100 Years Of Malabar Rebellion

August 20, 2021, marked the centenary of the Malabar rebellion, which is also known as the Moplah riots. This rebellion has been perceived as one of the first nationalist uprisings in southern India.

About Malabar Rebellion

• It 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 (Janmis) in Malabar (Northern Kerala).
• The resistance which started against the British colonial rule and the feudal system later ended in communal violence between Hindus and Muslims as most of the landlords were Namboodiri Brahmins while most of the tenants were Moplah Muslims.
• It was an extended version of the Khilafat Movement in Kerala in 1921.
• The main leaders of the rebellion were Ali Musliyar, Variankunnath Kunjahammad Haji, SithiKoya Thangal, M. P. Narayana Menon, Chembrasery Thangal, K. Moideen Kutty Haji, Kappad Krishnan Nair, KonnaraThangal, Pandiyatt Narayanan Nambeesan, and Mozhikunnath Brahmadathan Nambudiripad.
• In the initial stages, the movement had the support of Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian nationalist leaders, but as it turned violent they distanced themselves from it.

Reasons

• Role of Non-Cooperation Movement: The trigger of the uprising came from the non-cooperation movement launched by the Congress in 1920 along with the Khilafat agitation.
  • Gandhiji along with Shaukat Ali, the leader of the Khilafat movement in India, visited Calicut in August 1920 to spread the combined message of non-cooperation and Khilafat among the residents of Malabar.
  • In response to Gandhiji’s call, a Khilafat committee was formed in Malabar and the Moplahs, under their religious head Mahadum Tangal of Ponnani who pledged support to the non-cooperation movement.
• Anti-British Sentiments: The anti-British sentiment fuelled by these agitations affected the Moplahs in south Malabar region of Kerala.
• Tenancy Laws: Most of tenants’ grievances were related to the security of tenure, high rents, renewal fees and other unfair exactions of the landlords.
  • After the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799 in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, Malabar had come under British authority as part of the Madras Presidency.
  • The British had introduced new tenancy laws that tremendously favoured the landlords known as Janmis and instituted a far more exploitative system for peasants than before.
  • The new laws deprived the peasants of all guaranteed rights to the land, share in the produce they earlier got and in effect, rendered them landless.

British Resistance to Rebellion

• The colonial government took a heavy-handed approach towards the rebellion. Colonial troops were sent to the area and martial law was imposed.
• One of the most noteworthy events during the rebellion later came to be known as the “Wagon Tragedy”, in which 67 out of a total of 90 Moplah prisoners destined for the Central Prison in Podanur suffocated in a closed railway goods wagon.