Modern Kerala History

1. MALABAR REBELLION
1921

2.  Malabar Rebellion of 1921 was the culmination of a series of riots by
Moplahs (Muslims of Malabar) in the 19th and early 20th centuries
against the British and the Hindu landlords in Malabar (Northern
Kerala).
 The rebellion happened in the Ernad and Valluvanad Taluks of Malabar.
 The resistance which started against the British colonial rule and the
feudal system later ended in communal violence between Hindus and
Muslims.
 The Moplah Rebellion or the Malabar Rebellion was an extended
version of the Khilafat Movement in Kerala in 1921.
 Malabar rebellion is considered as a peasant uprising , national
movement and ethinic cleansing.

3. BACK GROUND
• Land ownership in Malabar
• Land reforms and Mappila outbreaks :(1836–1921) –Theory of class
conflict
• Khilafat Movement

4. 1. LAND OWNERSHIP IN MALABAR (JUST READ AND UNDERSTAND)
• The Mappila's, the Muslims of Malabar, traditionally trace their origins to the ninth
century, when Arab traders brought Islam to the west coast of India.
• By I92I, the Mappila's constituted the largest and the fastest growing community in
Malabar .
• The pattern of Arab settlement and of the conversions, however, fundamentally affected
the character of the community .
• From the sixteenth century, while Mappila's remained urban merchants, the greater
portion of the community . They started inter marriages and converted people to Islam.
• The rise of Portuguese power in challenge to Mappilla commercial interests, many
Mappila's moved inland in search of new economic opportunities.
• As they moved into the interior of Malabar, they brought the fervor of Islam, heightened
in the intensity of conflict with the Portuguese.
• Early converts to Islam appear to have included many from among the propertied
classes of the high castes , fora long the coast and in North Malabar, where they settled,
the Mappila's are characterized predominantly by the marumakkathayam law of
inheritance

5. • . The matrilineal pattern traditional to the high castes of Malayali society.
• Though in violation of Muslim law j this traditional system of joint ownership
and inheritance through the female line served to retain property within the
family unit.
• In sharp contrast to the general prosperity enjoyed by the Mappila's of the North,
the Mappila's of South Malabar were principally converted from the lower Tiyya,
Cheruman, and Mukkuvan castes, for whom 'the honor of Islam' brought freedom
from the disabilities of ritual pollution.
• Governed by the makkathayam law of inheritance, these converts were by their
own tradition in conformity with Muslim law, but the division of what little
property they had among all heirs served to perpetuated their poverty.
• It was in these inland areas of the South, in Ernad and Walluvanad taluks, and
among the poorest sections of the population that the Mappilla community
expanded most rapidly

6. • For whereas the lower Hindu castes were part of a hierarchy in which an
oppressive Nambudri landlord was also a social and religious superior, the
Mappila's as Muslims would identify the Nambudri as an unbeliever and could
invoke Islamic tenets to justify a challenge to his authority.
• During the successive invasions by HyderA li and Tipu Sultan in the late
eighteenth century, Malabar was thrown into social turmoil.
• The Haidar's invasion, or more precisely his and Tipu's sporadic persecution of
the Nambudris and Nairs weakened the political and social position of these
castes. The Mappilla ‘s were then free from previous restraints and their actions
made explicit the profound antagonisms which prevailed between the Mappila's
and the dominant Hindu castes in rural Malayali society.
•

7. • Many Hindus fled in fear of death or forced conversion before the advancing
army and the even more terrifying bands of marauding Mappila's who in the areas
of Ernad and Walluvanad had become a law unto themselves.
• The defeat of Tipu and the subsequent British land settlement policies in Malabar
leading to the restoration of the social and economic position of the dominant
castes, severely affected the position of the Mappila's in South Malabar.
• But this made a rivalry between the Hindus and Muslims in the Malabar.

8. LANDREFORMS IN MALABAR (IMP)
Malabar's agricultural system was historically based on a hierarchy of privileges, rights and obligations for all
principal social groups in what British administrator William Logan sometimes referred to as the "Father of
Tenancy Legislation" in Malabar, describing it as a system of 'corporate unity’ or joint proprietorship of each of
the principal land right holders:
• i.Jenmi
• ii.Verumpattakkaran
1.Jenmi
●The Jenmi, consisting mainly of the Namboothiri Brahmins and Nair chieftains, were the highest level of the
hierarchy, and a class of people given hereditary land grants by the Naduvazhis or rulers’.
●The rights conveyed by this janmam were not a free hold in the European sense, but an office of dignity.
●Owing to their ritual status as priests (Namboodiris), the jenmis could neither cultivate nor supervise the land
but would instead provide a grant of kanam to a kanakkaran in return for a fixed share of the crops produced.
●Typically, a Jenmi would have a large number of kanakkararunder him.

