted in the economic deterioration of the region making its total underdevelopment. Thus the impact on the producing classes was devastating and enhancing the rural poverty and large scale pauperization.
Colonialism and its political mechanism, function in an alien land. Thus it should get proper support from that land by creating new classes and new privileges for those classes. Theoretically foreign rule is committed to the creation of a supporting class and that could be made only through readjusting the agrarian relations and land tenures. Thus a new class of landed gentry is created at the expense of tenants and cottiers.
The joint commission had their experiences from the land settlement of Zamindari in Bengal. These Regulations were transplanted in Malabar land system also. The rights for three F's, fixity of tenure, fair rent and free transfer were lost by the peasants for ever. All such rights were vested in the land owning class or the traditional Janmies of Malabar. This new class maintained their loyalty to the British till the end of the British raj. The traditional "Kana - Janma Maryada" system was eliminated in the land tenurial system by the British legal intervention.
For instance, kanam was almost a permanent tenure and the British Justice made it an agreement for 12 years and a redeemable right. Later it was abrogated that a landlord could evict his tenant when he desired so. In fact such a system was not introduced in the early years of the Company in Malabar. Thus the first stage continued with a status quo of the existing agrarian relations. However, the Pazhassi rebellion with the participation of tribals continued against the Company administration that the indigenous people had no freedom to sell their commodity of spices to others but only to the British at a fixed price. For instance, the price of pepper for one candy (500 lbs) was Rs. 100. Throughout the 19th century the price of the pepper was below Rs. 100. Although the Company believed in a political and economic theory of laisser-faire or free trade in their homeland, it enforced monopoly in their colonial territories.
After suppression of the Pazhassi rebellion, the consolidation of political power had been effected. This second stage was responsible for major changes in the land tenurial system. Such changes had been responsible after 1836 for a series of Mappila outbreaks in South Malabar. During this stage the Company had introduced its Munro System or Ryotwari as a permanent settlement with the ryot. But here the ryot was not a cultivating tenant, but an absentee landlord like Zamorin or the Kolathiri.
In Wayanad and other regions, the Company extended its right over forests or enemy properties. The forest regulations restricted the free movement of the tribals and the slash and burn cultivation adopted by them was given up. The process of peasantisation was abrogated by such a situation. Further, when capitalist mode of production was introduced as cash crop and commercial plantations, they were again converted as wage labourers. The bonded system continued even under the British.
After 1858, the Raj became more powerful and always supported the landlord's rights and privileges. Even the Malabar Act for Tenants' Compensation was defeated in spirit by High Court. The system of Ryotwari, enacted for all the time was then revised for every thirty years to get the benefit of the market and high price.
It was at this context peasants' agitations for amendment of Tenancy acts had started in Malabar along with the national movement. The Khilafat movement termed to be an armed revolt against the British in South Malabar. Many peasant families were totally ruined on this occasion. During the thirties and forties aggressive peasants' movements had been organised in Malabar by All India Kisan Sabha. These movements were further benefited by Marxism - Leninism in their mobilization against the colonial state.
The Dalits, who remained as backbone in the production relations in the pre-British period continued in the same condition under the British also. Although the British brought an end to the trade in slaves, bonded system continued throughout their occupation of Malabar. Even in the 1940's some sort of bonded labour continued in different parts of Malabar in the Dalit communities. They have no proper clothing and housing and led a life of acute poverty. In fact, the national movement and Gandhian leadership including the constructive programme had attended to their upiftment. Such an ideology for their protective measures further came to be adopted in the Indian Constitution itself.
A brief survey of these affairs in Malabar under the British highlight the agrarian backwardness of the tribals, the dalits and the peasants in Malabar under the colonial system. The British maintained certain institutions of pre-British Malabar for their benefits. They destroyed the traditional land system to cope with their requirements. The landlords were left free to deal with the cultivating tenants. They never encouraged them to go for capitalist mode of production. Some of the major elements of the feudalistic agrarian relations were eliminated by them. However, this institution was not liquidated. By mixing those elements in their political and economic system, a colonial mode of production was instituted instead of a feudalistic pattern. In this system the landlord was kingpin who enjoyed many traditional privileges. He was left out of his social responsibilities and made an idle class without any interest in land and its production.
The peasantry was pauperized as a class as the traditional production relations were rescheduled. The one third of the production, earlier enjoyed by him went in favour of land revenue and other feudal levies. In fact his life was miserable. The conditions of the tribals and the Dalits were more miserable that they served as a class in the production process without any right in the land. Most of them were hut dwellers. Neither the Government nor the landed class took interest in their socio-economic progress. In brief, the institution of colonialism enriched the underdevelopment of Malabar through their new land regulations, forcible land sale, and periodical change in land revenue. In fact, Malabar remained a farmland of Great Britain. The emergence of new middle classes from the weaker sections became a slow process on account of this arrested economic growth and over exploitation of resources.