Nattika
Grama Panchayat

Social and Cultural History

In 1710, the Dutch seized this region, including Nattika, from the Zamorin. One of the notable historical events in the area was Tipu Sultan’s military expedition in 1789. The routes through which Tipu travelled, as well as the roads constructed to facilitate the movement of artillery, later came to be known as Tipu Sultan Roads.

Through the Treaty of Srirangapatna in 1792, Malabar came under British control and was incorporated into the Madras Presidency in 1800. In the early 1850s, H. V. Conolly, the then Malabar District Magistrate, deepened and widened the waterway to make it suitable for transportation. This waterway, which flows through the eastern part of Nattika, came to be known as the Conolly Canal.

The early history of this village was extremely difficult. Agricultural lands obtained from the British were brought under the control of landlords, who leased out the open lands and paddy fields to local people under various tenancy arrangements. There were several categories of tenants, including ordinary tenants, sub-tenants, share tenants, kanam tenants, and kuzhi-kanam tenants. The Kudiyan Kuzhikoor Act came into force in 1887. Evictions and revisions of tenancy agreements continued for many years. The Eviction Prevention Act of 1957, along with legislation providing compensation for the improvements made by tenants, brought considerable relief to farmers. The Fourth Land Reform Amendment Act of 1971 ultimately led to the abolition of the landlord system in Nattika as well. The surplus-land occupation struggle at Chemmappilly, undertaken to ensure the implementation of this legislation, deserves special mention.

As the national political movement gained momentum, many young people joined the freedom struggle. Among the prominent activists were M. C. Govindan, V. V. Raman, Thalikulangara Peethambaran, and V. T. Saithumuhammed. Local people participated in various forms of protest, including the boycott of foreign goods, prohibition movements, campaigns against untouchability, tax refusal, and the Non-Cooperation Movement.

Although the Temple Entry Proclamation was issued in Travancore in 1936, members of the oppressed communities had to wait another decade before they were allowed entry into the Triprayar Temple. The interesting Kurukkan Kulam incident took place as a form of protest against the denial of temple entry and the practice of untouchability. According to the story associated with the incident, during the annual ritual procession of Triprayar Thevar, people publicly mocked and insulted the upper-caste authorities by calling out their names and repeatedly shouting “Kurukka, Kurukka” while howling like foxes.

Another significant incident related to the oppression of Harijans was the brutal assault carried out by upper-caste authorities and their henchmen against women belonging to a wedding party who were travelling along a road near a Muslim place of worship in the western part of Nattika. The women were attacked for covering their upper bodies. This incident subsequently led to the formation of the Manappuram Harijan Sangham.

Communist influence began to be felt in Nattika towards the end of the 1930s. The heroic struggles led by farmers’ organisations in North Malabar against landlords, along with the stories of those who faced police repression and became martyrs, began to spread among the people.

At the end of the 19th century, the Church Mission Society (CMS) started a school at Blahi. A library developed by young people who were committed to the national political movement was named the Gopalakrishna Gokhale Library. The ground adjoining the library is still known as Gokhale Maidanam. It is also noteworthy that the renowned freedom fighter C. Rajagopalachari addressed a gathering at this ground in 1936.

Triprayar A.U.P. School was the first school in the educational history of Nattika. The school was established by the Church Mission Society (CMS) at the end of the 19th century.

With the establishment and commencement of operations of the Trichur Cotton Mill in 1963, Nattika also became part of the organised industrial landscape.

Allopathic medical facilities reached Nattika with the establishment of the Valappad Dispensary in 1929. Before that, most people depended on traditional Ayurvedic treatment provided by local physicians. The floods and severe cyclone that struck the region during 1940–41 caused extensive devastation. The cholera and smallpox epidemics that followed claimed many lives. In 1970, ten dispensaries were sanctioned in the state, one of which began functioning in Nattika.

Coconut cultivation, along with arecanut cultivation as an intercrop, has traditionally been an important part of the agricultural sector in the area. Unscientific coconut cultivation and construction of houses in paddy fields that have been deliberately reclaimed have resulted in waterlogging. More than half of the agricultural land in the panchayat was once paddy fields. Paddy cultivation, which remained active until about 25 years ago, declined considerably by the 1980s and had almost completely disappeared by the 1990s.

In the early period, sesame, groundnuts, vegetables and other crops were cultivated as intermediate crops in paddy fields where only one rice crop was grown. Much of the paddy cultivation was carried out under tenancy and sharecropping systems. When agriculture was completely dependent on climatic conditions, a method known as Koottivilavu/Koottivitha was followed.

The migration to Ceylon that began in the 1920s, along with the tenancy legislation introduced by the Madras Government, brought some changes to the agricultural sector in rural areas. The land reform legislation introduced in the 1960s and the increasing price of coconuts adversely affected paddy cultivation. The flow of Gulf remittances, which began in the 1970s and increased significantly during the 1980s, accelerated the conversion of paddy fields for coconut cultivation and construction. As prosperous farmers and newly wealthy sections of society turned their attention towards the Kole fields, traditional paddy fields were increasingly neglected. Today, the situation has reached the point where not even a single cent of land is used for paddy cultivation in the area.

In earlier times, various traditional art forms were popular in Nattika, including Darikan and Kali (Mookkan Chathan), Kummattikali, Poothamuri, Porattu Natakam, Aivar Kali, Kaikottikali, Kolkali, Arabana Muttu, Thukilunarthupattu, Udukku Kottu, and Villadichan Pattu. Most of these art forms were associated with particular castes and places of worship.

Performances such as Chakyar Koothu, Patakam, Parayan, Kathakali, and Ottamthullal were traditionally conducted only within temple compounds. Over time, these art forms also moved to public stages. Both conservative and progressive ideas found rich expression through these traditional forms of art and culture.