MOPLAH HINDU GENOCIDE, 1921: 2500 HINDUS SLAUGHTERED
Perpetrator: Moplah/ Mappila Muslims of Kerala
(Note: Article was written by me based on
various sources. It is a little bit lengthy; still it is worth to go through
completely without fail so that you will understand how Love of Islamic Tenets
and Extreme Adherence towards their religious Jihad had inflicted unprecedented
violence on hapless Kerala Malabar Hindus resulting in deaths of more than 2500
Hindus apart from destructions of Temples in Kerala. )
The Moplah Hindu Genocide, or the Malabar
Rebellion, or the Mappila Rebellion, or the Moplah Riots happened exactly 100 years back and hence
it is but relevant to know the incidents in their proper perspective in the
centenary year. Due to various reasons, these horrific incidents were either
wiped out from history in entirety or twisted to fit a pre-decided story.
The
Mappillah Riot was part of the Khilafat
Movement, which was never a national freedom movement in itself, but a
religious uprising incorporated into the Indian freedom movement by Mahatma
Gandhi.
Statistics: 2500 Hindus slaughtered, at least 26000 fled as refugees, at least 2500
forcibly converted, sexually assaulted, and more than 100 Hindu temples
destroyed.
It was odd to know that Gandhiji who was the champion of
Non-violence persuaded the Congress to support Khilafat Movement – a violent
agitation for restoration of the Islamic Caliphate and this movement had fully
supported Moplah Rebellion. Gandhi’s
Advocacy Of Horrific Moplah Riots was however Condemned By Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
Maulana Hasrat Mohani, the eulogized freedom
fighter and a friend of the Mahatma, and one who had coined the slogan
“Inquilab Zindabad”, justified the massacre of Hindus by saying that this was
Islamic jihad and that according to the rules of jihad, those who help the
enemy become enemies themselves.
Shockingly, Gandhi was conciliatory towards the
Maulana. “I do not blame the Maulana. He looks upon the British Government as
an enemy. He would defend anything done in fighting it. He thinks that there is
much untruth in what is being said against the Moplahs and he is, therefore,
not prepared to see their error.
I believe that this is his narrowness, but it
should not hurt the Hindus. The Maulana speaks what is in his mind. He is an
honest and courageous man. All know that he has no ill will against the Hindus.
In spite of his amazingly crude views about religion, there is neither greater
nationalist nor a greater lover of Hindu-Muslim unity than the Maulana.”
Hence, Gandhiji’s love of his pet theme and goal of ‘Hindu –
Muslim’ unity and also of his other equally important policy of ‘Non-Violence’
were sidelined so as to condone, if not accept,
Maulana’s jihad mentality.
“Mr Gandhi has never called the Muslims to
account even when they have been guilty of gross crimes against Hindus,” said
Ambedkar. “Mr Gandhi has never protested against such murders [of prominent
Hindus like Swami Shradhanand, Rajpal, Nathuramal Sharma]. Not only have the
Muslims not condemned these outrages but even Mr Gandhi has never called upon
the leading Muslims to condemn them. He has kept silent over them. Such an
attitude can be explained only on the ground that Mr Gandhi was anxious to
preserve Hindu-Moslem unity and did not mind the murders of a few Hindus, if it
could be achieved by sacrificing their lives.”
During the period 1821-1921,
there were 51 militant outbreaks of the Mappilas. These outbreaks were not fueled just by agrarian discontent or
commercial interests, but were waged in the spirit of Jihad, against everyone they saw as their
opponents–be it Christian rulers or Hindu landlords (jenmis).
The Khilafat movement was an uprising of
Indian Muslims in support of the Islamic caliphate, in the wake of World War I.
It was aimed at Islamic dominion over India, by destroying the British empire,
with support from the Ottoman Empire (which was eventually exterminated in late
1922).
The Khilafat Movement, led by the Ali
brothers, had full support of M. K. Gandhi, who promised the support of Hindus
as well to the Ali brothers—Shaukat Ali, Mohammad Ali
Jauhar and Abul Kalam Azad—knowing fully well that they would attack
Hindus should they fail to support them. The Ali brothers had clearly informed
M. K. Gandhi that if the Afghans invaded India to wage “holy war” or Jihad,
they would fight not just the British, but the Hindus as well. Still, Gandhi did
not protest their anti-Hindu policy, instead asked Hindus to support the
Khilafat Movement.
The volunteers of Arya Samaj performed the
sincere task of reconverting those Hindus who were forcibly converted by
Moplahs. A simple “prayaschitta” was given to them by the priests of Arya Samaj, upon which they
were once again accepted back as Hindus. But the wounds of the deadly Hindu
Genocide take longer to heal, and leave scars. The demography and turmoil’s
faced by Kerala, along with the irreligious sentiment of many Hindus of Kerala,
is, in some ways, related to the gory history of Malabar and attacks on Hindus.
From the night of the 20th of August to the 24th
of August 1921, at Nilambur 16 miles from Manjeri, 11 police personnel
including Lieutenant Johston were murdered by the Moplahs. Subsequent events
are that on the 26th of August a retired police inspector was murdered at
Anakayam near Manjeri by Variyamkunnath Kunhahammad Haji and his followers and his head was paraded on a spear.
