Malabar Days is my personal account of a journey that I have been taking both through time and space.
This description of my trip can be taken almost literally. For in December 2006 I set out to visit the places and locations that my great great great great uncle Thomas Hervey Baber (1777 to 1843) had lived and worked in.
Thomas was an official of the East India Company, who is generally remembered today, if at all, as the man who tracked down the Pyche Raja on the 30th of November 1805.
The Raja, who is also known today as the Pazhassi Raja, is widely recognised as one of the first Indians to have been able to resist the English in their efforts to take over the subcontinent.
My blog will seek to describe the events between 1795 and 1843, that were to shape the future for the Malabar Coast and Kerala, and to show how the events of 1805 and the ensuing years were to change the way Thomas Baber saw the East India Company rule, and how he in turn became just as great opponent of the East India Companies policies and operations.
Conventional wisdom would have us believe that the Raja was a Freedom Fighter, and that Thomas was a colonial oppressor, but as my journey will show, nothing is quite as straightforward as it at first seems.
In time it is hoped to publish my research in the form of a book both in Malayalam and English.
Nick Balmer
December 2006
3 comments:
Hi Sir,
It was indeed great reading your blog. As a localite from panamaram,Wayanad, i left no lines in your blog. Well that was few months back.
Now just returned to let you know that Hariharan a renowned director hav directed a Malayalam film "Pazhassi Raja" in which Mammootty (Movie Star) appears in the title role. The film is scheduled for release in october 2009.
and Harry Key plays the role as Thomas Hervey Baber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazhassi_Raja_(film)
Regards,
Siraj
Presently in Chennai(Madras).
I am from the village named Kottayam and I was searching about Pazhazi raja..There is a film released in his name and your blog was worth reading. I think whatever you have described in the blog are the real stories about pazhassi raja.
9. Genesis of Muslim population in Malabar dates back to 1100 AD when a sizeble section of people converted to Islam following a Raja’s conversion to Islam [believed to be last Chera ruler] ---History have plenty of instances where subejcts convert to ruler’s faith in case of conversion. + Inland Muslims have a distinct temper from those of coastal Muslims. Former is fierce, bigoted and turbulent as they are mostly agrarian while latter is amiable, obedient and mild mannered as they are mainly businessmen. To say that Muslims of inland are descendants of coastal migrants is not true.
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