Renjith looked at a bundle of papers that was titled as the
Preliminary report
in to the malabar rebellion 1920-38
Authored by the
Commissioner (Law and order) Lower Malabar Range
Southern region
Malabar district
Madras Presidency
The Honorable
Madras High Court, which has adjudicated in this
matter,
and has passed judgements on each of the cases against the
various Moplah rioters who were captured. The nature of crimes committed, need
scrutiny from people, and so has been committed to this article for the world
to see and reflect. The nature of crimes was so macabre, that even the author
of this report is confounded that even fanaticism cannot answer such brutality.
The Special
Judge who tried the case against the Moplahs remarked, "...to my mind
these murderous attacks indicate something more than mere fanaticism or
lust for looting. There is no evidence that the murders
were committed because the murdered persons refused to embrace Islam, or
resisted the rebels, or refused to show property. The rebels seem to have
meant to kill every male in the place whom they could catch hold of, and
the only survivors were those who either got away or were left as
dead...
- "A
respectable Nayar lady at Metatur was stripped naked by the rebels in
the presence of her husband and brothers, who were made to stand
close by with their hands tied behind. When they shut their eyes in
abhorrence, they were compelled at the point of the sword to open
their eyes and witness the rape committed by these brutes
in their presence."[22]
- "Kerala
Patrika, Wednesday, March /, 1922. The story of the death of Krishnan
Nair will melt even the stoutest heart. He had rendered much help in
arresting the rebels. This rankled in the mind of the Moplah and he
was killed. First the skin was peeled off from his body, below the
waist. He had to suffer this pain for some time. Then his two legs
were cut off from the body. He had to suffer pain from this for some
time. Ultimately his neck also was cut off.
- Instances
are mentioned in which Hindus had actually been forced to dig
their own graves before being butchered. It is also reported that
diabolical reprisals are being perpetrated against all persons known
or suspected of supplying pro- visions to the military and police,
one report stating that the Chembrasseri Tangal had ordered a Hindu
to be flayed alive for supplying troops with milk.
- An Orgy of
Murder. Avokker Musaliar,a rebel leader, established himself with a
large following in Muthumana Illom, in Puthur Amsom, Calicut
Taluk in October and November 1921.Whoever refused Islam were
incontinently and irrevocably ordered to be put to the sword. There
is a sacred grove attached to the Illom and in it are a Serpent Shrine
and a well. Condemned Hindus were marched to the shrine, beheaded and
thrown into the well.[22]
- On the
night of 14 November 1921, a large body of armed Moplah entered
the house of Puzhikal Narayanan Nair, a wealthy landlord of Nannambra
Amsom. They looted the house, carried off one of the girls and a
boy captive, murdering the rest, except Narayanan, who escaped.
Narayanan Nair trusted his Moplah watchmen, whom he engaged to watch
his house and they turned traitors.The girl was rescued from the
hands of the rebels after a detention of six weeks and after
suffering indescribable indignities.[22]
- A pregnant
woman carrying 7 months was cut through the abdomen by a rebel
and she was seen lying dead on the way with the dead
child projecting out of the womb. Another, a baby of six months
was snatched away from the breast of its own mother and cut into two
pieces.[
Attachment A (1) Statements of witness
- Pdmanbhan,
Adhikari, Puthur, Calicut mentions — " The Moplahs
systematically looted all the houses, some houses being also burnt
and destroyed. All the temples in the neighborhood, about a dozen in
number, have been destroyed and the idols completely broken." [22]
- Narrated
by refugee: In my Amsom several men and women
and children have been murdered by Moplahs. Dead bodies of
children and grown up men and women were floating in the river. [22]
- Narrated
by refugee: The Keravallur Bhagavathi temple — Karimkali
Kavu, Ettaparambil Vishnu Kshetram, Aiyappan Kavu, and these temples
have been partly destroyed and the idols have been dug up and
removed. [22]( In total, excess of 100 temples were destroyed or
desecrated.)
- Narrated
by refugee: There are six temples in the Amsom, all of
them have been destroyed and desecrated and cows slaughtered in the
premises and the idols were garlanded with the entrails and the
skulls hung in various places in the temples. Six Hindus have been
murdered and about 15 houses burnt by the rebels. About sixty persons
were forcibly converted.[
Appendix I:
(a) Brutally
dishonoring women,
(b) Flaying
people alive,
(c) Wholesale
slaughter of men, women and children,
(d) Forcibly
converting people in thousands, and murdering those who refused to be
converted in utter cold blood.
(e) Throwing half-dead
people into wells, and leaving the victims for hours, to struggle till finally
released from their sufferings by death.
