Massacre by Moplahs 1921

Muslims came to Malabar for commercial purpose and as described by many historians they persuaded the Monarch Cheraman Perumal to embrace Islam.(However this is rejected by most)

“ The lofty monarch joins the faithful train

And vows at fair Medina’s shrine to close

His life’smild eve in prayer and sweet repose”( Comoen’s Luciad.)

The period is uncertain but as per the Malabar Manual it was in August 825 A.D that Cheraman sailed to Mecca after dividing his country among his sub-ordinate leaders. There he asked Arab missionaries to visit Malabar and propagate Islam. So Malik Ibn Dinar came with a contingent of 15 missionaries landed at Cranganore, and after obtaining permission from local Rulers of the country built 10 mosques at different places in Malabar and South Canara and started the activity of Proselytism, which resulted in the creation of Race Known as Moplahs.

The conversion activities were so strong that the Moplah numbers started increasing very rapidly. When Ibn Batuta visited Malabar(1342-47 AD). He found that Moslem merchants had houses in most parts of the district and were greatly respected. The Zamorin of Calicut who was looking after the Arab Trade encouraged conversions in order to man the Arab Ships .He insisted that one or more of the male members of every fishermen family should be brought up as Muhammedan.(District Gazatteer).However these were voluntary conversions.

Forced Conversions started during the Mysorean conquest when Tippu Sultan in 1789 with a force of 19000 men, with 45 field pieces surrounded 2000 Nayars with their families in an old fort at Kuttipuram, the headquarters of the Kadathanad Raja’s family which the besieged defended for several days. “Finally when the couldn’t bear it further they agreed to wishes of Tippu’s army and converted to Islam. The ceremony consisted of circumcision of men and both males and females were forcefully fed beef. The Christian and Pagan women were forcefully married to Muslims. This achievement was shown as an example to the other army units”(Malabar Manuals).



Tippu vowed to convert the whole of Malabar to Islam, he would have been successful in making Malabar a Muslim Country but the treaty dated 18th March 1792, under which Tippu had to give Malabar to the East India Company.

The Hindus who had taken refuge in Travancore returned back to enjoy their life which resulted in regular troubles which arose time and again. Moplahs in Ernad .Moplahs of Ernad and Walluvanad now and then started a career of Hal Ilkam(religious frenzy) and killed Hindus, de-secrated temples and forcibly converted the people to Islam. These outrages were well controlled and the Moplahs involved in the affair were shot down by the British troops or sent of the country.

Mr T.L Strange was appointed as special commissioner in Malabar to enquire into the causes of theses outrages, and his report (1852) clearly explains the subject

“It is apparent that in no instance can any outbreak or threat of outbreak that has risen be attributed to the oppression of tenants by landlords. A great clamour is now raised on this regard, prominently in the southern taluks visited by me, the Moplah population seeking to throw the blame of theses outbreaks upon the landlords by thus charging them with being the cause thereof. I have given the subject every attention and am convinced that though instances may and do arise of of individual hardship to a tenant, the general character of the dealings of the Hindu Landlords towards their tenantry, whether Moplah or Hindu is mild, equitable and forbearing. I am further convinced that where stringent measures are taken , the conduct of the tenants is in the vast majority of cases, the cause thereof and that the Moplah tenantry, especially of the Taluks in South Malabar,where the outbreaks have been so common, are very prone to evade their obligations and to resort to false and litigious pleas.”

He added, “ A feature that has been manifestly common to the whole of these affairs is that they have been one and all marked by the most decided fanaticism, and this, there can be no doubt, has furnished the true incentive to them.”

“The Hindus in the parts where the outbreaks have been most frequents, stand in such a fear of the Moplahs as mostly not to dare to press for their rights against them, and there is many a Moplah tenant who does not pay his rent, and cannot, so imminent are the risks, be evicted.Other injuries are also put up with, uncomplained of.”(Malabar Manual).

The Moplah Rebellion of 1921

This outrage officially broke out on 20th August 1921, at Tirurangadi, this was one of the most fanatic an different from the past 51 outrages which happened between 1836 to 1919.

The causes have been briefly described by three eminent judges presiding over the Special Tribunal, Calicut, in the following terms.

“ For the last hundred years at least, the Moplah community has been disgraced from time to time by murderous outrages, as appears from the District Gazetteer. In the past they have been due to fanaticism. They generally blazed out in the Ernad, Taluk, where the Moplahs were for the most part proselytes drawn from the dregs of the Hindu Population. These men were miserably poor and hopelessly ignorant, and their untutored minds, were particularly susceptible to the inflammatory teaching that Paradise was to be gained by killing Kaffirs, and servants of Kaffirs. They would go out on the war path killing Hindus, no matter whom, and would be joined by other fanatics, and then seek death in hand to hand conflict with troops. The Moplahs of of Ernad and Walluvanad Taluks have been described as barbarous and a savage race, and unhappily, the description seems appropriate at the present day.

But it was not mere fanaticism, it was agrarian trouble, it was not destitution that worked on the minds of Ali Musaliar and his followers. The evidence clearly shows that it was the influence of Khilafat and Non-Co-operation movements that drove them to their crime. It is which distinguishes the present from all previous outbreaks. Their intention was absurd though it may seem, to subvert the British Government by force of arms.” ( Judgment in case no -7 of 1921 on the file of the Special Tribunal, Calicut)

At this stage Ali Musaliar rose to prominence as Khilafat Leader.He posed as a great leader of the people. Khilafat and non-co-operation meetings were held regularly under Ali Musaliar and “ these constant preaching’s, combined with the resolution passed in the All India Khilafat Conference at Karachi last July, led the ignorant Moplahs to believe that the end of the British Government in India was at hand. Ali Musaliar along with his men was preparing a direct assault on the British Government. News was spread that Amir of Afghanistan would attack India and with the assistance of Gandhiji and Ali brothers will make India a Khilafa ruled country. Khilafat volunteers were recruited and made to vow on the holy Quran that they would be ready to die for the cause of Khilafat. Ali Musaliar made his volunteers parade in the localities armed and in uniform.”(Public Prosecutor’s speech, West Coast Spectator, October 6 1921).

