Build up of class consciousness: Agitational politics In Malabar

Abstract

​The objective of this paper is to explore the origins of radicalism in the politics of Kerala in the first half of the last century as forces that give support to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). This paper is based on the hypothesis that the ‘social and political radicalism’ in Kerala originated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was due to the impact of modernisation and became what could be termed as Kerala sub- nationalism. An examination of the caste system, land relations and even the nineteenth century religious revival is necessary for a proper study of the radicalism.