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Caste conflict In Kalpeni Island

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Theodore Gabriel
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Kalpeni is one of the islands of the enchantingly beautiful small archipelago known as Lakshadweep, a group of diminutive coral islands lying off the southwest coast of India, scattered on the Arabian sea 200 to 400 kilometres off the Kerala Coast. The islands, though small, are densely populated-inhabited by an interesting tribal people, who are engaged mainly in cultivation of the coconut tree, and as a side-line, in fishing. The archipelago is part of the Republic of India, and is ruled directly by the Central Government since 1958. The events narrated in this article, however, took place when the islands were attached for administrative purposes to the districts of Malabar and South Kanara of the Madras Presidency (as most of British South India was called in the colonial days). Kalpeni Island was situated in that part of this territory of which the District Collector of Malabar was the supreme authority.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , October 1988 , pp. 489 - 499
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1988

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References

1 Situated between 8° and 12° 30' North Latitude, and 71° and 74° East Longitude. There are twenty-seven islands in the group, of which only ten are inhabited. The islands are between 0.1 to 4.4 square kilometres in area. The population density is the highest in the Republic of India, the total population being 40,237 according to the census of 1981. See Mannadiar, N. S. (ed.), Gazetteer of India, Lakshadweep (Coimbatore, Govt. of India Press, 1977), 3–4Google Scholar, and Nair, P.M., Lakshadweep Provisional Population Totals (Cochin, Director of Census Operations, 1981), 5Google Scholar.

2 The year of reorganization of the Indian States and Union Territories.

3 See D'Souza, Victor S., ‘Status groups among the Moplahs of the south-west coast of India’, in Imtiaz, Ahmad (ed.), Caste and social stratification among Muslims in India (New Delhi, Manohar Books, 1978), 41–56, espGoogle Scholar.

4 ibid., 47.

5 Dumont, Louis, Homo Hierarchicus (London, Paladin), 1972, 256Google Scholar.

6 According to Duraont, nowhere is the domination of the caste system so acutely felt as in Kerala. Dumont, op. cit., 119–20Google Scholar.

7 Gabriel, Theodore, Religion in Lakshadweep (see chapter on religious conversion in the Islands), M. Litt. Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1982Google Scholar.

8 See Dube, Leela, ‘Caste anologues among the Laccadive (Lakshadweep) Muslims’, in Ahmad, Imtiaz, op. cit., 57–96Google Scholar.

9 The word ‘Mālumi’ is derived from the Arabic term muallim, meaning a helmsman. The term ‘Mēlāccēri’ most probably originated from the occupation of the caste, which saw them high up in the coconut trees, plucking coconuts or tapping for toddy (the word mēlē in Malayalam means ‘up’), or from the fact that they usually resided in the western parts of the islands, which are known as Mēlāccēri’.

10 A. R, Kutty., Marriage and kinship in an island society (Delhi, National Publishing House), 1972, 22Google Scholar.

11 Pookoya, P. I., Paraya Edukal (Calicut, Saraswati Press), 1957, 5Google Scholar.

12 In the beginning the Mālumis (sailors) were, in common with the Mēlāccēris, victims of all these discriminations. However, in the early twentieth century, the improvement in their economic status and the vital role they played in trade enabled them to gain recognition from the Kōyas as a caste higher than the Mēlāccēris. In 1930, for example, the Mālumis were accorded special status officially by the Amin (Village Officer) of Kalpeni island. (Kutty, op. cit., 23).

13 It is strange that Mr.Chappu, Menon, writing in Logan's Malabar, takes a very dismal view of the character and abilities of the Kalpeni islanders. If his description is indeed a true representation of the nature of this people, they must have undergone considerable change within the 80 or so years since Mr. Menon's account was writtenGoogle Scholar. See Chappu, Menon V., ‘Kalpeni Island’ in Logan, William, Malabar, vol. II, pp. ccxciv–cxcviii (Madras, Superintendent, Government Press, Reprint 1951). However, most observers concur with my appraisal of the Kalpeni peopleGoogle Scholar. See, for example, Nair, , Sathikumaran, , and K. N. P, Namboodiri., Arabikkatalile Payiradvipukal, ‘Coral islands of the Arabian Sea’ (Kottayam, National Bookstall, 1973), 231Google Scholar.

