One of many first issues Siraj Abrari, the khateeb of Moideen Palli in Kannur, Kerala, suggests once you go to the 18th-century mosque is to climb to the highest of a minaret and take within the view. From 72 toes up, with the Arabian Sea and Mappila Bay unfold out earlier than you, the Arakkal dynasty’s palace to the left, and the European-built St. Angelo Fort to the correct, you might be surrounded by centuries of historical past.
Anybody can go to the mosque, so long as it’s not prayer time. It doesn’t matter when you’re a person or a lady, or what your faith is — an uncommon follow for a Sunni mosque within the Malabar area. Till just some years in the past, visiting the teal-painted mosque — with its Dutch-inspired arched doorways, French ground tiles, Arabic hexagonal cone-topped minarets, and slanted roofs typical of the state — was restricted to devotees. Ladies had been strictly not allowed.
A lot of the credit score for this alteration in perspective goes to heritage activists comparable to Muhammed Shihad, 34, the founding father of Kannur Metropolis Heritage Basis. The engineering skilled had moved again residence from Delhi in 2018 and found that “folks had been forgetting their historical past and heritage” — he was referring to Kannur’s historic significance as a significant medieval commerce centre, the seat of the traditional Mushaka kings, the one Muslim dynasty in Kerala, and a navy hub for Europeans.
Muhammed Shihad with friends at Moideen Palli
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Whereas he began off with the obvious, “selling native meals”, he quickly started on-line and offline documentation, consciousness campaigns to showcase Kannur’s heritage, and heritage excursions. Shihad has mentored round half a dozen younger storytellers who information guests to obscure spots and hidden gems, such because the carving on a wall behind the Arakkal Palace that reads ‘Let Britain Perish’ — etched by an unknown hand in the course of the Stop India Motion.
Vacationers interacting with locals in Kannur
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Kannur Metropolis Heritage Basis is one among many grassroots actions working to protect Kerala’s distinctive cultural panorama. In a state the place the inhabitants density is double the nationwide common, and the place rising land costs threaten historic buildings and heritage websites, such initiatives are a lot wanted. “Kerala is known for some issues — its backwaters, for instance — which dominate vacationer brochures. However there may be additionally a Kerala of the little tales: the small rituals, the temples, [sacred] groves, and mosques through which totally different castes and communities play roles,” explains historian Manu S. Pillai. “A lot of that is being misplaced exactly as a result of it has not obtained consideration. Heritage teams and even particular person efforts at the moment are slowly correcting this. By drawing consideration to those lesser recognized locations and websites, they’re serving to create new worth for them, and, by this, defending and preserving them.”
Heritage walks in Kannur
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Craft will get a lifeline in Thrissur
In Desamangalam, a small village on the southern financial institution of the Bharathapuzha river in Thrissur district, Sivanarayanan Mossari, 55, a grasp coppersmith, wakes up at 6 a.m. every single day to start work in his modest workshop subsequent to his home. Surrounded by moulds, chisels, and hammers, he talks to me as he melts copper and tin in a crucible to craft an uruli — a standard wide-mouthed, shallow cookware. “Twenty years in the past, I nearly left this commerce as a consequence of lack of labor,” he says, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a thorthu (skinny cotton towel). However Vayali, a neighborhood collective, supplied him assist. “They helped me arrange my workshop and related me to experiential tourism networks. Now, folks from all around the world go to, my fame has grown, and I make residing.”
Coppersmith Sivanarayanan Mossari in his workshop
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Vayali started as a gaggle of folks musicians captivated with preserving the oral traditions of the Bharathapuzha area. Over time, their mission expanded to incorporate the revival of native crafts. “We realised these craftsmen wanted extra than simply publicity; they wanted a lifeline,” says Vinod M. Nambiar, Vayali’s govt director. Nambiar, a soft-spoken man in his mid-40s, shouldn’t be the standard picture of a heritage activist. A software program engineer by career, he splits his time between Kochi and his village, and sometimes travels to distant areas to work straight with artisans.
Vinod M. Nambiar
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Since its inception, Vayali’s membership has grown from round 10 folks to 60, comprising everybody from guide labourers to professionals. “Our greatest achievement has been that we’ve impressed a gaggle of younger folks to interact with tradition, heritage, and folklore — creating an area for heritage conservation and permitting it to be handed on to future generations,” says Nambiar. Right now, the collective is constructing a group digital archive to doc folks practices, conducting workshops for schoolchildren, organising the Nila Worldwide Folklore Movie Pageant, and selling cultural tourism by partnerships with organisations comparable to The Blue Yonder.
