History of Kerala
The
late Abu Abraham once famously said that "there is Kerala and there is India".
He wasn't wrong. The land of Keralaputras or Keram (coconut trees), straddled
by the evergreen Western Ghats on one side and the fathomless Arabian Sea on
the other, is as different from the rest of India as pepper is to chilli.
The name of the state of Kerala has been taken from the word Keralaputra (land
of the sons of Cheras), as mentioned in one of the Ashokan edicts dating back
to 273-236 BC. Chera was the first large empire that took roots in this state,
and continued to use Tamil till 7th century as their administrative language.
The Chera power declined in the 10th century AD, after Cholas, the rulers of
Tamil Nadu, were successful in overthrowing the dynasty. After the decline of
Cholas in the 11th century, gradually political power in the state went into
the hands of the Zamorin of Calicut. In 1496, Vasco da Gama became the first
European to find a route to India through sea and started a long-time fight
for the power in this region between the Portuguese, British, and Dutch.
For
a brief period in the middle of 18th century AD, Travancore, with the help of
petty kingdoms, tried to control the political power of Kerala. Haider Ali and
Tipu Sultan also tried to annexe the areas south of Travancore, but could not
fulfill their dream as they were attacked by the British from the east and had
to withdraw. After Tipu's first defeat by the British, the Seringpatnam Treaty
brought all the captured parts of Kerala directly under the British and Travancore
and Kochi became princely states under the British. Kerala became a separate
state only in 1956 when new states on the linguistic basis were created in India.
Formerly it was a part of Madras state and to carve out a new state the regions
of Travancore, Cochin, and Malabar were added into one to be called Kerala.
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