9. 2.Verumpattakkaran
●The Verumpattakkarar, generally Thiyya and Mappila classes, cultivated the land but were
also its part-proprietors under the kanakkarar.
●These classes were given a Verum Pattam(Simple Lease) of the land that was typically valid
for one year.
●According to custom, they were also entitled to one-third or an equal share of the net
produce.
●The net produce of the land was the share left over after providing for the cherujanmakkar
or all the other birthright holders such as the village carpenter, the goldsmith and
agricultural labourerswho helped to gather, prepare and store produce.
●The system ensured that no Jenmi could evict tenants under him except for non-payment
of rent.
●This land tenure system was generally referred to as the janmi-kana-maryada(customary
practices).

10. During the Mysorean invasion of Malabar, the Jenmi took refuge in neighboring states.
●The tenants and the Nair army men who could not escape were converted into Islam, as described in William
Logan's Malabar Manual.
●Thus, Tipu Sultan's Kingdom of Mysore, having driven the Jenmi out of Malabar, reached accord with the
Muslim Kanakkars.
●A new system of land revenue was introduced for the first time in the region's history with the government
share fixed on the basis of actual produce from the land.
• However, within five years, the East India Company took over Malabar, defeating Tipu Sultan and ending his
reign over the region.
●This allowed the Jenmi to return to their homes and regain the lands lost during the Mysorean invasion, with
the help of the Company administration and its duly-constituted courts.
●The Company introduced several Western juridical concepts, such as that of absolute property rights, into the
existing legal system of Malabar.
●Up until then, such rights had been unknown in the region and as a result, all land became the private
property of the Jenmi.
●This legal recognition gave them the right to evict tenants, which was in turn enforced through the colonial
civil courts

11. As conditions worsened, rents rose to as high as 75–80% of net produce, leaving the
Verumpattakkar cultivators largely "only straw". This caused great resentment among the
Mappilas, who, in the words of Logan, were "laboring late and early to provide a sufficiency
of food for their wives and children".
• General resentment amongst the Muslim population led to a long series of violent
outbreaks beginning in 1836.
• There was about 29 such clashes between 1836 and 1919 which were normally suppressed
in a few days and each case had a relatively a small no. of people.
• The rebellion started in 1836.
And Moplah outrages acts were imposed on the land on 1854. This empowered
authorities to impose heavy fines on the Mappilla populations in localities where
outrages occur; to confiscate the property of those found guilty of outrages; and to
deport persons suspected of Complicity. The second aet declared possession of the
Mappilla 'war knife' illegal.
• To enforce these measures, a special force of police was raised in Ernad. In 1884 Malabar
Special Police Force (MSPF) Was formed .

12. KHILAFAT MOVEMENT
• National movement ppt from 5th slide to 33 rd. slide
• The first president of Kerala Khilafat Committee was Kattilasery
Muhammad Moulavi.

13. MALABAR REBELLION – WHAT
HAPPENED IN 1921?

14. LEADERS OF THE REBELLION
1.Variyankunnath Kunjahammed Haji
2.Sithi Koya Thangal
3.Ali Musliyar

15. TIRURANGADI ATTACK
• On 20 August 1921, the police attempted to arrest Vadakkevittil Muhammed,
the secretary of the Khilafat Committee of Ernad at Pookkottur, alleging that he
had stolen the pistol of a Hindu Thirumulpad from a Kovilakam (manor)
in Nilambur.
• The Khilafat Committee marched against the police station to release
Vadakeveetil Muhammad . The police did not allow resulting in the clash
between the rebels and the police. They killed the police and released
Vadakeveetil Muhammad.
• This was the first event in the Malabar Rebellion of 1921. The sudden outbreak
of the rebellion was because of the arrest of Vadakeveetil Muhammad.

16. • the following day, a squad of police arrested a number of Khilafat
volunteers and seized records at the Mambaram Mosque in
Tirurangadi, leading to rumors that the building had been desecrated.
• A large crowd of Mappilas converged on Tirurangadi and besieged
the local police station. The police opened fire on the crowd,
triggering a furious reaction which soon engulfed the Eranad and
Valluvanad Taluks along with neighboring areas and continued for
over two months.
• Hence , the Malabar Rebellion was originated in Tirurangadi.
• During the initial stages of the rebellion, the colonial military and
police were forced to withdraw from these areas but by the end of
August, several contingents of colonial troops and Gurkha arrived.

