The Tellicherry Renaissance

 

Tellicherry was a trading hub  for spices in the western coast of India from the time immemorial . Many wars were fought by the Kings and the invaders for control of spice trade  in this area, and in the 17th century British established  their first settlement on the Malabar Coast at Tellicherry . Tellicherry was a land of renaissance and progressive ideas . From there came many revolutionaries who changed society .Tellicherry was  the birthplace of Communist movement in India. It was on the hills of Parapuram at Pinarayi , the communists had their first party congress .

There were people who changed the course of the history through their determination  and vision . In the early 20th century ,people like CK Revathi and Kunhi Mayen changed the perception of the people through their actions and thoughts . Their life  story is much a story of the times.

CK Revathi was the daughter of Karayi Damayanthi Amma , a lady with progressive  ideas . Revathi  was a social worker and founder of a women's association . Its activities included giving lessons to women in cutting and tailoring , arranging lectures by doctors on disease prevention etc  . They started library and  arrangements were in place to distribute books to women at their homes .

She had a passion for writing and she started writing the novel’ Randu Sahodarimar’  (Two sisters). She did all her household chores promptly during the day and then burned midnight oil to write .  One day her husband , police  Commissioner at Mahe  walked into her room and  burnt all the papers . He said  ‘Good or bad, this should not be published. People will cook up many stories and I do not want her to be known as a story-monger.

Years later she rewrote the story and got it published and copies were sold out . The commissioner husband was happy that they could get do the long due maintainance work of the house with the royalty. At the age of 88 years in 1980 , she won the Kerala Sahitya Academy award for her autobiography titled Shahasra Poornima ( A thousand lunar months).  Revathi ‘s life shows the determination of  strong-willed woman , who could stand upto the barbs of the society, also her social commitment  for the downtrodden stand out after decades.

   Early 20th century , School Education was a taboo for girls especially in the muslim community . Convent  education for girls was almost forbidden . Sending a girl for education up to matriculation was unthinkable.  They were not allowed to go outside freely or talk loudly and was destined to live within the four walls of the house

  In the 1930s Vayyappurath Kunnath Kunhimayen Sahib  from Tellicherry held many unorthodox views  that clashed with the accepted norms and  notions of the Mappila community. Mayen was the  first person to send his three daughters to the convent for English education in Malabar.. That was a revolutionary step in the history of Muslims in Malabar

 Kunhi Mayin Sahib was educated and was well versed in religious matters . He was open to different views and ideas  . He maintained a good library in his house and  enriched himself with books from  Oxford and Macmillan publishing houses regularly .

  Kunhimayin Sahib  was accused and ridiculed by the public orthodoxy as *Khafir Mayin* for sending his daughters for convent education (Kafir means infidel or a disbeliever) .  These three girls were known as Tellichery sisters. They were Amina Hashim Ayisha Rauf, and Haleema Abooty. As school students these ladies revolutionized the dressing pattern of the Muslim society.They wore skirt and blouse and went to the convent with their brothers who unlike the Muslim boys of the time, wore trousers and had cropped hair. Later when they grew older, they wore sari instead of Malabar muslim traditional clothes.

  Amina Hashim graduated to be a doctor; Ayisha Rauf became school education Inspector at Malappuram under the British Government. After  marriage she went to Sri Lanka with her husband and  was Principal of a college and  was elected as the first woman Mayor of Colombo Municipality. Haleema Abooty after her graduation turned to  social service and was involved in upliftment of the poor and downtrodden in the society.

 Kafir Mayins bold initiative  was among the first steps for lakhs of  women of Malabar whom today are in the forefront of education and has changed the educational demographics of the state