Pangode

Pangode is a small village located in the south east of Trivandrum district in Kerala state of India.^[2]
One LP school, one UP School, an aided college and a Police Station are situated in this place. Since there are two places called Pangode in Trivandrum District itself, it always confuses. This is a small village in south east of Trivandrum rural district whereas the other one comes inside Trivandrum urban limit.

Pangode is a small village located 45 km north-east of Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) city, the capital of Southern Indian state of Kerala. Pangode is a Gram Panchayat that falls under the Cherpu block of Trivandrum district and located on the Vamanapuram-Chittar Road. It is a border village of Kollam and Trivandrum districts. (It is not to be confused with another Pangode located in the outskirts of Trivandrum city, where an Indian military establishment is located and another one in nearby Kollam district where an Ayurvedic Medical College is situated).

It is a predominantly agriculture-dependent village and most of the villagers are directly or indirectly involved in agriculture for their livelihood. With the spreading of rubber plantations in 1970s and 1980s in Kerala, the village quickly moved over from Coconut and Paddy cultivations to Rubber, considering its higher Return on Investment. In the recent past, many villager youth began travelling to Middle-East countries in search of jobs and, by now, a good number of adults from the village is working abroad and, therefore, remittance is also a good source of income. Flow of remittance has also resulted in increased number of concrete buildings, replacing the old thatched or tiled constructions.

The village has a history of participation in India's freedom struggle in 1940s. Civil disobedience movement led by Mahatma Gandhi (M K Gandhi) has found its ripples in the village as section of villagers refused to pay entry taxes for commodities collected at the Pangode market. A few revolutionary leaders led a mass movement against the British rule and its representative who was ruling Travancore province, C P Ramaswamy Iyer. This led to a bloody incident in which few of the freedom fighers were killed. Later, the police which was under the control of the Travancore Diwan C P Ramaswamy Iyer cracked down the movement and other leaders who were involved in an ambush on the police were arrested. They were later tried and hanged before the country gained independence in 1947.

Pangode has a Government run Primary school, a High School and a Government-aided Upper Primary School. Of late, coping with the demand for English medium education, a few unaided schools have come up across the Panchayat. Also located in the Panchayat is an aided college under the University of Kerala, where undergraduate and graduate courses are conducted. It still has a few markets where agricultural produces are bought and sold by farmers on weekly basis. The village also has a Post Office (PIN: 695609) and a Police Station.

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