CONDITION OF AVARNAS IN KANNUR , EARLY 20th CENTURY
SUMUKHAN THE SC BOY OF KALLIASHERY K.P.R. Rayarappan (extreme right) with some of Sumukan's grandchildren. The family has "two MBBSs, two LLBs and a BSc" Kalliasseri has never really stopped fighting. Not even after 1947. This village in north Malabar in Kerala has fought on many fronts. In the thick of the freedom struggle, it challenged the British. At the heart of the peasant movement in the region, it took on the janmis (feudal landlords). As a centre of Left-wing currents, it confronted caste. "How can we say the fight for freedom ended once and for all in 1947?" asks K.P.R. Rayarappan, a key figure in all those conflicts. "There was still the struggle for land reform left." At 86, Rayarappan sees more battles ahead. And he wants to be part of them. At 83, he walked some 500 kilometres from Kasargode to Thiruvananthapuram on a march calling for national self-reliance. Two events that sparked off change in Kalliasseri stand out in ...