Indian freedom movement

Kannur
District played an important role in
Indian freedom movement. The
Indian National Congress , which
was founded in 1885 , established
a Malabar District committee in
1908. A branch of the All India
Home Rule League , founded by
Dr. Annie Besant , functioned in
Thalassery during this period and
among its active workers was V.K.
Krishna Menon . By the end of
1939 , a branch of the Communist
Party of India was formally
founded at Pinarayi, a village near
Thalassery . The decision of the
Nagpur Congress to give up
constitutional methods of agitation
and resort to Non-Violent non Co-
operation as a means of achieving
swaraj , led to the widespread
boycott of foreign goods, Courts of
law and educational institutions in
Kannur. Mahatma Gandhi and
Maulana Shaukat Ali toured the
district to carry the message of the
Non-Co-operation and Khilafat
Movements . The Khilafat
movement Moplah Rebellion of
1921 was the uprising of Muslims
against the British for abolishing
the Islamic Chaliphate in west Asia
resulting in the formation of a
secular Turkey. Payyannur
Conference Kannur District came
into the limelight of Kerala politics
in May 1928 , when the fourth All
Kerala Political Conference was
held at Payyannur under the
auspices of the Kerala Provincial
Congress. This conference was
presided over by Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru . The Payyannur Conference
passed a resolution requesting the
Indian National Congress to adopt
“ Complete Independence” instead
of “ Swaraj” as its goal at the
annual session which was
scheduled to take place at Calcutta
(now Kolkata ) during that year.
Civil Disobedience Movement
Payyannur was the main venue of
the Salt Satyagraha , a major
turning point in the Indian
Freedom Movement, in Malabar.
On 13 April 1930 , a batch of
Congress volunteers under the
leadership of K. Kelappan started
on foot from Kozhikkode to the
beaches of Payyannur and broke
the salt laws there on April 21. The
Satyagraha camp at Payyannur was
raided and the campers were
beaten up. The Uliyath Kadav
Payyanur incident became a
turning point in the history of
freedom struggle in Kerala. It
thrilled the people and thousands
were ready to join in the struggle
for freedom. There were
widespread demonstrations in
Kannur, Thalassery and other parts
of the district and a number of
Congress workers were arrested.
The period following the
withdrawal of the Civil
Disobedience Movement witnessed
the emergence of radical wing in
the Kerala Provincial Congress.
Some of the radical elements in
the Kerala Provincial Congress
organized a Kerala unit of the
Congress Socialist Party in 1934
and functioned as a separate
group within the Provincial
Congress. The leadership of this
group was in the hands of persons
like P. Krishna Pillai , A.K. Gopalan
and E. M. S. Namboodiripad . An
extremist group of Nationalist
Muslims also emerged within the
Congress during this period under
the leadership of Muhammad
Abdur Rahiman. The Congress
Socialists and the Nationalist
Muslims made common cause
against the Gandhi an group
known as the Right Wing which was
led by such leaders as K. Kelappan
, C.K. Govindan Nair and K.A.
Damodara Menon. A notable
development in the politics of
Malabar during the thirties was the
rise of the Muslim League [
disambiguation needed ] as a
district political party. It was the
Muslim leaders of Kannur and
Thalassery who played the lead
role in forming this organization.
The leftist elements in the Kerala
Provincial Congress were also
active in the politics of Malabar in
the late thirties. They took an
active part in organizing the
workers, peasants, students and
teachers of Kannur district under
their banner. In the election held
to the Kerala Pradesh Congress
Committee in January 1939 , the
Rightists suffered a severe set
back. Muhammad Abdur Rahiman
Sahib [1] was elected as the
president of the K.P. C.C and E. M.
S. Namboodiripad as its general
secretary. Towards the end of the
same year, a branch of the Indian
Communist Party was formally
founded in Malabar . The Congress
Socialist Party workers joined the
Communist Party en bloc. Morazha
Incident The KPCC gave a call to
the people of Malabar to observe
September 15 , 1940 as Anti-
Imperialist Day. The action was
disapproved by the Congress High
Command, but there were
meetings and demonstrations all
over Malabar on this day. Kannur
district was the centre of this
agitation. There were violent
clashes between the people and
the police at several places and
lathicharge and firing were
resorted to by the police to meet
the situation. Two young men were
killed in a clash between a mob
and a police party at Morazha. The
young men were two police officers
Sub-Inspector K.M Kuttikrishna
Menon and Constable Raman. In
connection with this incident, K.P.
R. Gopalan , a prominent
communist, was arrested on a
charge of murder and later
sentenced to death. But, owing to
the intervention of several top
ranking political leaders including
Mahatma Gandhi, the death
penalty was not carried out. The
Quit India Movement of August
1942 also had its echoes in Kannur
district. A socialist group among
the Congress workers under Dr. K.B.
Menon, provided leadership to the
movement. Peasant struggles The
War period, especially from 1943
to 1945 , had its ravages on the
district. Famine and cholera
epidemic took thousands of lives
from the lower strata of society. On
the initiative of the people under
the leadership of the Kisan Sabha ,
commendable services were
rendered to tide over the crisis.
The “Grow More Food Campaign”
organized at Mangattuparamba by
the Kisan Sabha was a new chapter
in the history of mass movement .
More than 50 acres (200 ,000 m²)
of government land was brought
under cultivation. But the
government suppressed the
movement by force and destroyed
the farm [ citation needed ] .
Though the War ended in 1945 ,
famine continued to haunt the
people. Karivellor,Poomaram (
Thillenkeri) the northern most
village of the present Kannur
district, made a historic stride in
the struggle against poverty and
famine. The transporting of paddy
from Karivellore to Chirakkal
Kovilakom was blocked and
distributed to the people of the
village. The movement was led by
peasant leaders like A.V.
Kunhambu and K. Krishnan Master.
One Kannan and Kunhambu
became martyrs in the struggle
when police opened fire. During
the month of December 1946 , the
people of Kavumbayi, an eastern
village of the district, raised their
demand for punam cultivation . A
strong police contingent was sent
to the spot. The peasants resisted
the armed forces which led to the
killing of five peasants in the
firing. The rise of the organized
working class in the industrial
sector was another important
phenomenon of the period that
changed the course of the anti-
imperialism movement. The
struggle of Aron Mill workers in the
year 1946 is noteworthy in this
regard. Even after independence,
the struggles of the peasantry
formed an important part in the
history of the state. They fought
against landlords and their
exploitation. Places like
Thillankeri, Manayankunnu, Korom
and Paddikkunnu are memorable
in the annals of the peasant
struggles in the post independence
era. The All India Conference of
Kisan Sabha, held at Kannur in
1953 , resolved to initiate
struggles for new tenancy
legislations. The movement for
Aikya Kerala also got momentum
during this period and all sections
of the society rallied under the
movement.