Most of Malabar District was included among the territories ceded to the British East India Company in 1792 by Tipu Sultan of Mysore at the conclusion of the Third Anglo-Mysore War; Wayanad was ceded in 1799 at the conclusion of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. The region was organized into a district of Madras Presidency. The administrative headquarters were at Calicut. After Indian independence, Madras Presidency was reorganized into Madras state, which was divided along linguistic lines on 1 November 1956, when Malabar District was merged with erstwhile Kasaragod Taluk immediately to the north and the state of Travancore-Cochin to the south to form the state of Kerala. Malabar District was divided into the three districts of Kozhikode, Palakkad, and Kannur on 1 January 1957. The Chavakkad region of the Ponnani Taluk was transferred to the Thrissur district. Malappuram District was created from parts of Kozhikode and Palakkad in 1969, and Wayanad District was created in 1980 from parts of Kozhikode and Kannur. Until the arrival of British, the term Malabar was used as a general name for Kerala. From the time of Cosmas Indicopleustes itself, the Arab sailors used to call Kerala as Male. Al-Biruni must have been the first writer to call this country Malabar. The Arab writers had called this place Malibar, Manibar, Mulibar, and Munibar. Malabar is reminiscent of the wordMalanad which means the land of hills. According to William Logan, the word Malabar comes from a combination of the Malayalam word Mala and the Persian/Arabic word Barr,. Mala in Malayalam means "hill". Varam means "slope" or "side of a hill". In Northern and North-Central Kerala, where Malabar proper is located, words that start in Southern Malayalam/Tamil with the letter "V" tend to be pronounced with the letter "B". Thus, some of the historians argue that the word Malabar comes from the Northern Malayalam words Mala-Bar meaning "hillside land".
Geography
The district was widely scattered and consists of the following parts:-
Malabar Proper extending north to south along the coast, a distance of around 240 kilometers, and lying between N. Lat 10° 15′ and 12° 18′ N and E.Long. 75° 14′ and 76° 56′.
A group of nineteen isolated bits of territory lying scattered, fifteen of them in the native state of Cochin and the remaining four in those of Travancore, but all of them near the coastline. These isolated bits of territory form the taluk of British Cochin.
Two other detached bits of land, the Tangasseri and the Anchuthengu, within the Travancore.
In C. Rajagopalachari Ministry: 1) Kongattil Raman Menon C. J. Varkey, Chunkath
In Prakasam Ministry: 1) R. Raghavamenon
In Ramaswami Reddyar Ministry: 1) Kozhippurathu Madhavamenon
In P. S. Kumaraswami Ministry: 1) Kozhippurathu Madhavamenon
In C. Rajagopalachari Ministry: 1) K. P. Kuttikrishnan Nair Kalladi Unnikammu Sahib
Cuisine
The Malabar cuisine depicts it culture and heritage. It is famous for Malabar biriyani. The city is also famous for Haluva called as Sweet Meat by Europeans due to the texture of the sweet. Kozhikode has a main road in the town named Mittai Theruvu. It derived this name from the numerous haluva stores which used to dot the street. Another speciality is banana chips, which are made crisp and wafer-thin. Other popular dishes include seafood preparations . Vegetarian fare includes the sadya. However, the newer generation is more inclined towards to Chinese and American food. Chinese food is very popular among the locals.
