 |
| Image-navbharat times |
Moplah Rebellion 1921-22, History, Causes, and Consequences
History of Mopla
- The name Moplah is the anglicized version of Mapilla, meaning son-in-law (jamaat).
- It refers to the Malayali-speaking Muslims who lived on the Malabar Coast in northern Kerala.
- By 1921, the Moplah community had become the fastest-growing community in Malabar. Its population constituted 32% of the total Malabar population and was more concentrated in South Malabar.
- When Portuguese traders reached the Malabar Coast in the 16th century, they found that the Moplahs were a trading community concentrated in urban centers.
- They are largely isolated from the local Hindu population.
- However, the rise of the Portuguese forced the Moplas to move inland for new economic opportunities.
- This relocation led to a clash of religious identity with both the local Hindu population and the Portuguese.
Cause of rebellion
- The non-cooperation and Khilafat movement inspired the disaffected Muslims for the last time.
- The anti-British sentiment inspired by these movements gave rise to a large-scale Muslim peasantry.
- New Tenancy Laws: After the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, Malabar came under British control as a part of the Madras Presidency.
- The British introduced new tenancy laws that favored the landlords and set up a more exploitative system for the farmers than before.
- These laws deprived the peasants of all guaranteed rights to land, reduced their holdings, and rendered them landless.
Rebellion
- The rebellion began as a form of resistance against both British colonial rule and the zamindars in the Malabar region, who were predominantly Hindu.
- Muslim clerics began making fiery speeches, fanning anti-British sentiments, followed by several incidents of violence and a series of atrocities against both British and Hindu landlords.
- However, there is no consensus regarding the nature of the rebellion. While some historians consider it a case of religious bigotry, other historians describe it as an example of a struggle against British power. Some historians believe that it was a peasant revolt against unjust landlord practices.
- The rebellion may have started against British oppression, but it turned out to be a communal rebellion.
Support to the Rebellion:
Initially, the movement was supported by Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders, however, after the movement turned violent, they started distancing themselves from it.
Fall of the Rebellion:
By late 1921, the rebellion was suppressed by the Malabar Special Force of the British government.
Wagon Tragedy
In November 1921, around 70 Moplah prisoners died of suffocation while they were being taken to the Central Jail at Podanur in a closed goods train. This incident is known in history as the Wagon Tragedy.
Moplah Rebellion in Malabar (1921–22)
The Congress and Khilafat Movements were organized on a large scale in the Malabar district of Kerala during the period of the Non-cooperation movement during the freedom struggle. The majority of the population of most of the talukas of that district were Moplah Muslims. They were mostly poor farmers or Jenmis (bonded laborers) while the landlords were mostly Hindus.
Before 1921, the British rulers had almost always defeated the Moplah peasants by turning their anger into communalism. This time Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Shaukat Ali jointly visited Kerala and campaigned for Swaraj and Khilafat. The response was tremendous and Khilafat committees were formed almost everywhere.
In August 1921, the police issued Rule 144 in the two taluks of Ernad and Valluvamad, as both were Moplah strongholds. The police also tried to arrest the secretary of the Ernad Khilafat Committee on 20 August 1921. The Moplas resisted this arrest with swords and spears. Led by the Superintendent of Police of Ernad, a huge police contingent forcibly entered the Tirurangadi Mosque. Within no time, the protest movement spread like wildfire and took the form of mass rebellion.
Loot of government money by Moplas
The Moplas captured one police station after another, looted the government treasury, and burnt official documents in courts and registry offices. Under the leadership of desperate rebel leaders like Ali Musaliar, the Moplah rebellion took an unprecedented form.
According to historians of the Congress movement in Kerala, by 28 August 1921, British rule had completely collapsed in the areas of Malappuram, Tirurangadi, Sajeri, and Perinthalmanna. Historian Roland Miller wrote that while the British controlled the main cities, the entire rural area of Malabar was completely controlled by the Moplah rebels for 3 whole months. More than a million people from 220 sub-districts were involved in this mass rebellion.
Repression and Terror of the Revolt by the British Government
The British government imposed martial law to crush the rebellion. Then began the reign of terror. An example is the episode of 19 November 1921. That day 122 Moplahs were packed like sardines in a small compartment of a train and taken to Coimbatore, 90 miles away. In Coimbatore, when the compartment doors were opened, it was found that 64 prisoners had died of suffocation. All told, at least 10,000 Moplahs were killed in the name of crushing the rebellion and more than 3,000 were sentenced to exile for life and sent to the Andamans.
Except for the rebellion of 1857 and the earlier Santhal rebellion, so many people had never been killed by the British in any other movement. Many Hindus also participated in the Mopla rebellion. During the rebellion, no Hindu leader or even the leaders of the United Movement were allowed to enter the area. The first 46 Moplah rebels to be given life sentences were Maid Maulvi, Muhammad Abdul Rahman, and Hasan Koya, among them, were a Namboodiri, a Menon, a Nayyar, and Narayan Menon and Madhaba Nabi.