(f) Burning a
great many and looting practically all Hindu and Christian houses, in the
disturbed area, in which even Moplah women and children took part,
and robbing women, of even the garments on their bodies, in short reducing
the whole non-Moslem population to abject destitution.
(g) Cruelly
insulting the religious sentiments of the Hindus, by desecrating and
destroying numerous temples, in the disturbed area, killing cows within
the temple precincts, putting their entrails on the holy images and hanging the
skulls on the walls and roofs
Historical precedent leading up to the
aforementioned “rebellion”
Since the death
of Tipu in 1792, the Malabar region had witnessed attacks by Moplahs on Hindus,
and also attacks specifically on Hindus who tried to reconvert back to
Hinduism, after Tipu's death. The report by C. Gopalan Nair, clearly shows a
pattern of murders by the Moplahs the earliest being recorded in 1836,
consistently year after year, leading to the 1921 riots. The Moplah resistance
was not aimed at the British from 1836 to 1920. It was aimed at consolidation
of the Muslim religion in Malabar district, to make sure Muslims did not
re-convert, and also to instill fear of Muslims in that area, to push Hindus
out of the area. The following events were taken word by word from the ref [22]
- November
26, 1836. Pandalur, Brnad. Kallingal Kunholan stabbed one Chakku
Pannikar of the Kanisan caste
- April 15,
1837. Kalpatta, Ernad. Ali Kutti of Chengara Amsom inflicted severe
wounds on one Narayana Moosad and took post in his own shop
- April 5,
1839. Pallipuram, Walluvanad. Thorayam Pulakal Athan and another, of
Pallipuram Amsom, Walluvanad Taluk killed one Kellil Raman and then
set fire to and burnt a Hindu Temple
- April 6,
1839. Mambattodi Kuttiathan severally wounded one Paru Taragan and a
Taluk peon
- April 19,
1840. Irimbulli, Ernad. Parathodiyil Ali Kutti severely wounded one
Odayath Kunhunni Nayar and another, and set fire to Kidangil temple
- April 5,
1841, Pallipuram, Walluvanad. Tumba Mannil Kunyunnian and eight
others killed one Perumballi Nambudiri and another at Pallipuram, burnt
the house of the latter victim
- November
13th, 1841. Kaidotti Padil Moidin Kutti and seven others killed one
Tottasseri Tachu Pannikar and a peon
- November 77,
1841. Pallipuram, Walluvanad, On the 17th of the same month some Moplahs
estimated at 2,000 set at defiance a Police party on guard over
the spot where the above criminals have been buried
- December
27, 1841, Ernad Melemanna Kunyattan, with 7 others killed one Talappil
Chakku Nair
- October
19, 1843. Tirurangadi. Kunnancheri Ali Attan and 5 others killed one
Kaprat Krishna Pannikar, the Adhigari of Tirurangadi
- December
19, 1843. A peon was found with his hand and he head all but cut off
( suspected to be committed by Moplahs)
- August 25,
1849. Ernad and Walluvanad. Torangal Unniyan killed one Paditodi
Theyunni and with Attan Gurukkal and others killed three persons and
took post in the temple at Manjeri defiled the temple and partly
burnt it.
- October 2,
1850. Puliyakadu, Ernad. The sons of Periambath Attan, the Moplah
Adhigari, bad concerted, with others to kill one Mungamdambalatt
Narayana Moosad and to devote themselves to death
- January 5,
1851. Payyanad, Ernad. Choondyamoochikal Attan attacked and wounded severely
a clerk, named Raman Menon
- January 4,
1852. Mattanur, Kottayam. Choriyot Mayan and fourteen others
supported by a mob of two- hundred Moplahs butchered all the inmates;
18 in number, of Kalattil Kesavan Tangal's house and extirpated the
family
- August 9,
1852. Kurumbranad. Three Moplahs took up a position in the house of a
village accountant (Puttur) and had . resolved to die as Sabjda
(martyr). They wounded a Brahmin and were killed by the Police
- September
16, 1853, Angadipwam, Walluvunad. Kuaaumal Moidin and Cherukavil Moidin
murdered Chengalary Vasudevan Nambudiri and not getting
any recruits, made their appearance on the top of a hill
near Angadipuram.
- September
12, 1855. Calicut. Three Moplahs Valasseri. Emalu, Puliyakunat Tenu,
Chemban Moidin Kutti and Vellattadayyatta Parambil Moidin escaped
from their working party of Jail convicts', at Calicut and proceeded
to Walluvanad. On 12th they murdered Collector Mr. Conolly at his
Bungalow.
