It
is situated on the Calicut -
Madras road, 12 km. south - west of Manjeri and 52 km. south - west of
Calicut. Malappuram is the head quarters of the district. In earlier
times, Malappuram was the head quarters of European and British troops
and later it became the head quarters of the Malabar Special Police (M.S.P).
This place has still the ruins of an ancient fort built by Tippu
Sultan. Malappuram was also the scene of the Malabar rebellion of 1921
which was suppressed by the Malabar Special Police (M.S.P)
Prior to 1947, the area
covered by the present district formed part of Kozhikode, Ernad,
Valluvanad and Ponnani taluks of the erstwhile Madras Presidency.
However, large scale changes in the territorial jurisdiction of this
tract took place in 1957 and 1969. On 1st January 1957, Tirur taluk
was newly formed taking portions of Ernad and Ponnani taluks. Another
portion of Ponnani taluk was transferred to the newly formed Chavakkad
taluk, while the residuary portion was known as Ponnani taluk.
Perinthalmanna was a new taluk formed out of the erstwhile Valluvanad
taluk. Of these, Ernad and Tirur continued under Kozhikode district
and Perinthalmanna as well as Ponnani under the Palakkad district. The
new district of Malappuram was formed with four taluks, Ernad,
Perinthalmanna, Tirur and Ponnani, four statutory towns, fourteen
developmental blocks and ninetyfive panchayats. Two more taluks namely
Tirurangadi and Nilambur were formed later by bifurcating Tirur and
Ernad taluk.
