order to assist their aspirations. Most significantly, they adopted hypergamy and would utilise the rituals of thalikettu kalyanam and sambandham, which constituted their traditional version of a marriage ceremony, in order to advance themselves by association with higher-ranked participants and also to disassociate themselves from their existing rank and those below. Attempts to achieve caste cohesion The Nair Service Society (NSS) was founded in 1914. Nossiter has described its purpose at foundation as being "... to liberate the community from superstition, taboo and otiose custom, to establish a network of educational and welfare institutions, and to defend and advance Nair interests in the political arena." Devika and Varghese believe the year of formation to be 1913 and argue that the perceived denial of 'the natural right' of upper castes to hold elected chairs in Travancore, a Hindu state, had pressured the founding of the NSS. As late as 1975, the NSS still had most of its support in the Central Travancore region, although it also has numerous satellite groups around the world. From its early years, when it was contending that the Nairs needed to join together if they were to become a political force, it argued that the caste members should cease referring to their traditional subdivisions and instead see themselves as a whole. Census information thereafter appears to have become unreliable on the matter of the subdivisions, in part at least because of the NSS campaign to ensure that respondents did not provide the information requested of them. The NSS also promoted marriage across the various divisions in a further attempt to promote caste cohesion, although in this instance it met with only limited success. Indeed, even in the 1970s it was likely that cross-subdivision marriage was rare generally, and this was certainly the case in the Central Travancore area. It has been concluded by Fuller, in 1975, that The influence of the NSS, both within the community and in the wider political sphere, is no longer as significant as once it was. It did attempt to reassert its influence in 1973, when it established its own political party—the National Democratic Party—but this lasted only until 1977. Present day Today, the government of India does not treat the Nair community as a single entity. It classifies some, such as the Illathu and Swaroopathu Nairs, as a forward caste but other sections, such as the Veluthedathu, Vilakkithala and Andhra