14 Nair, , op. cit., 230Google Scholar. In 1920, the number of Kōyas (60% of the total population) was almost double the number of the Mēlāccēris (ibid.). In 1962, the Koyas numbered 1431, while the Mēlāccēris were only 873. (See Kutty, op. cit., 21.)

15 Pookoya, op. cit., 5Google Scholar.

16 ibid., 6.

17 ibid., 7.

18 What Dale terms, ‘The general proscription against official interference in religious matters throughout British India’. Dale, Stephen I., Islamic society on the South Asian frontier; the Mappilas of Malabar (Oxford, Clarendon Press), 1980, 177Google Scholar. See also the directive of the Governor- General of India to the Government of Bombay, where he instructs that the natives of Malabar and other non-British subjects should be tried by the courts only in accordance with the traditional laws and usages prevailing there. (Government of Bengal to Bombay, 30 June 1794, Home Miscellaneous Series 145(13) India Office Library and Records, London, 360.)

19 See P. I, Pookoya., Dvīpōlpatti ‘Origin of the Islands’ (Calicut, Saraswathy Printing Works), 1960, 113Google Scholar and K. P, Ittaman., Social change in Amini Island (New Delhi, Abhinar Publications), 1976, 205–16Google Scholar.

20 Pookoya, op. cit., 8Google Scholar.

21 R. H, Ellis., A short account of the Laccadive Islands and Minicoy (Madras, Superintendent, Govt. Press), 1924Google Scholar.

22 Pookoya, , Paraya Edukal, 10Google Scholar.

23 Quoted in Pookoya, , Paraya Edukal, 1957, 13 (my translation from the Malayalam). The ‘M.S.P.’ is the Malabar Special Police, a crack unit stationed at Malappuram district, the scene of the so-called ‘Mappila outbreaks’, specially trained to deal with riotsGoogle Scholar.

24 The Kōyas of Kavaratti island had shown a more enlightened and tolerant attitude towards the low castes, and had voluntarily released them from many of the social restraints. For example, the Amin of Kavaratti, Putiyettatt' Sayed Mohammed Kōya Tannal, had as far back as 1886 recommended to the government the appointment of Malumis as Kacceri Kārana vans ‘Elders of the Amin's court’. See Pookoya, , Dvīpolpatti, 1960, 114Google Scholar.

In my work, ‘Religion in Lakshadweep’, I have narrated how the Tannals of Kavaratti, the highest religious dignitaries of the Lakshadweep Muslim community, had displayed a very liberal attitude in admitting the Mēlāccēris to the Sūfī, Qādīriya, and Riphai tarīqas of the islands. (See Gabriel, op. cit., 185–6.)

25 Ittaman, op. cit., 215–16Google Scholar.

26 See Ramunny, M.., Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands, States of our Union Series (New Delhi, Director, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting), 1972, 32Google Scholar.

27 Wood, Conrad, ‘The Mappila rebellion of 1921–1929 and its genesis’, Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1975Google Scholar.

28 See Shetty, V. T. Rajashekar, Dalit movement in Karnataka (Madras, Diocesan Press), 1978Google Scholar.

29 Sura 49, verse 13 of the Qurān reads, ‘Truly, the most worthy of honour in the sight of God is he who feareth him most’; religious piety is the only criterion which Islam recognizes for inequalities in human beings. (See J. M, Rodwell., The Koran, London, Bernard Quaritch, 1876, 520Google Scholar.)

30 Dumont, op. cit., 254Google Scholar.

31 See Leach, Edmund, Aspects of caste in South India, Ceylon, and north-west Pakistan (London, Cambridge University Press), 1960, introductionGoogle Scholar.