Prior to 1956, Kerala had been divided into four regions:
South Canara (
Kasaragod region),
Malabar,
Cochin, and
Travancore. Malabar comprises the northern and north-central region around
Cannanore,
Kozhikode,
Malappuram, and
Palakkad, with some portions around
Thrissur and
Kochi. This region had been ruled by the
Zamorin of
Kozhikode,
Arakkal kingdom,
Kolathunadu,
Kingdom of Tanur, and
Kingdom of Valluvanad, with several other smaller feudal states, before being conquered by
Tipu Sultan. It was then ceded to the
British East India Company after the
Anglo-Mysore Wars, and first annexed to the British
Bombay Presidency, and then replaced to
Madras Presidency. The coastal town of
Mahe remained a French enclave until the early 1950s when it was integrated into the Union Territory of
Puducherry. The central region comprised the erstwhile
Kingdom of Cochin, administered from Thrissur. The southernmost province was the
Kingdom of Travancore, based in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. While Cochin had been a vassal state under the British Raj, Travancore Kingdom was administered under suzerainty. Early in the 20th century, the
Mappila Muslims of the Calicut region revolted against the
Zamindars who were mostly Hindus and the
British Raj. In the following years, agitations for political rights and a popular government took place in
Travancore and
Cochin as well. After India was
partitioned in 1947 into
India and
Pakistan,
Travancore and Cochin, part of India were merged on 1 July 1949 to form
Travancore–Cochin (Thiru-Kochi). A popular movement known as
Aikya Kerala Movement, for the formation of the State of Kerala, gave motivation to the reorganization of the state on a linguistic basis. On 1 November 1956, the
taluk of
Kasargod in the
South Canara district of Madras, the
Malabar district of Madras, and Travancore-Cochin, without four southern taluks (which joined Tamil Nadu), merged to form the state of Kerala under the
States Reorganisation Act. A
Communist-led government under
E. M. S. Namboodiripad came to power following the first elections for the new Kerala Legislative Assembly in 1957.
Advancements On November 1 2025, the Government of Kerala declared the state to be India’s first state to eradicate extreme poverty on Kerala Day. Under the flagship “Extreme Poverty Eradication Project” launched in 2021, local self-government bodies, Kudumbashree and other agencies identified 64 006 families across the state living in extreme poverty (defined by indicators such as food security, shelter, health and income), and prepared tailored micro-plans for each household. By late 2025 the state reported having lifted nearly all identified families, citing that Kerala’s multidimensional poverty index (MPI) stood at just 0.55% according to the 2023 report by NITI Aayog, the lowest among Indian states. With this achievement Kerala aimed to align with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 1 (“No Poverty”) and, on 1 November 2025 (Kerala Piravi Day), officially announced the milestone. == Events ==