Further, Arya Samaj Head Swami Shraddhananda was also stabbed on 23 December 1926 by an Islamist
at his Ashram in Kerala.
I thought that instead of giving more information, the
quotes from famous personalities/records about this horrible massacre will be
more effective and authentic and the list is as follows:
1.
Gandhiji 2. Congress INC
Resolution. 3. B. R. Ambedkar. 4. Annie Beasant. 5. D.V. Gundappa. 6. Swami
Shraddhanand.
7. The Viceroy, Lord
Reading. 8. Lord Curzon. 9. G. Nandagopan.
Gandhiji:
These Malabaris Muslims are not fighting for the
love of it. They are fighting for what they consider is their Religion and in
the manner, they consider is religious.
Hindus must find out the causes of Moplah
fanaticism. They will find that they are not without blame. They have hitherto
not cared for the Moplah. They have either treated him as a serf or dreaded
him. They have not treated him as a friend and neighbor, to be reformed and
respected. It is no use now becoming angry with the Moplahs or the Muslims in
general.
Decades later, while preaching to those affected
by the pre-partition Hindu-Muslim violence, Gandhiji said: “Hindus should not
harbour anger in their hearts against Muslims even if the latter wanted to
destroy them. Even if the Muslims want to kill us all we should face death
bravely. If they established their rule after killing Hindus we would be
ushering in a new world by sacrificing our lives. None should fear death. Birth
and death are inevitable for every human being. Why should we then rejoice or
grieve? If we die with a smile we shall enter into a new life, we shall be
ushering in a new India.”
Congress INC Resolution on
24-12-1921 under Gandhiji’s Leadership:
Khilafat preachers were denied access
to the affected parts by the District authorities for six months before the
disturbance, but is due to causes wholly unconnected with the two movements –
viz Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements and that the outbreak would not have
occurred had the message of non-violence been allowed to reach them. Congresss is
of the opinion that the disturbance in Malabar could have been prevented by the
Government of Madras accepting the proffered assistance of Maulana Yakub
Hassan.
The Khalifat Movement was started by the
Muslims. It was taken up by Mr. Gandhi with a tenacity and faith which must
have surprised many Muslims themselves.
The Moplah rebellion is nothing but jihad. The
Muslim agitators preached the doctrine that India under the British Government
was Dar-ul-Harab [The Abode of War; a place where the Muslims are not in power]
and that the Muslims must fight against it and if they could not, they must
carry out the alternative principle of Hijrat. The aim was to establish the
kingdom of Islam by overthrowing the British Government. Knives, swords and
spears were secretly manufactured, bands of desperadoes collected for an attack
on British authority. On 20th August a severe encounter took place between the
Moplahs and the British forces at Pinmangadi.
The blood-curdling atrocities
committed by the Moplas in Malabar against the Hindus were indescribable. All
over Southern India, a wave of horrified feeling had spread among the Hindus of
every shade of opinion, which was intensified when certain Khilafat leaders
were so misguided as to pass resolutions of congratulations to the Moplas on
the brave fight they were conducting for the sake of religion.
Any person could have said that this
was too heavy a price for Hindu-Muslim unity. But Mr. Gandhi was so much
obsessed by the necessity of establishing Hindu-Muslim unity that he was
prepared to make light of the doings of the Moplas and the Khilafats. He spoke
of the Mappilas as the "brave God-fearing Moplahs who were fighting for
what they consider as religion and in a manner which they consider as
religious.
Annie Beasant: (Vide
two separate articles in New India on 29 November 1921 and 6 December 1921 as
to what happened to the Malabar Hindus at the hands of the Moplahs):
Can Mr. Gandhi not feel a little
sympathy for thousands of women left with only rags, driven from home, for
little children born of the flying mothers on roads in refugee camps? The
misery is beyond description. Girl wives, pretty and sweet, with eyes half
blind with weeping, distraught with terror; women who have seen their husbands
hacked to pieces before their eye, in the way “Moplas consider as religious”;
old women tottering, whose faces become written with anguish and who cry at a
gentle touch…men who have lost all, hopeless, crushed, desperate…Can you
conceive of a more ghastly and inhuman crime than the murders of babies and
pregnant women?…A pregnant woman carrying 7 months was cut through the abdomen
by a rebel and she was seen lying dead on the way with the dead child
projecting out of the womb…Another: a baby of six months was snatched away from
the breast of his own mother and cut into two pieces… Are these rebels human
beings or monsters?
A respectable Nayar Lady at
Melatur was stripped naked by the rebels in the presence of her husband and
brothers, who were made to stand close by with their hands tied behind. When
they shut their eyes in abhorrence they were compelled at the point of sword to
open their eyes and witness the rape committed by the brute in their presence.
D.V. Gundappa to
INC’s statement:
If the message of non-violence was
not allowed to reach the Moplahs, was any other message allowed to reach them?
And who delivered it? If it is claimed that non-violence can quell any kind of
armed rising, does it not follow that it should have been conveyed five years
ago to England and France and Germany?