17. POOKOTUR RIOT(read)
• .On 1921 August 21 morning, rebels reached the spot, British force came in 22 Lorries and 25
cycles. The rebels' strategy was to let their lorries enter till they reach Pilakkal, then to besiege
them from all the sides.
• But Parancheri Kunjarammutty who was not present in the last meeting of the rebels did not know
this strategy, Kunjarammutty who was hiding behind the heap of soil opened the fire at the first
lorry while there were only two or three Lorries reached the field.
• Hearing the gunshots, the army reversed the lorries. They threw smoke bombs to all the sides.
Due to smoke rebels couldn't aim their guns properly.
• Bullets lost their targets. Still, they made heavy casualties to the military. Behind the veil of smoke,
the military made to set machine guns to fire.
• When the smoke subsided, about ten soldiers walked on the road by foot towards Pilakkal.
Without knowing that this was a trap, rebels came forward to capture them. Soldiers suddenly
turned back and hid behind the machine guns and started firing.

18. • The rebels who followed them were killed. This round of firing happened two
times and a number of rebels got killed.
• Kunjarammutty, who opened fire at the first with other rebels, came out on the
field with swords when they had no more bullets in stock and they fought unto
their last breath.
• Vadakkuveetil Mammad, the commander of rebels also was killed. The war
continued for more than 3 hours and 400 rebels had to give their blood while only
four died from the British side as per the official documents,
• After the battle was fought, the army was on the way to Malappuram with
Superindent of Police Cuthbert Buxton Lancaster and four soldiers in a lorry at
the front.
• At Kummalippadi, a Mappila rebel, climbed on a tree and threw a grenade into
the lorry in which police and soldiers were travelling. Lancaster and several
soldiers were killed on the spot.

19. The Pukottur Riot was led by
1.Seethakoya Thangal
2.Ali Musaliyar
3.Variyamkunnath Kunjuahamed Haji
After this incident a parallel government was formed led by Ali Musaliyar. Ali
Musaliar of Tirurangadi assumed the title of 'Ali Raji
During the early phase of the rebellion, the targets were primarily
the Jenmi and the colonial government. Crimes committed by some of
the rebels were accepted by leaders.

20. • . After the proclamation of Martial law and the arrival of government troops, 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 Mappilas
turned their full attention to attacking Hindus while Ernad and Valluvanad were
declared "Khilafat kingdoms“. Rapes , Murders , looting were common during this
period.
THUVVUR WELL INCIDENT
• The Chembrasseri Tangal, who had assumed control over an Ernad locality, was alleged to
have personally overseen the murder of 38 Hindus. More than 40 Hindus were taken to
the Tangal with their hands tied behind their back. The executioner stood here and
after cutting on the neck with his sword pushed the body into the well. Many of the
people who were thus thrown in were not dead, but escape was impossible. The
sides of the well are cut in hard laterite rock and there are no steps. It is said that
some people were crying out from the well even on the 2nd day of the massacre.

21. • In mid-November in response to reports of a large concentration of
rebels, troops and police began a massive sweep across the Sected
areas, but the Mappilla bands refused to engage in battle, disappearing
into the hills as soon as they were located.
• Publicized, and the number of surrenders rapidly increased, with the
Sect that the area open to the rebel bands was substantially reduced.
• At the same time, there was considerable increase in information's to the
whereabouts of the rebels.
• 128 Two of the largest bands those of the Chembrasseri Tangal and
Seethi Koya Tangal were forced into the mountains east of the disturbed
area and were there blockaded until their surrender in December to the
Gurkha Rifles.
• The scattered bands which had taken refuge in the jungles north of the
Beypore surrendered so on thereafter.

22. • The execution of Variakunnath Kunjahammed Haji on January 20,
I922, 'marked the collapse of the rebellion.’
• By February25, the situation was sufficiently well in hand that martial
law, after6 months in force, was allowed to lapse
• By December I92I, Hindu refugees had already begun to return to
their villages
• According to official records, the colonial government lost 43 troops
with 126 wounded,10,000 Hindus killed by rebels, while 2337 rebels
were killed, another 1652 injured and 45,40 imprisoned. Unofficial
estimates put the number at50,00 imprisoned, of who 20,00 were
deported (mainly to the penal colony in the Andaman Islands) while
around 1,000 went missing. The number of civilian casualties is
estimated at between 10,000 and 12,000.

23. WAGON TRAGEDY
• On 10 November 1921, when the uprising was near its end, almost 90
detained Muslim rioters were sent by train from Tirur to the Central
Prison,Bellary in the Madras Presidency. During the return journey, 64 of
the 100 prisoners suffocated to death in the closed rail road wagon.
• Sumith Sarkar calls this as the ‘Blackhole of Pothanoor’
• A commission was appointed under A. R Knepp to study the incident.

24. SUDDHI MOVEMENT
• In the aftermath of this ethnic cleansing, the Suddhi Movement was
created by the Arya Samaj . They converted over 2,000 Hindus who
had been forcibly converted to Islam by the Mappilas. However, their
leader, Swami Shraddhananda was stabbed on 23 December 1926 by
an Islamist at his Ashram.