The frozen tears of Malabar

F-14B

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Chapter 1 Memories

Sachindra Shanmukham Raman Nair IAS/IFS was going to retire tomorrow, yes 23.7.2016 he could not wait for that day he knew it would be bitter sweet as he was going to say good bye to his beloved profession and a city that he had grown to love like his own .

But as the old additive goes all good things should come to an end, so should his time as the top beruecrat of the Government of India , Sir Nair as he was known in the service was known for his old money charm and command over men, these were only one of the very few qualities that propelled him to the top of the beaurcratic tree .As he was going through his old boxes he found an old dusty dairy that belonged to his father , a smile tugged at his face his father Shanmukham Raman Nair was an Old ICS officer Himself, so it was a non-brainier that he join the Civil services .

But now that was in the past, now he was a retired civil servant but that doesn’t mean that he was in any way poor , as he was lost in this train of thought he felt two hands tugging at the dairy in his hand .

The grand old man opened his eyes to behold the youngest of his grandchildren named Renjith they were very close and young Renjith looked up to his granddad a lot so much so that he had appeared for the UPSC examinations and passed the 1st prelims and was waiting on the dates on his second prelims and was in Delhi for his leave ,

Renjith asked his granddad, what was this dairy that he held in his hand, Mr. Nair smiled and told that the dairy was that of his father and was passed to him when his father died in 1971.

That tweaked the young man’s interest in the said dairy, Renjith was known as the family history buff and resident book worm of the family, so he pushed his grandfather to devluge the secrets that were held by his great grandfather’s dairy.

Mr. Nair also tagged along to see what his grandson was up to, little did Mr. Nair or Renjith Know that they were going to uncover a painful part of their family history , for which none of them where ready .
 

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Chapter 2 happy days


As they opened the dairy the found an entry that would change their life for ever


Date: 24/7/1919

Dearest dairy,

Today I am very happy why you ask? I have just been on a survey of our estates.

And have come to know that we have struck up a profit this year too.

Our coconuts and other agriculture produce

Are fetching a good price at the Tellachery bazaar.

There is also another good news to add to this is that I am getting married next year.

The word in the house has it, that it is to be a girl from the Eranad frontier.

She is said to be from the most ancient house of meladam.

I have managed to befriend one of her brothers and have managed.

To get a hold of one of the new fancied ‘Photographs” of my mystery lady.

By the gods she is a wonder to look at I just can’t wait to meet her .

In person I just can’t wait for it, well dear friend its already 23 minutes past 11 o’ clock.

And I have to wake up early for training and studies so good night till next time



Regards

S R Nair


Renjith and his grandfather were stunned for two very different reasons, Mr. Nair for the fact that his father was such an expressive and romantic person this was a direct opposite from what he

had known his father to be a dignified recluse who gave predominant consideration to the service and his duties as the head of the extended family and as lord of the estates.

Renjith was stunned for the fact that His great grandfather was such a learned man with such good command over English.

As they retired for the night both of them knew that their lives would not be the same from now on .
 

ashdoc

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is malabar worth visiting as a tourist , considering the large and increasingly fanatic muslim population there ?

i have been to ernakulam/cochin twice as a tourist . saw the cochin naval museum and used ernakulam as a gateway to munnar and backwaters of alleppey .
 

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Chapter 3 the Land lord

Renjith was up early this morning he was he carried the thoughts from yesterday with him

As he sat down In front of his laptop and surfed the web regarding the era of landlordism

In Kerala he stumbled upon the Wikipedia page that stated about his family that said that

They had owned over 200 Sq. Klm on the frontiers of eranadu and Cochin then why he wondered

He was not told about this matter.

he closed his laptop and made his way determined to find out if he was really part of the family that he had read about in the web.

As he made his way for the day’s barkefast he listed out the people who he could ask about the history of the family

He could not ask his grandfather because he would know much

Then there was his grandmother but that would not help because she was English ah yes

He was partly of English descent his grandmother also belonged to an aristocrat family he could not get the name to come to him but put it aside for a later date now the only one who was let was his grandad’s mother .

