DIWAN SANKARA WARRIER

Long before Independence our country was divided in to about 600 small kingdoms and were ruled by Maharajas with the help of British Among these territories, Kochi State was the only one ruled excellently and efficiently. For this the people of Kochi owes a lot to Diwan Sankara Warrier, (1840- 1856) and his son Diwan Sankunni Menon,( 1860 – 1879).

From an era of King’s rule, Sankara Warrier laid the foundation for a modern government. His rule was a silver lining at a time when most of the State rulers were corrupt ,and the law and order was very poor. The Madras Government, The Board of Directors and Secretary of State were full of praise for his rule.He was as famous as Sri. Salar jung, Sri. Dinakar Rao, Madhava Rao, Sheshayya Shastri, e.t.c.

SANKARA WARRIER was born on January,22nd,1798, at the Edakkunni Wariam Tharavadu,at Edakkunni village, Thrissur Taluk. At the age of 18,he left for Ernakulam and joined as a clerk in Appeal Court. In 1818, he got a better job in Hajur Office. In1820, he joined in Diwan Nanjappayya’s Office. After Nanjappayya, Edamana Sankara Menon came as Diwan and Casamajor came as resident of Kochi. Sankara warrier was made Diwan Peshkar . In January 20th,1840,at the age of 42 years,Sankara warrier was made the Diwan of Kochi State after Venkita Subbaya, who had been removed from the office after a dispute with the Maharaja.

After assuming the Office, Finance, Public works, Agriculture, Trade-development, and Law& order were his priorities.

FINANCE
At the time of taking the charge, the balance amount at the Treasury was Rs.371/-. At the end of the 2nd year, it was 1.5 lakhs. In 18 years, the balance had raised to Rs. 11 lakhs. He achieved this, not by cutting the expenditure for the welfare of the people, but by reducing the unnecessary expenditure of the palace and administration.

PUBLIC WORKS
He made a chain of roads throughout the state. Most of the old bridges were made at his time. He made a lot of tourist bunglows and sathrams in the state.
A road was made connecting Thrissur and Coimbatore. Travel between Kochi and Coimbatore became easy.

AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENTS
Most of the lakes(water reservoirs) we see in kochi state were made during his time.More than thousand acres of barren land were made into agricultural land. He built a dam on Chittur river. About 2000 acres of land were irrigated by this.

DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE
Improvement of transport helped in trade development. Imposing taxes for every small thing was stopped.The taxes for rice and other food items were abolished. A port was built at Malipuram and income through customs duties were increased. Goods transport between Thrissur and Coimbatore started for the first time .The development of water canals-Aranattukara canal, Thevara -Kundannoor canals made the transportation of goods cheaper and easier.

LAW AND ORDER
He stopped slavery which was prevalent in our society for a long time . He stopped it by bringing a law against slavery. He could control corruption in the administrative system to a great extent by taking apt actions.
After 16 years of eventful rule, he died on October2 1st 1856. Even today we the members of Edakkunni warriam remembers him on this day with proper rituals(Vechu namaskaram) at Edakkunni temple.

Contributed by Shri Giridharan G. (giriomnivas@hotmail.com)

Shri IKKANDA WARRIER (1890—1977 )

Ikkanda warrier was born on Medam-22, 1065, M.E.at the Edakkunni warriam Tharavadu at Edakkunni desam,Edakkunni Village, Thrissur Thaluk . His mother was Late Smt. Parukkutty warassyar and father was Late Sri. Sankaran Nambuthiri of Meledath mana, Kuttanelloor.

Ikkanda warrier had his school education at Iranjalakuda,Ernakulam and then at Thrissur. He passed the matriculation from the Govt.H.S.Thrissur.He passed the intermediate examination from Maharajas College Ernakulam. After that he took B.A .Degree from Madras Christian College,B.F.L.from Madras Law College.In 1918, he took the B.L. from the Trivandrum Law College.

In 1914,while studying for B.A. at Madras, he got attracted to the National Freedom Movement and took active part in the Annual Meet of the Congress party at Madras that year. He was deeply impressed with Gandhiji’s ideologies and became a Gandian.
After his studies, he with his friend Mannathazhathu Balakrishna Menon founded Cochin Athletics Association and conducted Foot Ball, and Tennis Tournaments. He was a successful lawyer. He did’nt spend a day without a case at the court.

