During the period of the second world war especially after 1941 India was under severe famine. In Kannur under the leadership of Kisan sangham and Communist Party, they chalked out a multi-faceted plan to fight it. The first one was to strengthen the 'Grow more food campaign' through collective farming.
In many places the peasant farmers formed committees for collective farming and cultivated various food grains and tubers. In the present Kannur district Mangattuparamba, Pariyaram, Tholambra etc. were the most important sites of farming. In Mangattuparamba the committee under the leadership of KPR Rayarappan took fifty acres of land from the government for lease. They cultivated tapioca on a large scale. But the Malabar Special Police destroyed the whole cultivated tapioca.
During the war no government machinery was present to support the starving millions. As per the statistics more than thirty thousand people died out of famine and epidemic in Malabar. There was no official system of rationing. It was the people's committee under the leadership of Communist Party that set up the unofficial system of rationing. For that purpose the party formed more than 100 Producers and Consumers Co operative societies in Malabar. These societies played a pivotal role in organising the rationing system. Though some of these societies were disbursed after the war most of the societies grew into big institutions. The famous Kannur Co operative spinning mills is one among them.
Fighting Cholera and smallpox was another challenge taken up by the party during this period. In the absence of governmental machinery that supports the people epidemic, like smallpox spread all over the area. It was the people's committee and volunteers under the leadership of the party that took initiative for medical treatment and support. Volunteers were given training to deal with the situation and even to cremate the dead. Small pamphlets and even poems were propagated among the people to educate them regarding the epidemic and ensure a scientific approach to deal with the situation and to live without fear. Learning the history of that experience will give us more insights in the days of the Pandemic.