For that he had to go to Thripunithura in the erstwhile Cochin state and he was supposed to go back to Missouri next Thursday.

In the mean time he reached for his Great granddad’s diary and sat down to read it

Date: 26/9/1919

Dearest dairy,

There is talk of my self-taking the reins of the family

The Honorable collector of the district had made a visit on behalf of the marquees Willingdon

The fact that I had had to take the responsibility of the titles of the estate

Along with titles of my dearest father

Those are really big shoes to feel and I pray to the gods and ancestors to help me full fill this enormous task

Regards

S R Nair

The very next day Renjith called on his close friend at the state divisional archive Kozhikode or Kalikod as Renjith Like to call it this State Divisional Archive

Who referenced him to look up the Cannonore district manual there was only one problem though

The said book was currently out of print and he had to Visit the archives to see the same

So he cancelled all his engagements and made his way to Kannur

As he entered the dusty environs of the archives he was lost in thoughts about his great grand dad

Whom in a way he was about to meet , this mysterious landlord of colonial Malabar who also happens

to be his relative
 

ashdoc

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I guess it is about the moplah rebellion. Hindus were landlords and Muslims were working the fields. The rebellion soon metamorphosed from anti British ( at Gandhi's call ) to anti hindu landlord by Muslim rebels . Hindus were butchered and the prepuces of those forced to undergo circumcision were given as offerings to allah . Gandhi did nothing to help the Malabar Hindus.

The rebellion perpetuated the process started by arab traders and continued by Tipu sultan---that of conversion of Malabar to islam . It still remains to be completed. The ISIS is what the Malabar Muslims are increasingly turning to in order to complete it .
 

F-14B

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I guess it is about the moplah rebellion. Hindus were landlords and Muslims were working the fields. The rebellion soon metamorphosed from anti British ( at Gandhi's call ) to anti hindu landlord by Muslim rebels . Hindus were butchered and the prepuces of those forced to undergo circumcision were given as offerings to allah . Gandhi did nothing to help the Malabar Hindus.

The rebellion perpetuated the process started by arab traders and continued by Tipu sultan---that of conversion of Malabar to islam . It still remains to be completed. The ISIS is what the Malabar Muslims are increasingly turning to in order to complete it .
you are correct I felt it nessercy to give the victims a voice
 

ashdoc

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you are correct I felt it nessercy to give the victims a voice
Tell me , is this movie on the 1921 moplah rebellion a good movie ? Of course , I don't understand malayalam but I want to ask you if it is worth seeing . If it is I might want to see it and review it for DFI .

 

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Tell me , is this movie on the 1921 moplah rebellion a good movie ? Of course , I don't understand malayalam but I want to ask you if it is worth seeing . If it is I might want to see it and review it for DFI .

the film was a critically acclaimed movie and is worth a watch but you might see that the narrative is a bit leftist in nature and portrays the Muslim as a protagonist

on the other hand how do you like the story so far do point out any mistakes
 

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the film was a critically acclaimed movie and is worth a watch but you might see that the narrative is a bit leftist in nature and portrays the Muslim as a protagonist

on the other hand how do you like the story so far do point out any mistakes
You are doing well . Do continue , for I am most interested in your tale .

Anyway , the communists have even awarded the moplah rebels the status of freedom fighters under the excuse that it was an anti british rebellion .
 
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Chapter4 Brewing trouble

It was a week since Renjith had come back from the divisional archives he was a changed man

He was more studious now preparing like a mad man for his prelims and any spare time

He got you could find him with his granddad pouring over the documents that he had found in

The archives.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg he had found tucked away in the Conner of all these documents a small bundle of documents that would change his life forever

As he gingerly advanced his hands towards the bundle of documents he was interrupted by the call for dinner.

