An ‘upper’ caste group in Kerala wants ownership of a variety of the king of all fruits – mango.
With over 500 hectares of orchards, Kuttiattoor is the mango hub of Kerala. The village, located in the northern district of Kannur produces 6,000 tonnes of what are locally known as ‘Nambiar mangoes’ and internationally known as ‘Kuttiattoor mangoes’.
Now, as the Kuttiattoor village panchayat plans on obtaining a Geographical indication for the Kuttiattoor mangoes, the Nambiar Maha Sabha (NMS) wants the mangoes to be called ‘Nambiar mangoes’.
Geographical Indications are international intellectual property rights under the World Trade Organization’s Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which identify a particular product as originating from a particular place and is of a certain quality.
Mangoes are a part of this village’s tradition and they have been called Nambiar mangoes until now. So we should protect the tradition. The name cannot be changed just like that.
–Rajesh Nambiar, Chairman, Nambiar Maha Sabha
The chairman of Nambiar Maha Sabha claimed it was a conspiracy of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a party which is ruling the panchayat and is against caste and religion, to change the name.
Denying these claims, panchayat officials have said that the mangoes from the village have always been called Kuttiattoor mangoes.
To add these mangoes in National Item Identification List we should give a name to it. Since this village is known for mangoes we named the mangoes with the village name. These mangoes are called Kuttiattoor mangoes outside our village. Nambiar is its colloquial name.
–Sujatha M, President, Kuttiattoor Panchayat
Why the Name ‘Nambiar’?
There are two stories behind this name.
According to the NMS, mango trees and orchard were owned only by members of the Nambiar community, who would sell the fruit in the market themselves.
Since the mangoes were so tasty, everybody outside the village wanted to know where these mangoes are from and the answer was: it was from the Nambiars. That is how the mango was named Nambiar.
–Rajesh Nambiar, Chairman, Nambiar Maha Sabha
Another story told in the village is that of a Nambiar from Kuttiattoor who was working in the royal family of Nileshwaram in Kasaragod district. One day the king presented him with a mango sapling, and the man took it home to his village and planted it there. Since the mango was very tasty, the villagers took seedlings of the tree and began to plant it in their homes as well, eventually calling it the Nambiar mango.
Until the land reforms in Kerala in 1963, these mango trees were only seen in the Nambiar families. But now every house in the village has these mango trees.
Recently scientists from Bangalore under National Horticulture Mission had visited Kuttiattoor to study the mangoes.
The Kuttiattoor Mango Farmers association has been formed under the aegis of the panchayat with the export-oriented objective of increasing production and quality of the mango variety.