Migration and the Changing Pattern of Land Use in Malabar

The pattern of land use may undergo changes with the influx of migrants in which they operate as agents of change by introducing new ideas and practices. Kerala state which came into existence in 1956 by amalgamating the princely State of Travancore in the south, the princely State of Cochin in the middle and the erstwhile Malabar district of the former Madras Presidency in the north has been the scene of migration of peasants from Travancore region to Malabar region in search of land suitable for cultivation. The peasants who migrated were those who had acquired some sort of a consciousness of development and who were inspired more by the desire to improve their economic prospects rather than to eke out an existence. While extending cultivation in the wastelands of the sub-mountaineous regions of Malabar, the peasant migrants tilted the land use in favour of income rendering cash crops rather than to raise subsistence crops. How they introduced such a pattern of land use and changed it subsequently form the theme of the paper.