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Kerala Piravi, marks the birth of the state ofKerala in southernIndia. The state of Kerala was created on 1 November 1956, long after theIndependence of India. Before this, it was three major provinces and several outlying regions under various rulers.
Prior to 1956, Kerala had been divided into four regions:South Canara (Kasaragod region),Malabar,Cochin, andTravancore.
Malabar comprises the northern and north-central region aroundCannanore,Kozhikode,Malappuram, andPalakkad, with some portions aroundThrissur andKochi. This region had been ruled by theZamorin ofKozhikode,Arakkal kingdom,Kolathunadu,Kingdom of Tanur, andKingdom of Valluvanad, with several other smaller feudal states, before being conquered byTipu Sultan. It was then ceded to theBritish East India Company after theAnglo-Mysore Wars,[1][2] and first annexed to the BritishBombay Presidency, and then replaced toMadras Presidency.[3][4][5] The coastal town ofMahe remained a French enclave until the early 1950s when it was integrated into the Union Territory ofPuducherry. The central region comprised the erstwhileKingdom of Cochin, administered from Thrissur. The southernmost province was theKingdom of Travancore, based in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. While Cochin had been a vassal state under the British Raj, Travancore Kingdom was administered under suzerainty.
Early in the 20th century, theMappila Muslims of the Calicut region revolted against theZamindars who were mostly Hindus and theBritish Raj.[6] In the following years, agitations for political rights and a popular government took place inTravancore andCochin as well. After India waspartitioned in 1947 intoIndia andPakistan,Travancore and Cochin, part of India were merged on 1 July 1949 to formTravancore–Cochin (Thiru-Kochi).[7] A popular movement known asAikya Kerala Movement, for the formation of the State of Kerala, gave motivation to the reorganization of the state on a linguistic basis.[8][9]
On 1 November 1956, thetaluk ofKasargod in theSouth Canara district of Madras, theMalabar district of Madras, and Travancore-Cochin, without four southern taluks (which joined Tamil Nadu), merged to form the state of Kerala under theStates Reorganisation Act.[10][11] ACommunist-led government underE. M. S. Namboodiripad came to power following the first elections for the new Kerala Legislative Assembly in 1957.[11] It was one of the earliest elected Communist governments, after Communist success in the 1945 elections in theRepublic of San Marino.[12][13][14]
