Keralam: Islamic Radical SDPI leads fresh drive for Malappuram split; Republic Day human chain set for new Tirur district

 

A renewed campaign for dividing Muslim-majority Malappuram district has gathered pace, with the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) announcing a major agitation. The party plans a human chain from the Malappuram Collectorate to Tirur on Republic Day, 26 January 2027, demanding a separate district headquartered at Tirur. The move revives long-standing calls from the Indian Union Muslim League, Jamaat-linked groups and other organizations for administrative reorganization of the district under the Congress-led UDF government.

 

According to reports from the region, SDPI seeks a new district formed from the Tirurangadi, Ponnani and Tirur taluks of present-day Malappuram. It argues that rapid population growth has outstripped development, leaving gaps in education, healthcare and transport infrastructure. The party asserts it was the earliest political voice to demand a Tirur-based district and has cautioned that any proposal excluding Tirur will face determined protests against the area’s elected representatives.

 

The timing is politically significant. With the UDF now in power, the SDPI’s mobilization highlights the influence of outfits operating outside the formal coalition. Widely viewed as the political face of the banned Popular Front of India, the SDPI had staged a similar rally in Malappuram in April 2023. Its latest programme indicates a sustained push through public action.

 

 

The SDPI campaign builds on parallel efforts by other Muslim political and religious organizations. In May 2026, the Muslim Youth League youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League passed a resolution seeking bifurcation and a new district centred on Tirurangadi. The proposed unit would take in Tirur, Ponnani, Tirurangadi and Kondotty taluks, with Eranad and Perinthalmanna remaining as Malappuram. Senior League figures, including state president Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal and general secretary P.M.A. Salaam, were present when the resolution was adopted. Proponents cited better administration, reduced developmental imbalance and improved public services.

 

Momentum had already built in December 2025 when the Kerala Muslim Jamaat backed the division, with district president Koottampara Abdurahman pointing to a population near 47 lakh and the strain on existing administrative systems. League MLA Kurikkoli Moideen had earlier, in September 2025, floated the idea of a Tirur headquarters. Sections of the Congress, the Welfare Party (political arm of Jamaat-e-Islami) and even the Communist Party of India (Maoist) have at different times voiced support, framing the issue in developmental and administrative terms.

 

Allegedly, calls for a new district have often been accompanied by larger political and radical ambitions. In 2023 the Muslim Youth League sought a separate state covering seven districts from Thrissur to Kasaragod, along with Mahe and Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris, while also pressing for a Tirur district. In 2021 the Samastha Kerala Sunni Students Federation, linked to the Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama, had demanded a Muslim-majority Malabar state. These successive proposals have kept attention fixed on the ideological undercurrents behind the administrative demand.

 

 

The issue gained further traction after Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan announced, in his first Budget as Finance Minister, a committee to examine district division and the creation of new taluks. VHP state General Secretary Advocate - ‘Anil Vilayil’ responded sharply in June 2026, arguing that genuine development required Central intervention for large-scale infrastructure projects across the Malabar region rather than further splitting Malappuram.

 

 

The present agitation inevitably evokes the district’s origins. On 16 June 1969 the CPI(M)-led government under E.M.S. Namboodiripad formed Malappuram by taking territory from Kozhikode and Palakkad. It began with four taluks Eranad, Perinthalmanna, Tirur and Ponnani. The decision was widely linked to the political needs of the United Front and the Muslim League’s support. While the undivided Congress opposed the move without street protest, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh alone organised satyagraha in Kozhikode. Leaders including Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Madanlal Khurana, Major General (Retd) Gurubachan Singh, P. Parameshwarji and O. Rajagopal courted arrest, warning that a district shaped by communal considerations could encourage separatist tendencies and anti-national activity.

 

 

The district’s political character returned to focus in October 2026 when CPI(M) leader and former MLA P. Nandakumar called Malappuram a “land of religious fundamentalists” while addressing a party gathering in Ponnani. State secretary M.V. Govindan quickly clarified that the remarks did not reflect the party’s position. The episode nonetheless sharpened public debate over the region’s demographic and ideological dynamics.

 

 

Taken together, the SDPI’s Republic Day programme, the League and Jamaat-linked resolutions, residual demands for a separate Malabar state, and the historical controversy of 1969 keep the Malappuram question firmly in the realm of larger political and ideological contestation rather than routine administrative reform.