Renjith did not waste time he was so engrossed in the resrech that he had his dinner in a flash and got back to his research

This time he picked up the bundle of papers that were tied with a red string he and his grandfather looked at each other before they gingerly untied the Knot.


Something in renjith’s mind told him that this bundle of papers would turn in to a Pandora’s box for his family and a life changing event for him personally even the grand old man sitting beside him knew that he would have to face the demons that he had sealed so successful on a man’s word to his father .

But there was no turning back now Sachindra Shanmukham Raman Nair knew this as clear as day

No one could mistake the document for what it was it was a FIR issued by the SI of Tirur

It was not what the document were that shocked Renjith and Mr. Nair but what was in it


Book No. 125QWE___________

FORM NO. 24.5 (1) FIRST INFORMATION REPORT


First Information of a Cognizable Crime Reported under Section 154, Criminal Penal Code

Police Station .tirur west................................... District...Malabar............................ No 11..................

Date and hour of Occurrence. 20 August 1921...6:50am..................

1. Date and hour when reported 20 August 1921...7:50am

2.Name and residence of informer and complainant.

Vadakaka kolikal ,Vadakan tirur kovilanagdi amsham,Eranadu malabar

3.Brief description of offence (with section) and of property carried off, if any. In the said 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 further to this it is reported that temples have been partly destroyed and the idols have been dug up and removed


4. Place of occurrence and distance and direction from the Police Station.

Vadakaka kolikal ,Vadakan tirur kovilanagdi amsham,Eranadu malabar
eastern tirur

5.Name & Address of the Criminal. Kunhi Kadir, Khilafat Secretary, Tanur


6. Steps taken regarding investigation explanation of delay in regarding information.

Copy of the said FIR forwarded to the Local detachment of the Malabar specials and the two cantonment an armed patrolling party also sent in the said direction

7.Date and Time of dispatch from Police Station. 22 August 1921...7:50am


Signature ...G, H Wilson....................

Designation ....Sub inspector IP............................

Asif this was not shocking enough the SI had noted in a red ink that it was registered under extreme what he called “tense” situation which Renjith regarded as a polite word for dangerous .

He went over and over the dates but he still could not place the hand on the significance of it

Then it hit him like a train this FIR was logged on the starting day of what would be called the Malabar rebellion
 

F-14B

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@ashdoc kindly do review the malayam movie you were referring to I would love to readyour review

Regards

Kiran
 

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Chapter 5 by the gods


But this had hit him hard then he started to connect the dots together why as a kid he was taken

To the family temple on the 20th august every year and why he paid obsence to the dead ancestors at the river but when doing this Renjith always felt an immense amount of sadness that overtook him and many a times he would break down for no reason what so ever so much so that he would not be able to attend the function any more

He also noticed that the maternal family temple was in a destroyed state he always felt an urge to discover why was it like this.

Renjith briskly walked to the side of his computer table and grabbed His maternal great granddad’s Dairy

He briskly turned the page to the one dated 20th August 1920 it was date lined from tirur it lacked the natural polished hand writing that he had come to expect from his Maternal great grand father

Date: 20/8/1920

Dearest dairy,

It is with the utmost sadness that I write this to you the whole of malabar is in a state of riot the

Same folk who we once called our own has turned against us wonder what has happened to our

Musalmans?

I am hearing terrifying tales of wanton riots in the whole of Lower malabar I worry for the safety of my wife and children

As I am deputed in the Rajputana agency at the court of Jaisalmer I am in no condition to go back home and be with them in this hour of need

By the gods I pray that my wife and family are hale and hearty I have asked for an emergency leave to go and look for them

I am worried sick as the news that the papers carry from the south is darkening by the day gods dam the

Indian national congress and their brand of politics

The so called freedom fighters have kept surprisingly mum on this issue

If they are doing this on purpose then mark my words a day will come when the people

Of this country shall ask about this incident and demand to know the truth

I also here that 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

Why has this come to this I don’t know but in no way is this justifiable?

