In remembrance of the great Mariyumma Maliekkal
The grand matriarch of Thalassery left this world a few days ago. She was 97
I was saddened to hear the news of the passing away of the exceptional and extraordinary Mariyumma Maliekkal on August 5, 2022. A woman of class, warmth and high intelligence, she was a path breaker in Kerala’s education revolution. In 1938, when he was 13, her parents sent her to Sacred Heart Convent, Mariyumma became the first Muslim girl in the Malabar region to study in an English-medium school. It took immense courage on the part of her father, mother and grandmother to send the young Mariyumma to a convent school. The English language was something she mastered in a way that few others did.
While she loved the language, she was an ardent freedom fighter who wanted the English out of India. When I had the privilege of meeting her on a beautiful May evening in her home that is adjacent to the palatial Maliekkal mansion, she spoke to me with great pride of chanting the words “Britishers, Quit India, Britishers Quit India!”
When I went to see her, she was not keeping well, but she still welcomed me into her home, embracing me. It’s a Hindu custom to touch the feet of an elder, but I did not know what to do when I saw her as I did not want to do anything that offended Muslim sensibilities. I bowed to her in respect, fully aware of the great social work that she engaged in with all her heart from the time India became independent till she became aged.
The diction and clarity with she spoke really inspired me. For a magical 30 minutes I was transported from modern day Thalassery to the Telicherry of the 1940s and beyond. This was a place of fashion, high culture and the most progressive Muslim families in India, such as the Maliekkal family.
Mariyumma encouraged me to go back to the palatial family home, where one of her grandsons gave me a tour of the 103-year old that carried with it generations of memories. Every single member of that aristocratic and extended family made me feel welcome in their home.
On that beautiful May evening, Mariyumma spoke to me about how one of her main goals in life was to ensure that girls in northern Kerala got a modern education and made something of their lives. She advised people from the most conservative families in the region to educate their daughters and help them become independent. She was also involved in various social causes and the results are there to see in Thalassery, a town with some of the best social and economic indicators in India.
Mariyumma showed the way for many Muslim girls and inspired several generations of them to believe that they could follow and achieve their dreams.
She lived to the age of 97, but her legacy with last for several generations more. Mariyumma, was not just the matriarch of the Maliekkal family, but of all of Thalassery.
إِنَّا ِلِلَّٰهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ,
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.
