Global InformationMalabar rebellion information
 | Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. (July 2020) |
| Malabar Rebellion | |||||||
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| Part of the Khilafat Movement, the Mappila riots, and the Indian independence movement | |||||||
 South Malabar in 1921; areas in red show Taluks affected by the rebellion | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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| Mappila Rebels | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Rufus Isaacs (Viceroy of India) Freeman Freeman-Thomas (Governor of Madras) Thomas T. S. Hitchcock A. S. P. Amu |
Ali Musliyar  Variyankunnath Kunjahammad Haji Sithi Koya Thangal Chembrasery Thangal K. Moiteenkutti Haji Kappad Krishnan Nair[1] Konnara Thangal M. P. Narayana Menon[2] Pandiyatt Narayanan Nambeesan[1] Mozhikunnath Brahmadathan Nambudiripad[3] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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Official figures: 43 combatants killed126 wounded |
Official figures: 2,339 rebels killed1,652 injured 45,404 imprisoned | ||||||
| Part of a series on |
| Persecution of Hindus in pre-1947 India |
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| Incidents |
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| Part of a series on the |
| History of Kerala |
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The Malabar rebellion[4] of 1921 (also called Moplah rebellion,[5] and Mappila rebellion,[6] Malayalam: malabār kalāpam) started as a resistance against the British colonial rule in certain places in the southern part of old Malabar district of present-day Kerala. The popular uprising was also against the prevailing feudal system supposedly controlled by Hindus.[7][6][4] During the rebellion, thousands of Hindus were murdered and forcibly converted to Islam.[8]
For many, the rebellion was primarily a peasant revolt against the colonial government.[6][9] During the uprising, the rebels attacked various symbols and institutions of the colonial state, such as telegraph lines, train stations, courts and post offices.[10]
There were also a series of clashes between the Mappila peasantry and their Hindu landlords, the latter supported by the British colonial government, throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. The heavy-handed suppression of the Khilafat Movement by the colonial government was met by resistance in the Eranad and Valluvanad taluks of Malabar. The Mappilas attacked and took control of police stations, colonial government offices, courts and government treasuries.[11][12]
For six months from August 1921, the rebellion extended over 2,000 square miles (5,200 km2) – some 40% of the South Malabar region of the Madras Presidency.[13] The British colonial government sent troops to quell the rebellion and martial law imposed.[14] An estimated 10,000 people died,[15] although official figures put the numbers at 2337 rebels killed, 1652 injured and 45,404 imprisoned. Unofficial estimates put the number imprisoned at almost 50,000 of whom 20,000 were deported, mainly to the penal colony in the Andaman Islands, while around 10,000 went missing.[16] According to Arya Samaj about 600 Hindus were killed and 2,500 were forcibly converted to Islam during the rebellion.[17]
Contemporary colonial administrators and modern historians differ markedly in their assessment of the incident, debating whether the revolts were triggered by religious fanaticism or agrarian grievances.[18] At the time, the Indian National Congress repudiated the movement and it remained isolated from the wider nationalist movement.[19] However, some contemporary Indian evaluations now view the rebellion as a national upheaval against colonial rule and the most important event concerning the political movement in Malabar during the period.[15]
In its magnitude and extent, it was an unprecedented popular upheaval, the likes of which has not been seen in Kerala before or since. While the Mappilas were in the vanguard of the movement and bore the brunt of the struggle, several non-Mappila leaders actively sympathized with the rebels' cause, giving the uprising the character of a national upheaval.[11] In 1971, the Government of Kerala[20] officially recognized the active participants in the events as "freedom fighters".[21]
- ^ a b K. Madhavan Nair. Malabar Kalapam (2016 ed.). Mathrubhumi Books. p. 207. ISBN 9788182666115.
- ^ "Resurrecting a forgotten freedom fighter". The Hindu. 8 October 2016.
- ^ R Sasisekhar-Malayala Manorama 18 Jan 2019
- ^ a b Kurup 1996.
- ^ Nair 1923.
- ^ a b c Hardgrave 1977.
- ^ "Khilafat movement". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Qureshi 1999, p. 447.
- ^ Daniyal, Shoaib (13 November 2018). "Revolt against British or communal riot? Removal of Kerala mural revives debate on Moplah Rebellion". Scroll.in.
- ^ a b Menon, A. Sreedhara (1962), Kerala District Gazetteers, Volume 4, Superintendent of Govt. Presses, pp. 179–183.
- ^ Panikkar 1979, p. 622.
- ^ Hardgrave 1977, p. 58.
- ^ http://www.kerala.gov.in -> History -> Malabar Rebellion.
- ^ a b A short survey of Kerala History, A. Sreedhara Menon, Vishwanathan Publishers 2006, p. 361.
- ^ Malabar: Desheeyathayude idapedalukal ( Malabar: involvement of nationalism), MT Ansari, DC Books, p. 45.
- ^ "The Malabar rebellion is a layered story with multiple strands that defy simplistic narrations". The Indian Express. para. 7. 5 July 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ K. N. Panikkar, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 17, No. 20 (15 May 1982), pp. 823–824.
- ^ The labor of development: workers and the transformation of capitalism in Kerala, India, Patrick Heller, Cornell University Press, 1999, p. 67.
- ^ Kupferschmidt, Uri M. (1987). The Supreme Muslim Council: Islam Under the British Mandate for Palestine. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004079298.
- ^ EncyclopaediaDictionaryIslamMuslimWorld Volume 6. 1988. p. 460.
Contemporary evaluation within India tends to the view that the Malabar Rebellion was a war of liberation, and in 1971 the Kerala Government granted the remaining active participants in the revolt the accolade of Ayagi, "freedom fighter"