About My Work
I examine the growth of Calicut in Malabar coast as an Urban location from Pre-colonial to colonial periods. The concept looks at the transition of Calicut to a cosmopolitan location with itsown kingship system and merchant patterns during the pre-colonial period. This vibrant cosmopolitan side of the town of Calicut was further strengthened and connected to British urban domains during 18th century. I would like to locate colonial urban spaces, through administrative and medical institutional locations in the city of calicut. The locations like Cantonment, Municipality, Collectorate, Hospitals and the Personnel like Collector, Judges, Police and Medical asylums, hospitals, Medical superintendents dispensed the ideologies of British colonial raj where the concepts of Land, Geography, Space, Industry, manufacturing, medicine, Public works, Transport and communication etc could be located.However, this early colonial connections were resulted also in the making of several categorisations and segregations in and around the city.
Citations
Article
Santhosh Abraham; The Keyi Mappila Muslim Merchants of Tellicherry and the Making of Coastal Cosmopolitanism on the Malabar Coast, Asian Review of World Histories, Vol. 5, 2017, pp.145-162
Abstract
The Keyi Mappila Muslim merchants of Tellicherry (Thalassery) on the Malabar Coast were one of the few early modern Indian merchant groups who succeeded in carving
out a powerful political and social configuration of their own on the western coast of the Indian Ocean during the British period. Today, several branches of Keyi families
remain a cultural unit in the Islamic community of Kerala. This article attempts to locate the group in the larger theoretical context of Indian Ocean cosmopolitanism and
argues that the Keyis developed a distinct and significant type of coastal cosmopolitanism in an Indian Ocean setting; Chovakkaran Moosa, an influential merchant from a Keyi family during the colonial period, serves as a representative figure. Through their trade and financial relationships with British and local elites, and the characteristic architecture of their warehouses, residences, and mosques, the Keyis successfully integrated the practices of a global cosmopolitan space into a local vernacular secluded commercial space. This article presents a synthesis of a lively coastal urban and local rural cosmopolitanism that included several networks and exchanges, foreign and
native collaborations, and an amalgamation of local and external cultural spheres.