After a seminar on ‘Malabar Muslims and the Left’ organised by pro-CPM Muslim cultural organisations early this month, the party is on with a series of seminars on ‘Malabar Migration - History and Development’ aiming at a predominantly Christian segment of settlers in the hilly areas of the district. Patyam Gopalan Memorial Study and Research Centre will organise two seminars on Malabar migration and settlement at Iritty and Alakkode in the first week of January next year.
The announcement of the seminar series comes closely after a seminar on Malabar Muslims and the Left, which was widely seen as the party’s attempt to woo the Muslims ahead of the general elections. “Most of the five lakh people from Central Tranvancore who migrated to Malabar and settled in here were anti-Communists. The wide anti-Communist propaganda by the Catholic Church kept them away from the party. Still, the Communist party managed to make inroads into that community and it exerted influence on many like Fr Vadakkan and
Lonappan Nambadan,” CPM district secretary P Jayarajan said while delivering the presidential address at the book release function of the second volume of the ‘History of the Communist Party in Kannur District’, published by the Patyam Gopalan Memorial Study and Research Centre, here on Monday.
“We have to intervene more in these areas. So, the centre has decided to organise more discussions and debates on the Malabar migration,” stated Jayarajan, who is also the secretary of the Patyam Gopalan Memorial Study and Research Centre.