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| The Rebel Areas |
PART III
Like anyother riot that culminated in a huge conflagration the Moplah Outrages of 1921 had a rather unseemly, even comical beginning. Hitchcock, the Deputy Superintendent of Police sent out a police party to arrest Vadakkevitti Muhammed, the self styled leader of the Khilafat Committee at Ernad on August 21, 1921. Police went in search of the man and getting some information that he was hiding in the Mambaram Mosque in Tirinangadi they went there. Meanwhile Ali Musseliar and his associates had spread the rumour that the Police had set the mosque on fire and this provoked a large number of Moplahs to gather and soon a huge crowd had gathered. Police had to resort to firing in which a number of people were killed. This event was itself the culmination of more than 18 months of intense propaganda and organization in the region starting from April 1920 when the first Kilafat Committees were constituted. And in August 1920, Gandhi descended on Calicut with Shaukat Ali in tow and without understanding the fanacticism that was burning in the Moplah regions of Ernad, Walluvanad and Ponnani, Gandhi gave out the call for Non Cooperation thereby leaving the indigenous people to the tender mercies of the Moplahs.
During the course of the next six months or even later, the indigenous people were subjected to untold misery and groups of Moplahs killed people, looted property, descecrated temples and committed gruesome atraocities on women and children. It is a pathetic feature of Indian Historiography that the victims of the Moplahs have not been given the dignity of being remembered and those who mutilated nd killed them have their names recognized as "martyrs". Perhaps the need for a political consensus after the division of India in 1947 neccesitated an approach that would relegate to amnesia the sufferings of the people and their tormentors hailed as "freedom fighter". This change in the discourse on the Moplah Rebellion was the consequence of Gandhi's misguided and as it turned out suicidal embrace of the Khilafat cause against the better judgement of the only nationalist Muslim leader the Congree ever had, M A Jinnah. Jinnah like Ambedkar had foreseen the demonic consequences of flirting with religious extrimeism. While the leaders like Ali Musseliar and Variankunnath Kunmuhhamda, Chembrasseri Tangal and others who were judged and found guily of committing crimes have memorials all over Kerala to honour them and also to sustain the political parties that derive sustenance for their deeds, the victims of the Moplah Outrages of 1921 lie forgotten. Even the sites of the worst atrocities have not been remembered or memorialized. The temples that were looted and descerated during the six moths of terror in the region lie in a dilapitated condition tll this day. We hope that 1n 2021 when the centenary of this Moplah Rebellion comes, a Memorial with the names of the victims will be constructed,
The Governor of Madras was keen to deal with the emerging tensions in the Malabar region only as a Moplah issue and refused to even use the words Non Cooperation or Kilafat as that meant dealing with the issue at hand from a different perspective. This unnecessary concession to Gandhi's perverse entry into the Moplah Rebellion resulted in the District Administration losing valuable time and the initiative passed to the Moplahs who now felt that the Government had accepted its terms. All that Madras did was to allow him to use the powers granted to the Malabar District Mgistrate to arrest persons carrying the "Malabar Knife" under the Malabar War Knives Act of 1854. This measure came too late as by the third week of August 1921 Moplah hordes of 2000 men were forming and assembling by the beat of drums. Men wearing Khilafat badges and carrying knives collected near Kovilagam and Manjeri.
The Police were aware that active preparation was being undertaken for large acts of violence as information had reached Hitchcock that two Hindu Ironsmits were tasked with manufacturing the knives, daggers, and spears soon after the Karachi Conference in January 1920. The iron workers later stated that they were coerced into making the weapons and thus escaped severe punishment at the hands of the military tribunal. Hirtchcock felt that he needed sufficient men to carry out search and seizure operations across the affected areas. Madras did not agree with this perfectly sound advice. The first step that any Government takes while facing an insurgency is total theatr domination. And Hitchcock and Thomas were both forced to deal with the situation from a position of relative weakness. Meanwhile the Moplahs were indulging in attacks on police stations, tarwad mansions of Nairs jemins and temple and these attacks were often accompanied with cruel acts of violence inflicted with gay abandon.
After the attack on the Police party on August 20, 1921 it was no longer possible for Madras to pretend that all was fine in the Malabar. Deparate telegrams were sent to Simla requesting the Viceroy to authorize troops from Bangalore. Valuable time had been lost and when finally the order was given that troops stationed in Bangalore would be sent out. However the Bangalore troops were not in a positio to move to the Malabar and once again the situation in the Mlabar went from bad to extremely bad. The Newspapers were reporting all the discussions going on and so the rebels must have known the quandary in which the District Administration was faced. While the vast number of Moplah rebels were illiterates, the leadership consisted of men with a trace of education.
The District Magistrate and the Police Chief faced the threat of assasination. Ali Musseliar had said pubically that he wanted both men dead. The immediate aftermath of the defeat of the rebels in the engagement at Pookattor was a change in tactic on the part of the rebels. They broke into smaller groups and took refuge in the hills surrounding Malabar. As the rebels began threatening Calicut, the Madras Government requested naval assistance as troops still could not be found to deal with the insurgency. On August 23rd 1921, the Comus a battle ship was sent from Colombo and it arrived at Calicut Port on 25th August 1921. The naval ratings engaged the rebels near the Beypore River and a path cleared for the Administration to move to Shoranur. Calicut was defended with a small contingent of Leinsters, a lightly armed group.
The arrival of the Ship was the first step towards a change in strategy. After the defeat of the rebels led by Ali Mussiliar on 31 st September when the Tirurangadi Mosque was captured, it became imperative that the rbels be brought to justice for the killings that they had committed and so a Military Tribunal was constituted in September 1921 to try the rebels for acts of violence murder and dacoity committed by them. The official Report states "rebels terrorized the whole Hindu population and were guilty of many terrible atrocities and crimes, including murder, rapes. dacoity and forcible conversion to Mohammadanism". Just as the situation was reurning to normal in September 1921, Gandhi once again declared his intention to visit Malabar with the sole intention of course of adding fuel to a fire that was getting out of control. The Government stated quite blandly that if he attempted he would be arrested and put behind bars. The Defence of India Act was still in force and the Government could have used the Act in good measure.
Only towards the end of October 1921 was the Government able to find troops to deal with the Moplah Rebellion. Gurkhas, Karens and Burmese battalions were sent' Thre companies of Burmese, Karens and Chin Burmese troops were despatched. And once these batle hardened troops came the tide started turning. Rebels started surrendering though a few fanatical men held out till June 1922. By Febuary 1922 the Moplah Rebellion had been crushed and Malabar was free of the spectre of violence.
