The idea to work on a topic of Socio - economic importance pertaining to Kerala was suggested to me by Monsieur Louis Dumont , professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and then executive director of the Centre d'etudes Indiennes, Paris , to which I was attached during October 1969 to June 1971 . It was while going through the files of the India Office Library,London , in this connection that I came across an old and not much used file titled,