- 8
September 1873, Parol, Walluvanad Kunhappa Musaliar visited the
Velichapad or Oracle of Tuthekil temple, struck him. several blows
with a sword and left him for dead.
- Sept. 9,
1880, Melattur, Walluvanad. M. Ali deliberately cut the throat of a
Cheruma lad who had become a convert to Islam and had reverted.
- June, 18,
'84. Kannancheri Raman who had previously embraced and subsequently renounced
Islam was attacked in a most savage manner by two Moplahs. He
however made his escape.
- Dee. 28,
1884. This proposal rankled in the minds of the Moplahs and one
Kolakadan Kuttyassan and 1 1 others proceeded to the house of Raman's
brother Choyikutti who was greeted by a volley of
firearms carried by the Moplahs. Choyikutty and his son
were wounded and the Moplahs set fire to his house. They left Malappuram
and on the way mortally wounded a Brahmin and proceeded to Trikalur
Temple. The troops and the police surrounded the temple and opened
fire. They effected an entrance by blowing in the doer,
placing dynamite cartridges against it.
- 1 May
1885. A gang of Mappilas, consisting of T. V. Veran Kutti and eleven
others broke open the house of aCheruman (slave caste) called Kutti
Kariyanand murdered him, his wife, and four of their children, and
set fire to the house and a neighbouring temple. The^pctirn had
become a convert to Islam many years ago and had reverted to his original
religion fourteen years ago.
- 11 August
1885. A Mappilla named Unni Mammad entered the house of Krishna Pisharodi
under the pretence of buying paddy. At that ti me the Pisharodi was
bathing. Mammad Unni rushed past the attendants and with one blow of
a hatchet, inflicted a mortal wound on Pisharodi's head.
- In 1894, a
gang of Moplahs in Pandicad started on the war-path. They wandered
about; defiling and burning temples where-ever they could, besides
attacking and killing such Nairs and Brahmins as fell in their
way.
- On
25-2-1896 a gang of twenty Moplahs went out on the war-path from
Chembrasseri Amsom and for five days in ever increasing numbers
terrorised the countryside ; Hindus were murdered or their ' Kudumis
' cut off, and they were summarily converted to Islam. Temples were
desecrated and burnt, Houses were looted in the search for food, money and
arms. Finally on March 1 hard pressed by the pursuit of the troops,
the fanatics entered the Manjeri Karanammulpad's temple.
- In
February 1919, a gang of fanatics headed by a dismissed Moplah
Head-Constable, began to give trouble. Following their usual methods
they broke into and denied the temples, killed almost every Brahmin
and Nair who fell in their way and finally died in resistance to
the Police Force sent out against them.
Attachment A (2)
Petition to Lady Reading by Her siren Highness the
Rani of Nilambur
"MAY IT
PLEASE YOUR GRACIOUS AND COMPASSIONATE LADYSHIP?
We, the Hindu
women of Malabar of varying ranks and stations in life who have recently been
overwhelmed by the tremendous catastrophe known as the Moplah Rebellion, take
the liberty to supplicate your Ladyship for sympathy and succor.
Your Ladyship
is doubtless aware that though our unhappy district has witnessed many Moplah
outbreaks in the course of the last one hundred years, the present rebellion is
unexampled in its magnitude as well as unprecedented in its ferocity.
But it is
possible that your Ladyship is not fully apprised of all the horrors and
atrocities perpetrated by the fiendish rebels; of the many wells and tanks
filled up with the mutilated, but often only half dead bodies of our nearest
and dearest ones who refused to abandon the faith of our fathers; of pregnant
women cut to pieces and left on the roadsides and in the jungles, with the
unborn babe protruding from the mangled corpse; of our innocent and helpless
children torn from our arms and done to death before our eyes and of our
husbands and fathers tortured, flayed and burnt alive; of our hapless sisters
forcibly carried away from the midst of kith and kin and subjected to every
shame and outrage which the vile and brutal imagination of these inhuman
hell-hounds could conceive of; of thousands of our homesteads reduced to cinder-mounds
out of sheer savagery and a wanton spirit of destruction; of our places of
worship desecrated and destroyed and of the images of the deity shamefully
insulted by putting the entrails of slaughtered cows where flower garlands used
to lie or else smashed to pieces; of the wholesale looting of hard-earned
wealth of generations reducing many who were formerly rich and prosperous to
publicly beg for a piece or two in the streets of Calicut, to buy salt or
chilly or betel-leaf - rice being mercifully provided by the various relief
agencies.
