Talk:Battle of Colachel

This article tells us what happened before the battle and after the battle, but not what happened during the actual battle itself! Maury 12:13, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

Unfortunately, not much detail is available about the Dutch side of this battle. I have updated it further adding regiments involved in the Travancore army and maybe you will find this update more useful. mkamat 18:51, September 12, 2005 (UTC)


 * Just saw this now. No, my concern here is that the battle was apparently a naval one, but there is no detail at all on any naval actions. There's detail on a land action by marines, but I'm not sure this is the same thing? Maury 21:48, 19 September 2005 (UTC)


 * You are right. Maybe I should drop the word naval from the first sentence. mkamat 13:49, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Just read the article, seems more of a land battle by naval personnel that a naval battle. Eitherway just writing naval forces is bound to cause some problems. Dryzen 14:24, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Introduction of the acts Mr. Padmanabhan Nadar. Please quote historial books, and should you quote a newspaper, it would be helpful if you quote an english one. When I checked the link that you had sent, the picture suggested that it was something more modern. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.11.76.229 (talk) 17:29, 6 June 2013 (UTC)  I checked it again and the photo was that of a gentleman wearing specs and a modern shirt. I do not claim to understand Tamil and so do not know what that text said, but the photo definitely could not be that of an individual from 1745. So I have removed that part. Also, the history books on the subject do not refer to the contributions of the gentleman, though I admit that the history books sadly do not record every single event.

Nair troops
While the composition of the Travancorean Army was mainly of Nair origin (and was known as a Nair Brigade), the army was not exclusively Nair. Prof. Elanakom and Prof. Menon have mentioned about the cavalry troops from the "Tamil country" and the role of other communities (Thevar, Nadar, Muslims, Arayans, etc) in the Travancorean army. In view of this, I would like to revert the wordings of the article to a previous versions.

Please do not hesitate to correct my views (based on the works of Profs. Elankom and Menon) with peer reviewed works of authentic and qualified historians. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.11.77.203 (talk) 16:49, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

No Nair Brigade at that time
There was no nair brigade during 1800s and was only formed after 1800s.The claim of nair brigade is false and marthanda varma was an enemy of nairs, which was a well know fact in history.The problem with kerala history is that it is not secular and it is predominated by caste based historians and their views ,are influenced in official history even if there is no proofs.An article, given in external links, by eminent journalist Bhaskar says battle participation by local fishing community — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.96.39.113 (talk • contribs) 00:27, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

Should that be the case, I suggest that all references to the "castes" be removed till proper unbiased historical evidence is unearthed. I am not trying to downplay the contribution of any particular group or support the roles of any others. I have also read the books by Zarrilli and others who have mentioned the role of Nadars in kalari. In the novel "Marthanda Varma", there is mention of the efforts of the Nadars in the army. But to state that the Nadars composed most of the army of Travancore would not be correct without any historical evidence to back that claim, therefore I have deleted this statement. From what I had read (and I do admit that historians are human and therefore prone to mistakes and biases), the army was predominantly Nair in composition, though Nadars, Thevars, and Pattaans were all also a part of the Travancorean military. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.203.50.255 (talk) 20:54, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Battle and communities
There was a statement about the ethnicity of the majority of the Travancorean army in the "Battle" section and that particular statement had nothing to do with the outcome nor were there any references supporting that claim. I have removed that sentence. Unfortunately, none of the qualified historians talk too much about that issue.

There are no historical statements about the role of any particular groups in the Travancorean army. I understand that many groups were present in it. Not just nairs and nadars. So, unless there is a peer reviewed article from a decent historian, I feel that one should not write anything about the composition of the army — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.11.206.145 (talk) 13:20, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

The article has a kind of disclaimer at the beginning which says it is not properly cited or referenced. But when you read through article you can there is proper reference given to every comment and inline citations are plenty. Shall that be removed ? (Themisislegal (talk) 03:25, 20 October 2023 (UTC))

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal - This is what I found on template removal. And the template is from 2010 almost 13 years back. The article has been curated and improved many times in the past 13 years and it is high time it is removed. (Themisislegal (talk) 03:27, 20 October 2023 (UTC))