The region lying between the
Western Ghats
and the
Arabian Sea in Southern India is known as Malabar. It comprises the northern half of the state of
Kerala and covers the districts of
Malappuram,
Kozhikode (Calicut),
Wayanad,
Kannur and
Kasargod. Geographically the name is sometimes extended to the entire southwestern coast of the peninsula, called the
Malabar Coast.
During the rule of the British, Malabar was the name of a district. It was under the presidency of Madras and stretched about 233 km along the west coast, south of Mangalore. After independence, the states were divided along linguistic lines and on November 1 1956, the Malabar district was merged with the Malayalam-speaking state of Travancore-Cochin to form the state of Kerala.