These are not
fables
During the early phase of the rebellion, the targets were
primarily the jenmis and His Imperil Majesty’s Government. Crimes committed by
some of the rebels were accepted by leaders.Very quickly it turned out aimed at
Hindus irrespective of their caste. After the proclamation of Martial law and
the arrival of the British army, when some members of the Hindu community were
enlisted by the army to provide information on the rebels
Once they had eliminated the minimal presence of the
government, the Moplahs turned their full attention to attacking Hindus while
Ernad and Walluvanad were declared Khilafat kingdoms
Special Mention in report A (1)
Views expressed by the Right honorable Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, CIE Advocate general of Madras
"The horrid
tragedy continued for months. Thousands of Mahomedans killed, and wounded by
troops, thousands of Hindus butchered, women subjected to shameful indignities,
thousands forcibly converted, persons flayed alive, entire families burnt
alive, women it is said hundreds throwing themselves into wells to avoid
dishonor, violence and terrorism threatening death standing in the way of
reversion to their own religion. This is what Malabar in particular owes to the
Khilafat agitation, to Gandhi and his Hindu friends."[
RESPECTIVE POPULATIONS OF MALABAR
|
Name
of
Taluka
|
Moplah
population (1921)
|
Hindu
population (1921)
|
|
Wayanad
|
14252
|
67845
|
|
Walluvanad
|
133919
|
259979
|
|
Ponnani
|
229016
|
281155
|
|
Palghat
|
47946
|
315432
|
|
Kurumbranad
|
96463
|
259799
|
|
Kottayam
|
55146
|
175048
|
|
Eranad
|
237402
|
163328
|
|
Cochin
|
4999
|
7318
|
|
Chirakkal
|
87337
|
25498
|
|
Calicut
|
88393
|
196435
|
According to official records, the British government lost
43 troops with 126 wounded while 2337 rebels were killed, another 1652 injured
and 45,404 imprisoned. Unofficial estimates put the number at 10,000 Mappilas
killed and 50,000 imprisoned, of who 20,000 were deported (mainly to the penal
colony in the Andaman Islands) while around 10,000 went missing
Official estimates of forced religious conversions were put
at 180, but unofficial estimates suggest a figure of between 1000 and 1500.
Arya Samaj sources reported a number of 1766, adding that the total might
exceed 2500
Action taken by government
forces
During the early phase of the rebellion, the targets were
primarily the jenmis and the Government. Crimes committed by some of the rebels
were accepted by leaders.Very quickly it turned out aimed at Hindus
irrespective of their caste. After the proclamation of Martial law and the
arrival of the British army, when some members of the Hindu community were
enlisted by the army to provide information on the rebels. [2][6] Once they had
eliminated the minimal presence of the government, the Moplahs turned their
full attention to attacking Hindus while Ernad and Walluvanad were declared
Khilafat kingdoms.
By the end of 1921, the situation was brought under control.
The district administration with the raising of a special quasi-military (or
Armed Police) battalion, the Malabar Special Police (MSP), initially consisting
of non-Muslims and trained by the Indian Army. The MSP then attacked the
rioters and eventually subdued them.
Criminals Booked
The following
were the various leaders of the movement who were sentenced to death following
the Moplah riots
- Ali
Musaliar (leader of the movement)
- Kunhi
Kadir, Khilafat Secretary, Tanur
- Variankunnath
Kunhammad Haji
- Kunhj
Koya, Thangal, president of the Khilafat Committee, Malappuram
- Koya
Tangal of Kumaramputhur, Governor of a Khilafat Principality
- Chembrasseri
Imbichi Koya Thangal (notorious for his killing of 38 men by slashing the
necks and throwing them into a well)
- Palakamthodi
Avvocker Musaliar
- Konnara
Mohammed Koya Thangal
Special Attachment A
Ms. Annie besent’s observations and scathing criticism of
Barrister Gandhi’s stand on the issue
“It would be well if Mr. Gandhi be taken into Malabar to see
with his own eyes the ghastly horror which have been created by his preaching
and of his “loved brothers” Mohammed and Shukla Ali. Mr. Gandhi asked the
Moderates to compel the Government to suspend hostilities, i.e. to let loose
the wolves to destroy what lives are left.
The Murderers, the looters, the ravishers have put into practice the
teachings of paralyzing the Government by making war on the Government in their
own way.
