The Ali Rajas of Cannanore. Status and identity at the interface of commercial and political expansion, 1663-1723

The present study focuses on the Mappila Muslim trading elites in the port city of Cannanore, particularly the Arackal Ali Rajas, on the south-west coast of India and their response to the shifting power relations in the region brought about by the changes in the Indian Ocean maritime trade scenario during the last quarter of the seventeenth century and the first quarter of the eighteenth century. This research work throws new light into the history of communalism in India. It raises doubts about the validity of analysing the history of the Mappila Muslims of South India, Kerala, from a ‘religious’ perspective. The present study shows that there is little evidence to interpret the political tensions in Cannanore during the last quarter of the seventeenth century and the first quarter of the eighteenth century as ‘religious’ and to argue that there existed a sharp ideological frontier that divided the Hindus and Muslims into two distinct socio-political entities. Instead, it is argued that the Mappila Muslims of Kolathunadu were very much a part and parcel of the regional socio-political order.