Moplah Uprisings

In News

• Variyam Kunnath Kunhamed Haji, Ali Musaliar and 387 Moplah martyrs will be removed from the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle as per the recommendations made by a three-member panel.

About the Issue

• The fifth volume of the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle was brought out by the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR).
• The reason given is that the 1921 rebellion was never part of the independence struggle but a fundamentalist movement focused on religious conversion. 
• None of the slogans raised by the rioters were in favour of nationalism and were anti-British in content.
• The report describes Haji as the “notorious Moplah Riot leader” and a “hardcore criminal,” who “killed innumerable innocent Hindu men, women, and children during the 1921 Moplah Riot, and deposited their bodies in a well, locally known as Thoovoor Kinar”.
• Also, many ‘Moplah martyrs’ facing trial died from disease or natural causes, and could not be treated as martyrs.

Who was Variyam Kunjahammed Haji?

• Area: 
  • Kunjahammed Haji is an important figure in the echelons of Kerala’s colonial history as a rebel leader who took on the mighty British Raj. 
• Childhood and family: 
  • He was born into an affluent Muslim family sometime in the 1870s, and grew up hearing stories of the torture and injustice meted out by the British to the locals and to his own family. 
• Interest in traditional art forms:
  • An interesting facet in Haji’s early life was his fascination with traditional music-based art forms like Daffumutt and poems like ‘Malappuram Padappattu’ and ‘Badr Padappattu’ and how he used art as an instrument to rally the locals against the British.
  • By invoking such poems that spoke of the exploitation of the peasants by feudal lords under the British and which were later banned by them, Kunjahammed Haji was simultaneously challenging the British and igniting sentiments against them among the local population. 
  • These acts were a continuation of a stream of anger that had begun to strengthen against the colonialists and which is believed to have resulted in the Malabar uprising in 1921.
• Khilafat Movement: 
  • Leaders of Khilafat movement and the Indian National Congress, introduced him to the Khilafat cause. Though he thought that it was a Turkish question, he promised to join them against the atrocities of the British and the landlords.”
  • When Haji got the news that his countryman and Khilafat leader Ali Musaliyar was arrested at Tirurangadi and the mosque has been looted and some police officers killed in the ensuing fight, Haji decided to take arms against the British and arranged a band of army with the help of some sepoys who enthusiastically rallied behind him. 
  • As the leader of the Khilafat, he was mostly heard all over Calicut and south Malabar.
• Made sure character of rebellion was secular:
  • Though prominent British accounts cast him as a religious fanatic to create divisions within the movement, Haji was aware of the strength of Hindu-Muslim unity and ensured people of other faiths were given adequate security.
  • Haji ensured that the movement had a secular character. There was a possibility of the movement losing direction and perhaps even resulting in a communal riot. But Haji gave orders to his followers that people of other faiths were to be given adequate security and not be subjected to torture. But at the same time, he targeted all those who helped the British, be they Hindu or Muslim.
• Execution:
  • The rule did not last long. In January 1922, under the guise of a treaty, the British betrayed Haji through his close friend Unyan Musaliyar, arresting him from his hideout and producing him before a British judge. He was sentenced to death along with his compatriots.

Sources: TH