The Killimangalam success story
Vayali is behind the preservation of the Killimangalam pulppaya, a standard mat woven from kora grass that grows wild alongside the Bharathapuzha. Mockingly, the mat had gained the UNESCO Seal of Excellence in 2006, however in 2016, the collective found that the artisans at Kora Grass Weaving Society had been struggling and on the verge of shutting down. “Just one girl, Prabhavathi, in her late 60s, was nonetheless weaving, like a one-woman military,” remembers Nambiar.
Prabhavathi
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Killimangalam pulppaya
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They produced a documentary, Magic Weavers of Killimangalam, which garnered nationwide and worldwide consideration, and pushed for the central authorities to incorporate the craft underneath its ‘Vanishing Traditions of India’ initiative. Since then, they’ve reformed and strengthened the Killimangalam Society’s administrative construction, and 60 younger folks — principally ladies — have been educated in weaving. Vayali is at present working in the direction of securing a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the mat.
Kochi, pokkali and heritage golf equipment
In Fort Kochi, you’ll usually discover Johann Binny Kuruvilla wearing shorts, with a crossbody bag and an extended umbrella in his hand, main teams of foreigners and locals by the charming alleyways and colonial-style homes. Since he based The Kochi Heritage Mission in 2018, the 36-year-old has been very busy. “There’s a rising demand for heritage walks,” says Kuruvilla, who works with about 15 younger professionals, from IT, structure and different fields, on a contract foundation. “On their days off, they turn out to be storytellers. It’s an effective way for them to find out about their heritage, and these walks supply alternatives to community with new folks, together with top-level enterprise leaders.”
Johann Kuruvilla main a stroll in Fort Kochi
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Highlighting intangible facets of heritage is a significant focus of the Kochi Heritage Mission’s work. In Mattancherry, a 5 sq.km. space inhabited by over 30 communities — from Jains and Tamil Vannars to Gujaratis and Konkanis — the staff has began taking vacationers into folks’s properties, encouraging participation in cultural tourism.
In Kadamakkudi, an island village the place tourism was restricted to boating providers, they’ve now roped in native fishermen and farmers to affix their trails. Vacationers get to observe them catch fish and farm pokkali rice (a standard saltwater-tolerant selection), and hearken to their tales. Over 10% to twenty% of the income goes again to the group, and Kuruvilla plans to coach locals as storytellers, doc their tradition, and promote pokkali by buying it from them. “Heritage isn’t just buildings,” he emphasises. “We wish to spotlight the folks and their lives as residing heritage.”
Vacationers in Kadamakkudi
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The walks are additionally serving to to fund initiatives comparable to heritage golf equipment for schoolchildren, which he plans to launch subsequent month. “The goal is to make historical past extra partaking for youngsters and encourage them to attach with their heritage.”
Who will step up for Alappuzha?
Within the south of Kerala, Protect Alleppey Society (PAS) had spearheaded the heritage conservation of the port city. Established to protect the historical past and attraction of Alappuzha — based by the Travancore kingdom within the 18th century, and celebrated because the ‘Venice of the East’ for its scenic magnificence and complicated canal community — the all-women group had centered on heritage walks and group engagement.
The city was as soon as a thriving industrial and industrial hub, famend for its coir and spices, and had attracted a various vary of settlers, together with Parsis, Gujaratis, Konkani-Brahmins, Jews, Kutchis, Sindhis, and Chettiars. However by the late twentieth century, it confronted decline. Buildings fell into disrepair, canals stagnated, and rubbish collected alongside the shores. “We needed to do one thing about it, although most of us had been housewives married into the city,” says Rani John, one among PAS’ founding members.
Muppalam bridge
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Kannan Okay.R.
Vellakkinar Home in Alleppey
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Kannan Okay.R.
Along with organising walks, they tackled different urgent points comparable to rubbish accumulation. However lack of presidency assist quickly scuttled their efforts and enthusiasm. And at present, the group’s actions have halted as its ageing members are unable to manage. Their final hurrah was a current collaboration with Kochi-based Thought Manufacturing unit Design to publish a espresso desk e-book titled The Alleppey Story, documenting the city’s heritage by pictures, maps, and narratives. “The e-book would be the legacy of PAS,” says John, 72.
