An IPS officer hailing from a humble background lit up the Knowledge Festival part of the ongoing Krithi International Book Fair when he spoke on ‘Re-reading of Kerala History and Genetics’.
K. Sethuraman, son of an estate worker in Munnar, who has authored the book Malayali Oru Janithaka Vayana (Malayali, a genetic reading), donned the role of a historian to put across some of his postulations.
“The history of Kerala is one of migration of different racial groups into Kerala at different points of time. Kerala Gazetteer categorises different caste groups into various races. Adivasis belong to the Negroid race. Ezhavas, thiyyas, constitute the migrants from Ezham and Theev in Sri Lanka. Nairs are said to be Nagas from the Newar people. Sanskrit speaking Arya Brahmanas from North India migrated and settled in 32 villages,” he outlined in his talk.
Caste groups
“These different streams of racial migration show that different caste groups in Kerala have no genetic link with each other. However, recent genetic studies indicate that irrespective of the caste ranks, all people in Kerala share a recent common ancestor. It means that the present history of Kerala has to be reinterpreted.
“My book is an attempt to study the social formation of Kerala in the light of new genetic studies,” said Mr. Sethuraman, who is at present Deputy Inspector General of Police (Kannur Range).
