This article gives an overview of the ethnic groups in Kerala, with links to articles that provide more detail. A coastal state, the Malayali people of the Indian state of Kerala have been in contact with Jewish, Syrian and Arab traders and missionaries for over two thousand years. Descendants of these people now speak Malayalam, the language of the great majority of people Kerala, but retain distinctive cultural and religious traditions. Various ethnic groups with origins in other parts of India have unique customs and use languages at home other than Malayalam, adding to the rich cultural diversity of the state.[1][2]
Contents |
The native people of Kerala who speak Malayalam, the official language of the state is called Malayali (Malayalam: മലയാളി). The Malayalam language is a Dravidian language closely related to Tamil which crystallized into a distinctive tongue only at the beginning of the medieval era. Modern Malayalam includes loan words from Portuguese, Arabic, Syriac, and in more recent times English.[3] While the majority of Malayalis live in Kerala, significant populations also exist in other parts of India, the Middle East, Europe and North America. According to the Indian census of 1991, there were 28,096,376 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 96.66% of the total population of that state. The slang Mallu is sometimes used by the media and North Indians to refer to a Malayali in informal contexts.[4]
The majority (about 54%) of the Malayali people are Hindu, mostly of the Ezhava and Nair communities, but there are also large Muslim (24%) and Christian (18%) communities.[5] The Muslim community, or Mappilas, trace their origins far back to early contacts with Arab traders before the start of the Christian era, and mostly follow the Shafi`i school of Sunni Islam. Many speak the distinctive Mappila dialect of Malayalam.[6] Many of the Christians belong to the Syrian Malabar Nasrani community, and are also known as the Nasrani Mapilas.[7] Some of the Christians, known as the Knanaya, trace their origins to Jewish immigrants.[8] The descendants of the Cochin Jews who have traditionally followed Halakhic Judaism are known as Juda Mappila.[9]
Since time immemorial, there have been frequent migrations to Kerala from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. The history of ancient Kerala itself is deeply intertwined with Tamil Nadu's ancient past, and the Tamil and Malayalam languages are closely related. The dialect of Tamil spoken today in the district of Palakkad in Kerala has a large number of Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam syntax and also has a distinct Malayalam accent.[10]
Some of the earliest migrations attested by history were those of Iyers from the Cauvery delta to the district of Palakkad. The first of these migrations are believed to have taken place over five hundred years ago. These Iyers settled in Palakkad where they owned land and led an affluent existence till the enactment of the land reforms in the 1960s. They followed many Malayali practices include the practice of sambandham. There have also been migrations of Iyers to the princely state of Travancore from the Tirunelveli district during the 18th and 19th centuries. These Iyers are called Kerala Iyers and differ significantly from Palakkad Iyers in their language and social status. Most of Travancore's diwans were Tamil Brahmins.[11][12]
Apart from Iyers, many other Tamil communities also migrated to Kerala between the 18th and the 20th century when the southernmost Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu was a part of the Travancore kingdom. The capital of the Travancore kingdom which ruled over most of Kerala was located in Padmanabhapuram in present-day Tamil Nadu. The caste system in Kerala is very similar to that which exists in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu.[13]
Vellalars migrated from Tamil Nadu to eastern parts of Kerala like Idukki district, Pathanamthitta District. They are prominently found in Erattupetta, Pala, Ponkunnam, Kanjirappalli, Thodupuzha, Pathanamthitta etc. Similarly, Tamil Muslims migrated the same route from Madurai to Thodupuzha, Irattupetta, Pathanamthitta regions. They are distinct from Malayalam speaking Mappila Muslims in many ways including the usage of a dialect of Tamil inside their houses.