In 1922, on the advice of Dr. A.R. Menon, the then Municipal Chairman, he became an elected member of the Thrissur Municipality. He was a councilor till 1940. The last 3 years of his tenure he was the Municipal Chairman. Under his able leadership after a mass agitation the electricity distribution licence was wrested from a foreign company,assigned by the then Govt., to the Municipality. Even today the Thrissur Corporation enjoys this privilege, the only Corporation/Municipality in Kerala.

Ikkanda Warrier started the Cochin Congress along with a few like minded people. He was a member of Cochin Legislative Assembly for 17 years. During this period he was involved in a lot of reform movements like Kshetrapravesam, Khadi movements Harijan Sevak Sangh etc. He went to jail a number of times while participating in these movements.

In 1947, he became the President of Cochin Rajya Prajamandalam and fought for the freedom of Kochi State from the rule of Diwan and the Maharaja. In the first elected Parliament of Kochi State, he became the first Prime Minister .Incidentaly he was also the last Prime Minister. The Kochi State joined with Thiruvithamcore and Malabar to become Kerala State, in 1956.

Water shortage in the non rainy season was the main problem of the agriculturists in the Kochi State.To solve this problem he put forward three projects –the hydel reservoirs of Peechi, Vazhani and Peringalkuthu. In short term projects ,Minor irrigation,Lift irrigation, Modern irrigation, doubling of crops in Thrissur Kole Padams were also done. All these development programmes were done with the full co-operation of the Maharaja.

After the union of the states he continued as a minister for some more time and continued the developmental works in the irrigation sector in the Thiruvithamcore area also.At one stage in order to reduce the expenditure of the cabinet, he alongwith three other ministers resigned from the cabinet.

Immediately the then Chief Minister T.K.Narayana Pillay made him the Chair man of Food Production Board .In this capacity, he put forward plans to develop Kuttanad. He made a project with the help of experts and got recognition and approval of the Central Government within six months! The Thaneermukam bund and Thottappilly Spillway were his ideas!

When the Congress culture started showing signs of changes and regional interests started creeping in while taking decisions, he resigned from all the posts in the party. He was offered the post of KPCC President which he refused. He also refused the proposal of joining the UPSC.

He then turned his interests to “Grama Sevanam” at Kainoor village in Thrissur Thaluk. He joined in the “Sarvodaya “ and “Bhoodanam “ movement. He was the editor of the weekly “Bhoodhana Kahalam”. By his tireless effort the Bhoodanam movement had acquired about fifteen thousand acres of land. The hon’ble Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru once came to Nilambur to dispose the land to the landless and visited the worker’s camp there. It was Dr. Rajendra Prasad who accepted the documents of the 1st Gramadhana in Kerala. The 9th All India Sarvodaya Meet was conducted at Kaladi . He was the convenor of the meet and it turned about to be a great success.

Though his life was devoted fully for the nation, he never forgot his family- Edakkunni Warriam. Edakkunni Warriam was a big joint family and was run by the Tharavattil Karanavar. By his mediation a dispute between the “Ooralaas”[Vadakiniyedathu mana and Desamangalath mana ] and Edakkunni Warriam was settled and the Warriam became the “Saswatha Bharanadhikari of the Edakkunni Bhagavathy Temple. He also made a Trust –“Edakkunni Warriam Karanavasthanam Trust” – to govern the Temple, Sathram, and the other religious and charitable activities.

About his family- He got married to Smt. Lakshmikuttyamma of Kozhikode family at Chendamangalam, Paravoor in 1920. He had two sons and two daughters. The eldest son K.B.Menon, was a leading advocate .and now retired and settled in Ernakulam. His second son K. Viswanathan was an Engineer and now retired and settled in Coimbatore. His eldest daughter was a teacher and is now retired and settled at Chendamangalam. His youngest daughter is no more.

Ikkanda warrier died on 8th June 1977 .

Contributed by Shri Giridharan G.

For more information you may contact Giridharan G.
e-mail I.D. – giriomnivas@hotmail.com

Shri PV Krishna Warrier, Delhi

Shri P.V. Krishan Warrier (from Puthan Warrium, Mayanoor) who was residing in Mayur Vihar Phase-1, New Delhi , passed away on 3rd March 2009 .

He was one of the founder member of Delhi Kerala School , Mayur Vihar Uttara Guruvayoor Appan Temple , Kerala Samajam and Delhi Warrier Samithy.

He was survived by his wife, Uma Warrier (from Kannadi Warrium, Palakad), Son - Shri Ramesh, Daughter-in-law - Dhanalakshmi, Daughter - Smt. Radhika and Son-in-Law – Sashi.

We salute the departed soul for his contributions to our community during his lifetime.