Beypore, the Uru it still builds, and the quarantine camp for Hejaz pilgrims

Background

Beypore on the Malabar coast was one of the key ports on the old trade route between southwest India and the Arab world. The place is most famous for its Uru, a big wooden trading dhow shaped by hand, which is still being made there. Pilgrims embarked from this port for several centuries, through the Portuguese period and after it. The British ran the Malabar port as a part of the Madras Presidency. After plague reached Bombay the Hajj was suspended in India under the 1897 Epidemic Diseases Act, a law that gave the government special powers against dangerous diseases. A quarantine camp was later opened for pilgrims bound for the Hejaz, and the period of the quarantine was 10 days. The district magistrate of Malabar, Pinhey, reported that an observation camp stood at Beypore (Chaliyam) for the Hedjaz pilgrims.