Thalassery, formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality and commercial city on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karnataka). Thalassery municipality has a population just under 100,000. Thalassery Heritage City has an area of 23.98 square kilometres (9.26 sq mi). Thalassery has an altitude ranging from 2.5 to 30 metres above mean sea-level.
Hermann Gundert was a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. Gundert is chiefly known for his contributions as an Indologist, and compiled a Malayalam grammar book, Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1859), in which he developed and constricted the grammar spoken by the Malayalis, nowadays; a Malayalam-English dictionary (1872), and contributed to work on Bible translations into Malayalam. He worked primarily at Tellicherry on the Malabar coast, in present day Kerala, India. Gundert also contributed to the fields of history, geography and astronomy.
Kannur University is a multi-campus public university established in 1996 to provide development of higher education in Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad districts of Kerala, India. It serves the region of North Malabar. It was established after the passing of Act No. 22 of 1996 of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. A university by the name of "Malabar University" had come into existence even earlier by the passing of an ordinance by the Governor of Kerala, on 9 November 1995.
Brennen College is an educational institution in Kerala, affiliated to the Kannur University. It is located in Dharmadam, Thalassery of Kerala state, India. The college evolved from a school established by the English philanthropist Edward Brennen, master attendant of the Thalassery Port, who had made Thalassery his home. The college was granted special heritage status by the University Grants Commission in 2016 with an aim of conserving college which is more than 125 years old. The college secured 97th position in NIRF all India ranking.
Pinarayi Vijayan is an Indian Communist politician who is the current Chief Minister of Kerala, serving since 25 May 2016. A member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he is the longest-serving secretary of the Kerala State Committee of the CPI(M) (1998–2015). He also served in the government of Kerala as Minister of Electric Power and Co-operatives from 1996 to 1998. Vijayan won a seat in the May 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election as the CPI(M) candidate for Dharmadom constituency and was selected as the leader of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and became the 12th Chief Minister of Kerala. He is the first chief minister from Kerala to be re-elected after completing a full term in office. In 2022, he also became the longest-continuous serving chief minister of Kerala surpassing C. Achutha Menon who had been the first to remain in office for 2364 consecutive days.
Moorkoth Kumaran (1874–1941) was a social reformer, a teacher and a writer in Malayalam. He came from a Thiyya family of Telicherry. He was a disciple of Narayana Guru and wrote the first biography of Guru. He also published some of the earliest short stories and novels in Malayalam.
The importance and antiquity of education in Kerala are underscored by the state's ranking as among the most literate in the country. The educational transformation of Kerala was triggered by the efforts of the Church Mission Society missionaries, who were the pioneers that promoted mass education in Kerala, in the early decades of the 19th century. The local dynastic precursors of modern-day Kerala—primarily the Travancore Royal Family, the Nair Service Society, Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam and Muslim Educational Society (MES)—also made significant contribution to the progress on education in Kerala. Local schools were known by the general word kalaris, some of which taught martial arts, but other village schools run by Ezhuthachans were for imparting general education. Christian missionaries and British rule brought the modern school education system to Kerala. Ezhuthu palli was the name used in earlier times. The word was derived from the schools run by the Buddhist monasteries. For centuries villages used to setup an ezhuthupally or ashan pallikoodam with one or two teachers. Students used to go this school from nearby areas and learn languages, literature, mathematics, grammar etc. After completing this students may continue study about specific subjects such as ayurveda, astrology, accounting etc. Censuses during 1800 shows that Travancore, Cochin, Kannur areas have many such schools. Even name list of ashans were used to be published along with the census.
Irayi Kunnathidathil Kumaran Master, was a freedom fighter from Mahe or Mayyazhi, Union territory of India, who fought for liberation from France, in 1954. He also unsuccessfully fought for the unification of Mayyazhi with Kerala. He is known as "Mahe Gandhi". Kumaran was the first Administrator of Mahe after Indian independence.