Shivalli Brahmins living all over the Indian state of Kerala are part of the larger Tulu Brahmin subsect primarily found in the Indian state of Karnataka but also in the Kasaragod district of Northern Kerala. Their mother tongue is the Dravidian Tulu language. Brahmins from Tulunadu may have migrated to Kerala before the first century C.E.[14] Today, there is a sizeable Tulu Brahmin population in Thiruvananthapuram and elsewhere in the state.[15]
Kannada is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannadigas (ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರು Kannadigaru), number roughly 50 million, making it the 15 most spoken language in the world.[16] It is one of the official languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka.[17]
There are about 3,25,571 speakers of Kannada in Kerala, mainly concentrated in the Kasaragod district of the north. Most Kannada-speakers in Kerala are Tulu people who use Kannada language as an additional tongue.
Cochin GSB's are a branch of the Konkani language speaking Gaud Saraswat Brahmins community of India who form the majority of Konkanis is Kerala. GSBs of Cochin form the southernmost subsect of Saraswat Brahmins of West coast. GSBs of north Kerala are similar to GSBs of Canara in speech and customs, whereas GSBs of former princely states of Cochin and Travancore have developed their own Konkani dialect and Customs, which distinguish them from rest of GSB community, this subsect is now called Cochin GSBs. In Geographical terms, Cochin GSBs are those who live south of Thrissur district of Kerala.[18] Other Konkani speaking Minirities in Kerala include the Kudumbis, Daivajnas,and the Vaishya Vanis.All these groups had migrated from Goa within last few centuries for various soci-economic reasons.
Marathi is the oldest of the regional literatures in Indo-Aryan languages, dating from about 1000 AD.[19]
There are about 30,000 speakers of the Marathi language (मराठी Marāṭhī) in Kerala. Most Marathi-speakers in Kerala were descendants of administrators and civil servants who migrated from Tamil Nadu's Tanjore district during the 19th century.
There are about 500 Gujarati families living for many generations in Kochi, the commercial hub of Kerala. Gujarati community is composed of various social groups like Jains, Saurashtris and Kutchis in the Indian state. The Gujarati Street at Mattanchery in the city is a main Gujarati cultural icon in Kerala.[20] Calicut also has a sizeable population of Hindu and Jain Guajaratis.[21] They are basically business people doing all forms of wholesale and retail trade. There is a Gujarati Higher Secondary School near Calicut Beach.[22]
Kochi is home to the Punjabi speaking Sikh community in Kerala as the coastal city has the most number of Sikhs in the south Indian state. Many of the Kerala's Punjabi Sikh community are in the automobile spare parts industry. The only gurudwara in Kerala is also located in Kochi. The foundation stone of the gurudwara was laid on November 29, 1955.
Kerala also have a small number of scattered Bengali, Bihari and Oriya communities. These people migrates to Kerala seeking better fortunes as unskilled labors.
(Excluding the tribal population)[23]
| Language | No. of speakers | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| Malayalam | 28,096,376 | 96.66 |
| Tamil | 616,010 | 2.12 |
| Kannada | 3,25,571 | 1.2 |
| Tulu | 111,670 | 0.38 |
| Konkani | 64,008 | 0.22 |
| Telugu | 47,216 | 0.16 |
| Hindi | 21,751 | 0.07 |
| Urdu | 12,625 | 0.04 |
| Gujarati | 6,369 | 0.02 |
| English | 3,002 | 0.01 |
| Punjabi | 2,201 | 0.008 |
| Bengali | 1,919 | 0.007 |
