Before the attainment of independence the peasants of Travancore had faced severe poverty. Their lands had produced merge income. Many were starving. Travancore state had not produced enough food grains. The kingdom had depended on the imports from other countries. The Second World War had broken out and the ships could not reach the Travancore ports.The scarcity of food and essential items had been so acute. A large number of the peasants and the agricultural workers had either abandoned their meagre property or sold out property for throw away prices and migrated to the Malabar, which was under the Madras presidency of British India. In the Malabar large extend of forest land was available with the feudal families. These feudal families had dispensed the lands to the settlers of Travancore on lease. The settlers had to clear the forest and start cultivation. This was not an easy task. Acute malaria and other diseases had taken the lives of many. They had to face the attack of the wild animals. Many had lost their lives to the attack of the wild animals in addition to the frequent crop losses. The local population had not taken the new settlers kindly. They had robbed their crops and also invaded the agricultural lands , which the settlers had developed after years of painful hard work. The revenue officials had not been kind to them. They had used this opportunity to extract huge bribes from them. They had to approach revenue officials for getting the land registered in their names, which had been sold to them by the feudal families. Shri. K. M. Chandy and his brother Shri. K. M. Zacharia had arrived at Kollathuvyal of Calicut district to start cultivation on the request their father. They had first hand knowledge of the plight of the Travancore settlers. Prof: K. M. Chandy had made contact with the Indian national Congress leaders of the Malabar. He had apprised the Congress leadership new agricultural problems faced by the settlers. He had sought the help of the veteran Congress leader Shri Kujurama Poduval and organised the peasants of the Malabar. He could make the mitigation of agrarian problems of the Travancore settlers part of the national struggle for independence.
After the attainment of the freedom the newly formed Travancore Cochin Government had not taken the issue of settlers in the Government lands kindly. Prof: Chandy’s legislative intervention had saved them. He was a member of the committee to examine the settlement in forest land. His observations in the report had saved their meagre land holdings. In 1962, large numbers of settlers were evicted from Choorili-Keerithodu of Idukki. This had created hue and cry in political circles and media. Comrade Shri A. K. Gopalan had already started some form of agitation against the eviction of settlers from the forest land. The Pattomthannu Pillai government had appointed a committee to examine the problems of settlers. Prof:K. M. Chandy was a member of the committee and his observations in the report had been well appreciated by all sections. Hence, the government had desisted from eviction of the peasants.