Editing Pazhassi Raja (section)

==Assessment==

{{Blockquote|...but in all classes, I observed a decided interest for the Pyche Raja, towards whom the inhabitants entertained regard and respect bordering on veneration, which not even his death can efface.|Thomas Harvey Baber, 1805{{sfnp|Ramachandran|2008|p=95}}}}
* Descriptive account of Pazhassi Raja as early as 1775 confirm his later day image as a courageous warrior committed to the freedom of his country.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=9}}
* Walter Ivor, a member of Court of Directors, who had taken part in negotiations with Pazhassi Raja in 1797 notes that Company losses that year in Cotiote War exceeded their losses in Third Anglo-Mysore War.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=126}}
* War waged by Pazhassi Raja was the longest insurgency against the Company in [[History of India|Indian history]]{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=126}} and forest warfare waged by Raja had no parallel in the history of India in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century India.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=127}}
* The Company military command always wondered at the logistics of Raja's army. How he organized supplies for his several thousand strong armies remained a puzzle for them{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=127}}
* To fight overwhelmingly superior enemies, Raja imparted military training to his peasantry wholesale and recruited them into his military force. This military policy of wholesale militarization was novel in the history of pre-modern Kerala. His war-effort was marked by the participation of members of all creeds, classes, and castes who took up arms due to his inspiration. Nobles, headmen, peasants, shopkeepers, merchants, artisans, and forest tribes rallied to fight in his campaigns&nbsp;— first the Kingdom of Mysore and later the East India Company.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=127}}
* East India Company losses were severe in terms of men and ran into several thousand. Death toll was particularly high with officers of commissioned ranks. So high were the losses suffered by Bombay army regiments that operated in North Malabar that they had to be withdrawn in 1803 fearing that further losses would cripple Bombay Army as a respectable body of troops.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=127}}
* Raja shared all the privations of his ordinary soldiers during the war and took part in all major military action exposing himself to personal danger. On account of these attributes, he commanded great respect of his troops.{{sfnp|Balakrishnan|2011|p=71}}
* Royal regiments from Britain also took part in Cotiote War along with Company troops.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=128}} 
* Anti-British rebels in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka also were allied to Pazhassi Raja.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=128}}
* Arthur Wellesely, Duke of Wellington adopted methods of guerrilla warfare used by Pazhassi Raja to defeat Napoleon's armies in Spain.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Menon|first1=A Sreedhara|title=Kerala History and its Makers|date=2016|publisher=DC Books|location=Kottayam|isbn=978-81-264-2199-2|page=174}}</ref>
* Memory of Pazhassi Raja and his struggle inspired freedom struggle in 20th century Kerala.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=129}}

Pazhassi Raja had no selfish motive of personal power. Kurup (1988) describes him as an altruistic personality who upheld interests of his subjects and country over his personal interest.  He believed that he was duty-bound to protect his subjects from exploitation and oppression.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=130}} Frenz (2008) also supports this view and opines that Raja was committed to the welfare of his people and freedom of his country. She notes that Pazhassi Raja opted for fight the East India Company when it became clear to him that the Company administration would not respect the independence of his country and welfare of his subjects. She noted that Raja considered it a personal failure as a leader if he failed to uphold sovereignty of his kingdom.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Frenz|first1=Margaret|editor1-last=Fischer-Tine|editor1-first=Harald|editor2-last=Mann|editor2-first=Michael|title=Colonialism as Civilizing Mission: Cultural Ideology in British India|date=2004|publisher=Wimbledon Publishing Company|location=London|isbn=1843310929|page=64|chapter=A Race of Monsters: South India and British 'Civilizing Mission' in Later Eighteenth Century}}</ref>

Criticism leveled against Raja for allying with the East India Company during his wars with Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan is not rational in light of an analysis of contemporary South Indian history. Raja allied with Company initially not because he was their vassal, but because the Kingdom of Mysore was an enemy of both. Before 1792, Malabar suffered from rapacity of Mysore rule and East India Company were only a merchant power who had not yet harmed people of Malabar. So it was understandable that many leaders of Malabar&nbsp;– Pazhassi Raja included&nbsp;– allied with the company to fight Mysore rulers like Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=8}}

Swaminatha Iyer, a Company agent had noted as early as 1797 that extreme popularity of Raja was because he remained in his country with his subjects during Mysore invasions and shared with them the trials and tribulations and also due to his extreme generosity to this peasantry. It was on account of love and support from his subjects that Raja could evade and fight the East India Company for a decade even when he had a bounty on his head.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=130}}

After his fellow Rajas in Malabar submitted to East India Company after 1798, Raja himself knew well that he will be defeated and killed in the long run if he chose to continue to fight against the East India Company. But yet he refused to compromise. In a letter to Kalyat Kuttieman, he revealed his intent to resist the company's authority to the end.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=130}}

He took initiative to rebuild his country which was devastated by Mysore invasions. As part of this, he borrowed money from Tellicherry Factory and gave financial help to his peasants to resume agriculture along with distribution of seeds and cattle. This was in contrast to rest of Rajas of Malabar who squeezed peasants. This was one reason why his popularity with masses remained high.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=132}}

Raja is also credited with the spread of agriculture in Wynad. He started a program that encouraged tribesmen in Wynad to adopt settled agriculture. As part of this program, he instructed his vassals in Wynad to distribute cattle and seeds to tribesmen in Wynad.{{sfnp|Kurup|1980|p=132}}