Vishnunarayanan Namboothiri was an Indian writer and scholar of Malayalam literature. Known primarily for his poems, Namboothiri also contributed to other genres such as essays, translations and children's literature. Swathanthrathe Kurichu Oru Geetham, Bhoomigeethangal, Indiayenna Vikaaram and Charulata count among his notable works. The Government of India honored him with the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 2014 and the Government of Kerala awarded him the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary award in Malayalam, the same year. He was also a recipient of Vayalar Award, Vallathol Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Overall Contributions, Asan Prize, Sahitya Akademi Award and Odakkuzhal Award.
Mannikoth Ramunni Nair (1903–1943), better known by his pseudonym, Sanjayan, was a Malayalam writer, journalist and one of the pioneers of satirical writing in Malayalam literature. Along with E. V. Krishna Pillai, another of the notable Malayalam satirists, Sanjayan is known to have developed the genre of light essays in the language. Besides satires, he also wrote literary criticisms and translated Othello into Malayalam language.
Nettur P. Damodaran was an Indian politician who was a member of the 1st Lok Sabha of from the constituency of Tellicherry, which was part of the erstwhile Madras state. He represented the now defunct Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party. He was elected to the Lok Sabha with 42.61% of the electorate voting in his favour. Nettur P, as he was popularly known, had established his own image as a good Parliamentarian, journalist, philanthropist, reformer and writer. He graduated in Physics from Madras Christian College and it was here that his public life started when he was elected as the first elected Student Union Chairman of the College council in 1935.
Mundanat Leelavathy is a Malayalam writer, literary critic, and educationist. She taught at various colleges in Kerala before retiring as Principal from Government Brennen College, Thalassery. During her long literary career, she won several awards including Kendra Sahithya Academy Award, and Kerala Sahithya Academy Award. She is a contemporary of such noted critics in Malayalam including K. M. George, S. Guptan Nair, N. Krishna Pillai, P. K. Balakrishnan, M.K. Sanu, and Sukumar Azhikode. Leelavathy is a recipient of the Padma Shri Award.
Akbar Kakkattil was an Indian short-story writer and novelist from Kerala state.
Manikyakkallu is a 2011 Indian Malayalam-language drama film directed by M. Mohanan and starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Samvrutha Sunil in the lead roles. The film is about a young teacher who arrives at a village school, who tries to make a definite change in student attitude. The movie is loosely based on the life story of the students and teachers of the Government Brennen Higher Secondary School, Thalassery.
A. N. Shamseer is an Indian politician who is the Speaker of the Kerala Legislative Assembly since 2022. He represents Thalassery State Assembly Constituency since 2016. He was the CPI(M) nominee for Lok Sabha in the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency in the 2014 Indian general election and is Kerala State Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was the former President of Kerala lobby of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).
Vineeth Kumar is an Indian actor and director in Malayalam cinema. He came into the industry as a child artist in the 1988 movie Padippura. His directorial debut Ayal Njanalla was released in 2015.
N. Prabhakaran is a noted short story writer, novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, educationist, editor and columnist in Malayalam. He won the 2022 Kerala Sahitya Akademi honorary fellowship. The eldest of the five children born to N Kunhambu and A Kalliani, Prabhakaran was born at Parassinikkadavu in Kannur district of Kerala on 30 December 1952. He spent his childhood days at Madayi. Prabhakaran studied at Madayi L P School, Govt. High School, Madayi, Payyannur College and Government Brennen College, Thalassery. He served as a lecturer at the Dept. of Malayalam of Lekshmipuram college of Arts and Science, Neyyoor, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, University College, Thiruvananthapuram, CKG Memorial Govt College, Perambra, and Govt Brennen College, Thalassery, and retired while serving as the Head of the Malayalam Department of Brennen College. The writer also served as a visiting professor of Malayalam at the University of Calicut. Prabhakaran resides at Dharmadam in Thalassery.
The British had considerable impact on the culture of Thalassery, a city in northern Kerala, India. As an ancient trade center, the trading and business relations that existed with the Europeans and the Arabs brought people and ideas from many other lands to Thalassery. The Christian missionaries and the educational reforms they brought played an important role in transforming society. The migration to Travancore during Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan's invasion was another factor, resulting in less social distance between upper and lower castes from the 18th to mid-20th centuries. This effect did not reach the Travancore Cochin area, which was not under the Madras Presidency, where inequality was greater.
