Kannur in the freedom struggle: the Pazhassi Raja revolt and the Payyannur Salt Satyagraha

Background

The district records say Kannur witnessed one of the longest and bloodiest resistance to British rule in India.
The revolt led by Pazhassi Raja in the 1792–1806 period kept a large part of the district in a state of war.
Payyannur was the main venue of the Salt Satyagraha in Malabar.
On 13 April 1930, a batch of Congress volunteers under the leadership of K. Kelappan started on foot from Kozhikode to the beaches of Payyannur and broke the salt laws there on April 21.
The Indian National Congress established a Malabar District committee in 1908, and a branch of the Communist Party of India was formally established at Pinarayi by the end of 1939.
St. Angelo Fort, about 3 km from Kannur town, was built in 1505 by Dom Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy of India; the Dutch captured it in 1663 and the British conquered it in 1790.