| Nepali | 1,312 | 0.005 |
| Sindhi | 1,185 | 0.004 |
| Oriya | 733 | 0.003 |
| Dilli | 277 | 0.001 |
| Assamese | 264 | 0.001 |
| Arabic | 243 | 0.001 |
| Other languages | 4256 | 0.15 |
| Total | 29,067,481 | 100% |
According to the 2001 census[5] the breakdown of ethnic groups by religion is:
| Malayalam | Other languages | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindu | 54.20% | 2% | 56.20% |
| Muslim | 23.70% | 1% | 24.70% |
| Christian | 18.00% | 1% | 19.00% |
| Other religions | <0.1% | <0.1% | 00.10% |
| Total | 96.00% | 4.00% | 100.00% |
The breakdown of Hindus by community is
| Community | Total |
|---|---|
| Ezhavas | 22.91% |
| Nairs | 14.41%[24] |
| Pulaya | 03.27%[25] |
| Brahmins | 01.59% |
| Cheruman | 00.99% |
| Other Scheduled Castes | 05.55% |
| Hindu Tribals | 01.07%[26] |
| Others | 08.00% |
In 1968, the Communist government under E. M. S. Namboodiripad ordered a massive and comprehensive socio-economic survey of each resident in the state of Kerala, to assess the social inequality for people belonging to different castes. This survey remains the only caste-count ever conducted in post-independent India till now. The survey found that individuals belonging to higher castes possessed more land and had relatively higher per capita income as compared to the general population. The survey found that only 33% of the states population is forward caste, almost half of whom where Syrian Christians.[27]
According to the survey, 13% of the Brahmins, 6.8% of the Syrian Catholics, 5.4% of the Jacobites and 4.7% of the Nairs owned more than 5 acres of land, while just 1.4% of the Ezhavas, 1.9% of the Muslims and 0.1% of the Scheduled Castes had that much land in their possession.[28]
| Caste | Population (1968) | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Brahmin | 353,329 | 1.76% |
| Nair | 2,905,775 | 14.46% |
| Nair Inferior | 435,396 | 2.17% |
| Kammalar | 756,178 | 3.76% |
| Vellalar / Chetty | 151,150 | 0.75% |
| Izhava / Nadar | 4,457,808 | 22.19% |
| Kaniyan / Arayan / Mukkuvan | 851,603 | 4.24% |
| Scheduled Castes | 1,578,115 | 7.85% |
| Ezhuthachan / Maravan | 260,042 | 1.29% |
| Syrian & Anglo - Indian | 3,214,278 | 16.00% |
| Latin Catholic | 731,207 | 3.64% |
| Christian Scheduled Caste | 301,912 | 1.50% |
| Muslim | 3,842,322 | 19.12% |
| Scheduled Tribe | 253,519 | 1.26% |
| Total | 20,092,634 | 100.00% |
The Census of 1968 was not very conclusive, since the survey takers merged several unrelated castes in to one group (for example, Ambalavasis and Tamil Brahmins were grouped along with Malayali Brahmins). The last comprehensive caste census of Kerala was undertaken by the British in 1931 (the Census of 1941 also asked caste, but the tables were never published).[29]
| Caste | Population (1931) | Percentage (1931) |
|---|---|---|
| Malayali Brahmin | 50,240 | 0.51% |
| Foreign Brahmin | 121,748 | 1.24% |
| Ambalavasi Brahmin | 39,371 | 0.40% |
| Samanta Kshatriya | 5,901 | 0.06% |
| Samanthan Nair | 4,921 | 0.05% |
| Nair | 1,505,929 | 15.30% |
| Vilakkithala Nair | 35,199 | 0.36% |
| Veluthedath Nair | 22,219 | 0.23% |
| Kammalar | 265,752 | 2.70% |
| Vellalar | 88,584 | 0.90% |
| Chetty | 49,213 | 0.50% |
| Izhava + Thiyya | 2,007,901 | 20.40% |
| Kaniyar | 39,371 | 0.40% |
| Mukkuvar + Arayar | 88,584 | 0.90% |
| Parayar | 165,656 | 1.68% |
| Pulayar + Cherumar | 678,387 | 6.89% |
| Kuravan | 95,295 | 0.97% |
| Thandan | 41,214 | 0.42% |
| Nadar | 402,555 | 4.09% |
| Syrian Christian | 1,197,553 | 12.17% |
| Non-Syrian Christian | 807,686 | 8.21% |
| Muslim | 1,604,629 | 16.30% |
| Total | 9,842,650 |