KASARGOD: Global Thiyya Initiative (GTI), a new organisation of Thiyyas of Malabar, will be formed shortly at its first convention to be held in Kozhikode early 2012. The organisers of the event said the objective of the GTI is to unite the Thiyyas all over the world bringing them under a unified platform.According to the organisers, after the British had left the country and also before the event, several families had settled abroad, mostly in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Japan, France, Mauritius, the UK and the USA.“We got enthusiastic response from the Thiyya diaspora about the GTI, said Purushothaman Mulloli, director of a Delhi-based NGO and a member of the community.”Purushothaman said the Thiyyas were not a caste, but a composite and inclusive community of Malabar, who had the entire caste men such as priests, barbers, washermen, physicians, soldiers, farmers, agriculturalists and workers. The community had no need to depend on the Brahminical system for their existence.The Thiyyas were not a backward class, said Purushothaman. They were the pioneers in several fields. Great scientists such as Dr Veinu Bappu, who laid the foundation of the country’s astrophysics was unknown among the young generation.Dr E K Janaki Ammal had contributed much to several inventions in Botany. The members of the community were the pioneers in promoting the bakery system, kalari and circus. Kottakkal Kanaran Gurikkal was an acrobat, who revived the kalari system.Thiyyas were the early Malayalee pilots. There were as many as seven war pilots among them during the Second World War. Among them O K Kunhikkannan was a test pilot. Dr K Kausukutty was the first woman in the state who had studied at the London School of Economics, he said.Such a community is not a backward class, he said. The tag of backwardness to the community had done more harm than good to their development. According to Purushothaman, while the British gave top jobs during their time to the Brahmins in other parts of the country, such jobs were given to Thiyyas in Malabar. An elite class which had naturally come up as a result now lies strew all over the world. The mission of the GTI is to locate their present day generation who had settled in several countries and also to educate the community’s young generation about its contribution to the country’s development, he said. (contact [email protected].)
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