MALABAR, a district of British India, in the Madras Presidency. Geographically the name is sometimes extended to the entire western coast of the peninsula. Properly it should apply to the strip below the Ghāts, which is inhabited by people speaking the Malayalam language, a branch of the Dravidian stock, who form a peculiar race, with castes, customs and traditions of their own. It would thus be coextensive with the old kingdom of Chera, including the modern states of Travancore and Cochin, and part of Kanara. In 1901 the total number of persons speaking Malayalam in all India was 6,029,304.
The district of Malabar extends for 145 m. along the coast, running inland to the Ghāts with a breadth varying from 70 to 25 m. The administrative headquarters are at Calicut. Area, 5795 sq. m. Malabar is singularly diversified in its configuration; from the eastward, the great range of the Western Ghāts, only interrupted by the Palghāt gap, looks down on a country broken by long spurs, extensive ravines, dense forests and tangled jungle. To the westward, gentler slopes and downs, and gradually widening valleys closely cultivated, succeed the forest uplands, till, nearer the seaboard, the low laterite table-lands shelve into rice plains and backwaters fringed with coco-nut palms. The coast runs in a south-easterly direction, and forms a few headlands and small bays, with a natural harbour in the south at Cochin. In the south there is considerable extent of table-land. The mountains of the Western Ghāts run almost parallel to the coast, and vary from 3000 to 7000 ft. in height. One of the most characteristic features of Malabar is an all but continuous chain of lagoons or backwaters lying parallel to the coast, which have been formed by the action of the waves and shore currents in obstructing the waters of the rivers. Connected by artificial canals, they form a cheap means of transit; and a large local trade is carried on by inland navigation. Fishing and fishcuring is an important industry. The forests are extensive and of great value, but they are almost entirely private property. The few tracts which are conserved have come into government hands by escheat or by contract. Wild animals include the elephant, tiger, panther, bison, sambhar, spotted deer, Nīlgiri ibex, and bear. The population in 1901 was 2,800,555, showing an increase of 5.6% in the decade.
The staple crop is rice, the next most important product being coco-nuts. Coffee is grown chiefly in the upland tract known as the Wynaad, where there are also a few acres under tea. The Madras railway crosses the district and has been extended from Calicut to Cannanore along the coast. There are eleven seaports, of which the principal are Calicut, Tellicherry, Cannanore and Cochin. The principal exports are coffee, coco-nut products and timber. There are factories for cleaning coffee, pressing coir and making matting, making tiles, sawing timber and weaving cotton.
See Malabar District Gazetteer (Madras, 1908).
MALABARI, BEHRAMJI (1853- ), Indian journalist and social reformer, was born in 1853 at Baroda, the son of a poor Parsi in the employment of the state, who died shortly after his birth. His mother took him to Surat, where he was educated in a mission school, but he never succeeded in gaining an academical degree. Coming to Bombay, he fell under the influence of Dr John Wilson, principal of the Scottish College. As early as 1875 he published a volume of poems in Gujarati, followed in 1877 by The Indian Muse in English Garb, which attracted attention in England, notably from Tennyson, Max Müller, and Florence Nightingale. His life work began in 1880 when he acquired the Indian Spectator, which he edited for twenty years until it was merged in the Voice of India. In 1901 he became editor of East and West. Always holding aloof from politics, he was an ardent and indefatigable advocate of social reform in India, especially as regards child marriage and the remarriage of widows. It was largely by his efforts, both in the press and in tours through the country, that the Age of Consent Act was passed in 1891. His account of his visits to England, entitled The Indian Eye on English Life (1893), passed through three editions, and an earlier book of a somewhat satirical nature, Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1883), was equally popular.
See R. P. Karkaria, India, Forty Years of Progress and Reform, (London, 1896).
MALABON, a town of the province of Rizal, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 1 m. inland from the shore of Manila Bay and 3 m. N. of the city of Manila, with which it is connected by an electric tramway. Pop. (1903), 20,136. The leading industries are the refining of sugar, fishing, trade, the weaving of jusi cloth, the making of cigars, and the cultivation of ilang-ilang-trees (Cananga odorata) for their flowers, from which a fine perfume is distilled; ilang-ilang is one of the principal exports, mostly to France. Tagalog and Spanish are the principal languages. Malabon was formerly known as Tambóbong.