In memory of MGS Narayanan

In memory of MGS Narayanan (20.08.1932 - 26.04.2025). A historian with strong opinions who freely courted controversy, this was a man I would definitely have met had I pursued my book on Malabar. His book was widely talked about but unavailable anywhere and I'm thankful to my brother Venu for having gifted me a copy. It's a big book demanding a lot of time and I certainly haven't read it in full. One of the regrets is that it ends in 1766 when the last Zamorin commits suicide in the face of Tipu Sultan's invasion. As MGS himself says in his foreword, much has changed in Calicut since then and the city awaits another book to chronicle that story. My own exploration was to see if Malabar was having a renaissance after over 200 years of decline but I couldn't find data to corroborate that hypothesis and so the book idea lapsed.