Mannathara

Mannathara is a village in the Idukki District of Kerala on the southwest coast of India, located in the high ranges of the Western Ghats (Sahyadri). Mannathara is part of the Vathikudy Gramapanchayath and Idukki Talku. The word manathra evolves from the name of a tribal groups called Mannan. Mannans were the early inhabitants of in the region. It is believed that Mannans migrated from the dry plains of Tamilnadu in search of livelihood in the hills. They were engaged in mainly hill cultivation of ragi, millet and rice as well as gathering cardamom, hill pepper, honey and other medicinal plants for exchange from the early period. The word Mannathra refers to a burial ground of the Mannan. The village had evidences of megalithic settlement sites. However, majority of the material evidences to learn more about the pre-historic and early historic periods are not surviving. However, the ecological settings of this micro-region calls attention from paleo-archaeologists. Continuous human intervention started from the mid twentieth century destroyed most of the historically rich sites.

Upon to the late nineteenth century, this area was part of the Western Ghats forest controlled by the Travancore State. With the expansion of the Travancore state power to the hills, state sub-contractors engaged in the collection of forest resources such as honey, cardamom and waxes for the commercial agents of Travancore Government and traders from Tamil plains and Kerala. The tribal groups were incorporated into this process of extraction of forest resources. Later, Cardamom cultivation as a commercial enterprise flourished in the early decades of the twentieth century with the expansion of market for spices. The place called near Mannathara Kanam refers back to the Elakananm (cardamom plantation) existed in the pre-1980s period. Migration of the peasants in the 1950s and 1960s was the major turning point in the history of this forest hilly region into an agrarian village. The economic depression of 1930s, the Second World War,and remarkable increase in the population in the agrarian mid-land forced low holding peasants to clear forest land to cultivate food crops and cash crops. The migrant peasants practiced both dry land cultivation of rice, cassava (tapioca), Lemon Grass oil, cardamom, ginger, pepper, and other spices. Landless and small holding farmers from the erstwhile princely state regions; mainlyfrom Palai, Ettumanoor, Kothamangalam, Thodupuzha, and Melukavu migrated to western Ghats. This was largely connected with the larger project to accelerate the production of 'cash crops'. In the later decades, the entire high range, as Father Vadakkan mentioned in his biography Ente Kuthippum Kitaappumbecame the backbone of the Kerala Economy.

This village is famous for its high quality black pepper. Black pepper and cardamon from this area had been considered as special quality in the Mattacherry spice market in Cochin. But the leaf disease of black pepper (Kurumulku valli) in the late 1980s onwards was a major backlash to the agrarian change of Mannathara. Moreover, the import of black pepper from other parts of the world to Cochin port and mixing of the imported goods with high quality pepper from idukki affected the demand of high range pepper in the international market.

In the 1990s as elsewhere in India, Neo-liberal policies of the government affected Mannathara's agro-economy as well. The roll back of the Government of Indian and the State government from the welfare policies for peasants and elimination of subsidy for fertilizers increased the risk of investment. The risk of investment was high in the case of ginger, plantain, and areca nut cultivation. The heavy fluctuations in the climate and various crop diseases increased the burden of the peasants. Cultivation of cassava (tapioca) and rice and milk products were the ways to meet their ends. Milma (APCOS) corporation of the Kerala state Government was a helping hand to the peasants. Nursing as a profession with employment chances attracted the lower middle class peasant families. The agrarian crisis of compelled young women to prefer nursing as a profession to support the family. Trained nurses, mostly from Syrian Christian and ezhava families migrated to middle eastern countries, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai. Now there are a few family has its members in America and England. Daughters of Chennamkulam Pappachan and the son of Paulose Eenthumkal are in the USA. Though the most of the lower-middle-class family remain unchanged in their economic condition, some of the families enjoy the economic mobility,