Swami Shraddhanand in
the Liberator of 26 August 1926
The original resolution condemned the
Moplas wholesale for the killing of Hindus and burning of Hindu homes and the
forcible conversion to Islam. The Hindu members themselves proposed amendments
till it was reduced to condemning only certain individuals who had been guilty
of the above crimes. But some of the Moslem leaders could not bear this even.
Maulana Fakir and other Maulanas opposed the resolution and there was no
wonder. But I was surprised, an out-and-out Nationalist like Maulana Hasrat
Mohani opposed the resolution on the ground that the Mopla country no longer
remained Dar-ul-Aman but became Dar-ul-Harab and they suspected the Hindus of
collusion with the British enemies of the Moplas. Therefore, the Moplas were
right in presenting the Quran or sword to the Hindus. And if the Hindus became
Mussalmans to save themselves from death, it was a voluntary change of faith
and not forcible conversion—Well, even the harmless resolution condemning some
of the Moplas was not unanimously passed but had to be accepted by a majority
of votes only.
The Viceroy, Lord Reading:
The Moplahs’ wanton and unprovoked attack on the Hindus, the all
but wholesale looting of their houses in Ernad, etc, the forcible conversion of
Hindus in the beginning of the Moplah rebellion and the wholesale conversion of
the Hindus, the brutal murder of inoffensive Hindus without the slightest
reason except that they are “Kafirs” were all horrible acts of those rioters. Burning
of Hindu temples, the outrage on Hindu women and their forcible conversion and
marriage by the Moplahs were equally condemnable.
Lord Curzon's statement in
British parliament was hereunder:
"The Moplah rebellion is just over, but at
least 2,500 Moplahs have been killed by our troops, at least 10,000 Hindus were
murdered, and at least 1,000 more were forcibly converted to Mahommedanism.
Temples and churches were defiled and damaged, and property to the value of
£250,000 was destroyed."
G. Nandagopan, Pandalam, Kerala wrote in “Letters to the
Editor” in “The Hindu” dated 30-06-2020 thus:
This is letter in response to a
series of news, articles and columns that have been published in The Hindu over
the past week regarding the Mappillah Riots (also known as the Malabar
Rebellion of 1921).
It is quite natural and ideal
for the newspaper to remain neutral in the coverage of the event, as there has
been noticeable public debate in Kerala, triggered by an announcement of a film
on the subject.
But in the process of trying to
be a neutral observer, the newspaper has been seen to be approving one sided
‘secularised’ narrative of the event, which is in fact injustice to the
thousands of victims of the brutal pogrom that the 1921 event was.
The
newspaper published a piece authored by Mr.Haji, who is regarded as the leader
of the rebellion. But I was upset to see the conspicuous absence of any mention
of the large number of authentic records of the event, penned by eminent
personalities ranging from Dr. B.R.Ambedkar to Annie Besant and K. Madhavan
Nair to C. Keshavan Nair, people who were eyewitnesses to the bloody show of
brutality that happened at the the time.
The Mappillah Riot was part of the Khilafat Movement, which was
never a national freedom movement in itself, but a religious uprising
incorporated into the Indian freedom movement by Mahatma Gandhi.
What started
off under the umbrella of the Congress quickly deviated from it and took the
shape of a cold blooded pogrom against the Hindus of Malabar, irrespective of
caste. Those attempting to convert the event into a freedom struggle must answer
how do forceful religious conversions feature in a freedom struggle, And those
attempting to make it an agrarian revolt must answer why places of worship of a
particular religion were destroyed.
Tail Piece:
On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Khilafat movement, at
least three Malayalam movies in praise of the Moplah genocide of Hindus, have
been announced in Kerala. The Islamist-controlled Malayalam film industry goes
on a Khilafat movie spree after the announcement of a film, based on the life
of the notorious Hindu massacre Variyan Kunnathu Kunjahammed, by a film
director Ashiq Abu. The move has triggered widespread anger and condemnation
across the state as Kunjahammed was the chief of the jihadi force that led the
anti-Hindu riots in Malabar during Khilafat movement in which thousands of
Hindus were butchered, raped and forcibly converted to Islam.
In the film directed by Ashiq Abu, a hardcore Islamist in the
garb of Communism, famous south Indian actor Prithviraj will play the title
role. In a poster released by Prithviraj and others, the Islamist director and
scriptwriters projected the Jihadi villain a ‘revolutionary hero’. The screenplay
for the film was written by Ramees Mohammed, a Popular Front of India cadre who
believes that cinema is the best way to ‘Islamise the society’.
Islamic radical outfits like Popular Front of India and
Jamat-e-Islami, under the aegis of the ruling CPM, have been using 1921 scare
to instil fear psychosis among Hindus. During the recent anti-CAA protests in
Malappuram, the PFI-JeI extremists raised slogans like: “We haven’t thrown away
the Malabar dagger that we had used in 1921.” They had also conducted several
rallies, holding swords and other weapons with provocative sloganeering, to
commemorate the anniversary of the Hindu massacre of 1921.
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