Joseph Murickan

Murickan was survived by his wife, Eliyamma of Veliyanad Puthanpura Panchara.[1] They have nine children: eight boys and one girl.[1] Murikan died at the age of 74 at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital on December 9, 1974.[1] He was buried at Palayam Saint Mary Church Cemetery.[1]

During the famine in Travancore after the Second World War, Travancore king Chithira Thirunal ordered more land to be cultivated.[4] The king had only said that the land could be exempted from tax for five years.[1]

Murickan suggested that paddy could be grown in the lake. The locals joked that Murickan was crazy that he could grow paddy in the lake.[3] Regardless of that, he studied the nature of the lake with the help of experts. Realizing that there were shallow parts in the lake, he dug a ridge with mud and pumped out the water.[3] The soil at the bottom was made usable.[3] Thus, in 1940, for the first time, paddy was grown in the backwaters where there was no paddy.[4] Murikkan showed his sincerity to the royal family by naming the fields created by him as Chithira (900 acres), Marthandam (652 acres) and Rani (600 acres).[4] In 1954, farmers' struggle was waged against Muricken, the then largest landlord in Kuttanad.[5] Following the Land Reforms Act passed by the Kerala Legislative Assembly, in 1972, when C. Achutha Menon was the Chief Minister, the Government acquired these lands from the Murikan family.[3] In 1975, the government distributed 1600 acres of land acquired from the Murickan family to 1580 farmers.[6]

Chithira church, the first Christian shrine in Kuttanad was built by Murickan.[4][7] In addition to Chithira Church, Murickan who was a devout Catholic, built six large churches and a small church in Malabar and Thiruvananthapuram region.[1]

Due to the salt water in the lake, he himself took the initiative to get freshwater for the thousands of workers who were working for him and dug a 10-acre pond near the Chithira Church.[8] He implemented a natural purification system in the pond.[8] In addition to the workers, water was also provided to those from nearby areas.[8]