How does
Mr. Gandhi like the Mopla spirit, as shown by one of the prisoners in the
hospital, who was dying from the results of asphyxiation? He asked the surgeon, if he was going to die
and the surgeon answered that he feared he would not recover. “Well, I am glad
that I killed 14 infidels” said the ‘Brave, God-fearing Mopla’, whom Mr. Gandhi
so much admires who “are fighting for what they consider” as religion, and in a
manner they consider as religious”. Men
who consider it “religious” to murder, rape, loot, to kill women and little
children, cutting down whole families, have to be put under restraint in any
civilized society.
Mr. Gandhi
was shocked when some Parsi ladies had their saris torn on, and very properly,
yet the God fearing hooligans had been taught that it was sinful to wear foreign
cloth, and doubtless felt they were doing a religious act; can he not feel a
little sympathy for thousands of women left with only rage, driven from home,
for little children born of the dying mothers on roads in refugee camps? The misery is beyond description. Girl wives, pretty and sweet, with eyes half
blind with weeping, distraught with terror, women who have seen their husbands
backed to pieces before their eyes, in the way “Moplahs consider as religious”,
old women tottering, whose faces become written with anguish and who cry at a
gentle touch and a kind look waking out of a stupor of misery only to weep, men
who have lost all - hopeless, crushed, desperate. I have walked among thousands of them in the refugee
camps, and sometimes heavy eyes would lift as a cloth was laid gently on the
bare shoulder and a faint watery smile of surprise would make the face even
more piteous than the stupor. Eyes full
of appeal, of agonized despair, of hopeless entreaty, of helpless anguish,
thousands of them camp after camp, “Shameful inhumanity proceeding in Malabar
“says Mr. Gandhi Shameful inhumanity indeed. Wrought by the Moplahs, and where
are the victims, saved from extermination by British and India swords. For be
it remembered the Moplahs began the whole home business; the Government
intervened to save their victims and these thousands have been saved. Mr. Gandhi would have hostility suspended –
so that the Moplahs may sweep down on the refugee camps, and finish their
work”.
Let me finish within
beautiful story told to me. Two Playas the lowest of the submerged classes were
captured with others and given the choice between Islam and Death. These, the outcast of Hinduism, the
untouchables, so loved the Hinduism which had been so unkind a step-mother to them
that they chose to die Hindus rather than to live Muslim. May the God of both, Muslim and Hindus send
his messengers to these heroic souls, and give them rebirth into the faith for
which they died."
Special annexure to the report
Preliminary report
in to the malabar rebellion 1920-38
Authored by the
Committee of Distinguished Citizens
Malabar district
Madras Presidency
Truth is infinitely of more paramount importance than Hindu
Muslim unity or Swaraj and therefore we tell the Maulana Sahib and his
co-religionists and India's revered leader Mahatma Gandhi – if he too is
unaware of the events here – that atrocities committed by the Moplahs on the
Hindus are unfortunately too true and that there is nothing in the deeds of
Moplah rebels which a true non-violent, non-co-operator can congratulate them for
... Their wanton and unprovoked attack on the Hindus, the all but wholesale
looting of their houses in Ernad, Valluvanad, Poanmani and Calicut Tali; the
forcible conversion of Hindus in a few places in the beginning of the rebellion
and the wholesale conversion of those who stick to their homes in the later
stages, the brutal murder of inoffensive Hindus, men, women and children in
cold blood without the slightest reason except that they are Kafirs or belong
to the same race as the policemen, who insulted their Tangals or entered their
mosques, the desecration and burning of Hindu temples, the outrage on Hindu
women and their forcible conversion and marriage by Moplahs; do these and
similar atrocities proved beyond the shadow of a doubt by the statements recorded
by us from the actual sufferers who have survived, deserve any congratulations?
On the other hand, should they not call forth the strongest condemnation from
all right minded men and more especially from a representative body of
Mohamedans like the Khilafat conference pledged to non-violence under all
provocation? Did the Moplahs, who committed such atrocities, sacrifice their
lives in the cause of their religion?”
Officer’s special note to his Lordships
Dear Sirs,
It is this servant’s humblest prayer that the afore
mentioned people be executed and the victim’s duly compensated and justice
delivered to the departed
S/d
KT Rogers
Commissioner (Law and order) Lower Malabar Range
Southern region Malabar district
Madras Presidency
1A/AUG/1923/LM/MD/FSTG
Classification: Secret Level 3
Copy to:
Director General Malabar Special Police
Police Head Quarters Madras
Inspector General Madras Police
Sectary to the Government of Madras
GOC Madras area Indian Army
Carbon Copy: Central sectriate
New Delhi
GHQ India
Command /Central Intelligence Department
Viceroy’s office
Renjith had still not found the two things he was looking
for
One was the fact that what happened to his grandmother and
the second was what has happened
And who else got caught up in this carnage???