A web page from The Alleppey Story e-book that includes the CSI Church
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Thulasi Kakkat
Rani John
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Kannan Okay.R.
When historical past meets ecology
Certainly one of Kerala’s greatest challenges at present is pure disasters — such because the devastating 2018 floods and up to date landslides in Wayanad — which make heritage conservation a fancy activity. In response, a rising variety of activists is merging historic analysis with ecological safety, recognising their interconnectedness.
A determine who stands on the forefront of that is Pallikkonam Rajeev. A graphic designer, skilled flautist, and native historian, he’s additionally a founding member of Kerala Pradeshika Charithra Padana Samithi. The organisation, established in 2022, promotes analysis and raises consciousness about native historical past as a way to guard the area’s ecology. His advocacy is way from passive. The partaking and eloquent speaker participates in residents’ boards, harnesses the facility of social media to rally communities, and makes use of his information to assist and empower teams resisting environmentally dangerous actions.
Pallikkonam Rajeev
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As an example, when locals protested a authorities resolution to allow stone quarrying in Kottamala Hills in Ramapuram, Rajeev helped to spotlight the cultural and historic significance of the location. His group urged the Archaeological Survey of India to analyze, resulting in the invention of dolmenoid cists (prehistoric burial chambers) within the sacred groves. This performed a vital position within the courts’ intervention to halt quarrying actions.
Dolmenoid cists in Kottamala Hills
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Each up has a down
However not each initiative meets with success. Rajeev remembers grassroots organisation Kottayam Nattukoottam’s participation within the ill-fated thought of reclaiming outdated canals. Their analysis to assist environmental organisations, which drew from outdated information and oral histories, gained huge public assist and bought the federal government concerned about taking up the mission. However political and industrial pursuits finally dominated. “In lots of locations, the programme grew to become a pretext for sand mining or reducing down bushes round waterways,” he says.
Kottayam Nattukoottam staff out and about
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Over 250 kilometres away, in Kozhikode, the Calicut Heritage Discussion board (CHF) is going through one other uphill battle. For greater than a decade, it has been devoted to preserving the Commonwealth Belief Handloom Weaving Manufacturing unit, a grand Nineteenth-century constructing constructed by German missionaries, which was a key participant within the industrialisation of the Malabar area. It was later taken over by the British authorities and, after Independence, got here underneath a neighborhood belief. Regardless of its dilapidated state, CHF’s authorized interventions have been essential in stopping its demolition.
A view of the crumbling Commonwealth Belief Handloom Weaving Manufacturing unit
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Okay. Ragesh
“We intervened within the excessive court docket and persistently raised the difficulty with directors when there have been energetic plans for demolition,” says C.Okay. Ramachandran, a retired IAS officer and CHF’s convenor. “However sadly, as a substitute of defending the monument, authorities are letting it crumble.”
Heritage can bolster tourism
At a time when cultural tourism is without doubt one of the fastest-growing segments worldwide (in accordance with the United Nations, it accounts for two-fifths of all world tourism), the necessity for citizen-led initiatives has by no means been stronger. In spite of everything, tourism types 10% of Kerala’s GDP, and most lately, the 2024-25 state finances has allotted ₹351.42 crore to advance ongoing tasks and introduce new initiatives.
“Citizen-led initiatives play a vital position in selling heritage literacy and consciousness,” says B. Venugopal, former director of the Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past and one of many foremost forces behind Kochi’s bid to get a UNESCO heritage tag. As he acknowledged in an earlier interview, “It’s right here — by the alleyways of Mattancherry and Fort Kochi — that spices flowed to the remainder of the world. The daybreak of the age of discovery rose from a thirst for spice. This legacy that Kochi harbours should be conserved.”
Heritage walks in Fort Kochi
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It has been 25 years for the reason that final try, however individuals are hopeful in 2024. And with increasingly residents’ boards reviving, revitalising and popularising the tradition of their areas, Venugopal believes it could actually drive coverage actions from the federal government, assist the state to totally faucet into its heritage, and increase its tourism and craft financial system.
The author is the co-founder of ARPO, an organisation that promotes tradition and heritage.
Revealed – September 20, 2024 12:45 pm IST