I hope that His majesty’s government met out the most severest punishment

To these thugs


Regards


SR Nair,

Dty collector revenue department

State of Jaisalmer

Rajputana agency


Renjith was beyond shocked now he was so sad that he started to cry out loud in anguish and dispari at the shear haleness that was in display in the dairy entry of his ancestor In a way he was angry too because he was not told about this episode in the family tree

Now Renjith was angry as well why didn’t his granddad tell him about this while he was crying and in the grip of this depressing train of thought he felt a heavy hand of a man he looked up to the most on his shoulder

He turned around with the fury of a warrior in his answers to these things the grand old man spoken to the young one with the years of experience that came with his age
 

ashdoc

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@ashdoc kindly do review the malayam movie you were referring to I would love to readyour review

Regards

Kiran
i will try to . but remember i dont understand malayalam , so i dont know how much of the movie i will be able to understand .
 

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Chapter 6 Burning ambers


Mr. Nair placed his hand on his grandson and spoke thus

“ I am sorry that I did not tell you this before but I guess that its time that I told you this deep dark secret i know I should have told it to you of all people but as you may understand I come from a day and age where the word of a man meant more than his life seconded only by his family

I don’t know if you can comprehend it but I was oath bound to my father not to revel it to anyone but now since you have come to know so much about the incident I might as well tell you the part that the Government at the time didn’t cover and what was not put in to the “books” so to speak “

Mr. Nair took out an antiquated dairy which looked like a twin of Mr. Nair’s fathers personnel dairy. This dairy had a different demeanor to it that of sadness and tragedy It was named after a lady by the name of Sethu Lakshmi Raman Nair as the Renjith red this name, Out of the corner of his eyes he saw his grand dad’s eyes tear up as he ran small tracing fingers Over the said lady’s name again and again.

Mr. Nair quickly composed himself and he turned the pages to the same Date as that of his father

Date lined from ottapalam on the 20th of august 1923

Date: 20-08-1920

My dearest,

We have been in a literal siege the whole day with the Maphillas baying for our blood

I am in the basement shrine with the kids I can’t take this ordeal any more

But the elder brothers of the house have assured me that all this will pass and there is

Nothing to……………………………..

The rest of the page was crumbled and bloodied Mr. Nair could not take it anymore and walked out of the room with tearful eyes he later came back his face composed

Then he spoke again

“ Renjith what you saw was the last dairy entry of my mother I myself have vague memories of her people say that she was a great lady and had a royal grace to her

I have very sketchy memories of my mother but still could recognize her warmth it was special

But alas that’s all that I have to remember her by is it not sad I still have a tattered

Picture of her given to me by my father”

Renjith looked at his grandfather and hug him as that is the least he could do to comfort him

As Renjith looked out of his palatial ancestral home in to the setting sun he knew that the

There was more bloodshed in store for him and many a horror stories were yet to come

From the vast amount of papers and newspaper cuttings that were yet to be untangled

Over all he would have to find out what happened to his great grandmother he knew

It would be a grisly task.


But he had to do it for his grandfather to bring him some closure.

And to assuage the burning ambers that his grandfather carried in his heart
 

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Chapter 7 the bloodshed


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 HonorableMadras 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 writer of the book 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 IX :

(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 the British 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 [citation needed] while Ernad and Walluvanad were declared Khilafat kingdoms. [20]


By the end of 1921, the situation was brought under control. The British administration raised 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."

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 : Police Head Quarters Madras

Inspector General Madras Police

Sectary to the Government of Madras

GO-C Madras area

Carbon Copy to Central sectriate New Delhi

GHQ India Command

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???
 

ashdoc

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British were more manly than Congressis . At least they took some kind of revenge on the rioters in return for the rioters' killing of their personnel .
 

F-14B

#iamPUROHIT
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@ashdoc how was the "report" chapter and the story thus far ???
 

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