In the 1920s peasant and teachers organizations were strong in this village and there was widespread support for the freedom movement. As a part of the independence struggle, a boycott of foreign clothes was conducted in 1930, its leaders being AKG, AK Sankaran Nambiar, Kacherikkandi Chathukkutty and Thattari Kunhiraman. In 1938 seven thousand peasants marched from Pinarayi to Kottayam Kovilakam for reducing varam and pattam (rent paid by peasants to landlords). The population of Pinarayi during that time was around 10,000. This was considered as the first instance of unified mass movement against landlordism. NE Balaram, NE Nanu, AK Gopalan, Kundancheri Kunhiraman master, Pandyala Gopalan Master, Pinarayi Krishnan master and TV Govindan Nair were the leaders.Pinarayi is considered as a CPI(M) bastion after the division of CPI in 1964, and the first meeting of the Communist party of India was held at a place called Paraparam in Pinarayi and communist party formally constituted in this meeting. Pinarayi Vijayan, the former State Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the chief minister elect in May 2016, is a native of this village, and he is usually simply referred to by his village name Pinarayi.

The national highway passes through Thalassery town. Goa and Mumbai can be accessed on the northern side and Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram can be accessed on the southern side. The road to the east of Iritty connects to Mysore and Bangalore. The nearest railway station is Thalassery on Mangalore-Palakkad line. Trains are available to almost all parts of India subject to advance booking over the internet. There are airports at Kannur, Mangalore and Calicut. All of them are international airports but direct flights are available only to Middle Eastern countries.