AGRARIAN RELATIONS IN MALABAR 29 examine the pattas in 20 villages (desams) in Chirakkal taluk, where the Karshaka Sangham first struck roots. These 20 villages were the first among 80 villages where units of the Karshaka Sangham were esta* blished in 1938-39. After going through the Resettlement Registers for these villages prepared in 1930-31, we found 3201 pattas registered in these villages owning 15,994.41 acres.11 This does not include the vast extent of unoccupied 'dry' lands owned by the landlords. Pattas paying over Rs 100 constituted 2.7 per cent of the total number and they covered 53 per cent of the cultivated lands, both wet and dry. By eliminating the duplication it is possible to state that there were actually 61 patta holders who controlled 87 pattas constituting 2.7 per cent of the total and covering 53 per cent of the lands. We found that in 10 desams, the holdings of the five biggest landlords were as follows : 1 Chirakkal Kovilagath Valia Raja 932.9 acres 2 Kurumathur Illath Parameswaran Namboodiripad 438.0 acres 3 Thazhakat Govindan Thirumumpu 480.5 acres 4 Kalliat Chathukutty Nambiar 467.0 acres 5 Karakathidathil Nambiar family 405.0 acres These five landlords owned 27.6 percent of the land in these desams. Further, devaswams (temples) controlled another 15 per cent of the total cultivated area. It must be remembered that these landlords also owned lands in numerous other desams in the taluk and some of them in other taluks also. These five landlords will appear later in our study dealing with the peasant movement, as some of the early struggles of the peasants were directed against them. Most of the lands owned by these big landlords were fragmented into bits and pieces in hundreds of desams in various taluks. The bulk of these lands was leased out to tenants on kanam or verumpattam and there were hardly any big landlords who resorted to direct supervision of cultivation to any significant extent. This is made clear by the following figures :12 Year Total cultivated in acres area Directly cultivated area in acres per cent 1917-18 1926-27 1937-38 12,21,285 12,87,020 15,06,992 1,82,489 2,00,615 1,71,662 14.9 15.6 11.3 To further illustrate the big landlord character of thejenmi system we have totalled the extent of land held by 22 big landlords in Malabar paying over Rs 3000 revenue assessment. The 22 big landlords owned 6,20,012 acres in Malabar.13 In 1937-38, nearly 90 per cent of the lands owned by jenmis was leased out to tenants. Figures for the earlier periods show that about