On 8th June Ramzan day, Ali Musaliar headed a procession along with 300-400 Khilafati Volunteers, who were dressed in khaki and had swords, and went from Kizhekkepalli Mosque to the compound next to the public offices at Tiruangadi, where there was a graves of Moplahs buried in outrages happened in the last century. These graves were prohibited place of meeting and such prayers were only offered before an outbreak and in the present instance, it was done for the success of Khilafat cause.(Judgement in Case No.7/21).

The beginnings of the future Khilafat armies were in making, and, at an anti-non-co-operation Meeting held at Ponnani on 24thJuly to counteract the effects of Khilafat agitation, Ali Musaliar, ” turned up with his volunteer force of about 50-100 volunteers armed with big Khilafat uniform, marching under a red flag, with shouts of Allah-Ho-Akbar. The volunteers rushed the police in the bazaar.”(Judgement in Case No 7/21)

On 9th Aug 1921 The West Coast Spectator, sounded the following warning. “Even though the riot is averted for the present, it is feared that the Muhammadan fury may break out any moment and assume dangerous proportions. Immediate attention of the Government is invited to the matter”.

The Hindu believed in Hindu-Moslem unity and never imagined that the Moslem would go after him but in the Moslem’s mind there was no confusion because he only dreamt of a Moslem swaraj and was just waiting for a suitable opportunity. The opportunity arrived when the District Magistrate proceeded to Tirurangadi to arrest Ali Musaliar, and others. All Khilafati Volunteers were called from neighboring villages also false rumour wqas spread that the famousMambran Mosque has been tazed to the ground.

As per the 26th Aug 1921 Press Comminique the events of 20th August are described as follows

“ The District Magistrate has received information that a number of war-knives were in existence in Tirurangadi in contravention of the Malabar Offensive Weapons Act XX of 1854. It was also necessary to arrest for incitement to outrage certain persons in Tirurangadi, under section 8 of the Moplah Outrages Act. Anticipating that a resistance would be made, a requisition was made for a detachment of British troops to support the police and the party arrived at Tirurangadi, before dawn on 20th August. Searches were made and three men arrested, and a small party of Reserve Police left behind to continue for the search for the absent warrantees. The Kizhekkepalli Mosque was entered by Moplah Police Officers, who removed their boots before entering the Mosque. The Mambran Mosque which is on the other side of the river was not approached by anybody.

Between the hours 11.30 and 2.00 P.M , a determined attack was made from two sides on the force of Police and troops by armed band coming from Tanur,Parappanangadi and adjoining amsoms on the west, and from Tirurangadi and amsoms on the east, as far as Ponmala and Kottakal. The attacks were beaten off, but two officers were surrounded and butchered by the mob. The force stayed at night at Tirurangadi, as by this time the railway station at Parappanangadi had been wrecked and in the morning marched to Parappanangadi and thence along the Railway line to Feroke, being attacked constantlyby armed Moplahs on the way for the first three miles. The railway line had already been cut in several places, as far a s Feroke.”

At Feroke , the train was waiting, and the District Magistrate and party entertained at 10 P. M and arrivedat Calicut at midnight. On 22nd Aug the Officer Commanding , Malabar Area was require to take charge of Calicut.

The Communique continued,

“This attempt to make searches and arrestsunder legal warrants in due conformity with law has been a signal for the outburstof fanaticism throughout the Ernad, Walluvanad and Ponnani directed first against the European Officials and Non-Officials and latterly against Hindu Jenmis(landlords) and others. Public offices were looted everywhere, Manas(Nembudiri residences) and Kovilagams pillaged, Hindus murdered or forcibly converted, and the line cut to an extent regarding which there is no information.”

The administration came to a standstill,Treasuries looted, Magistrates and Police officials had to take refuge, Police Officials surrendered their arms. Murders, loots, forced conversions and outrages on Hindu Women became order of the day.

Hindu refugees in thousands poured into Calicut,Palgarh and Cochin State and other places wending their weary way over hills and through jungles for safety from the list and savagery of the Moplahs.

Hindus at that time learnt that the Moplah is master of the situation; he cares for no one, his religious frenzy impels him to convert and basically he is a plunderer and this inherent quality in him propels him to loot.

This atrocity on Hindus by the Moplahs was unparalleled. Hardly there was a Hindu who did not suffer in the rebel areas.

Here is an extract of letter written by Hindu Women representatives of Malabar to the Countess of Reading.

“Ladyship is not fully apprised of all the horrors and atrocities perpetrated by the fiendish rebels of the many wells and tanks filled up with the mutilated, but often only half dead bodies of our nearest and dearest ones who refused to abandon the faith of our Fathers; of pregnant women cut to pieces and left on the roadside and in jungles, with the unborn babe protruding from the mangled corpse; of our innocent and helpless children torn from our arms and done to death before our eyes and of our husbands and fathers tortured, flayed and burnt alive ; of our helpless sisters forcibly carried away from the midst of kith and kin and subjected to every shame and outrage which the vile and brutal imagination of these inhuman hell hounds could conceive of; of thousands of our homestead reduced to cindermounds out of sheer savagery and wanton spirit of destruction; of our places of worship desecrated and destroyed and of the images of diety shamefully insulted by putting the entrails of slaughtered cows where flower garlands used to lie, or else smashed to pieces; of the wholesale looting of hard-earned wealth of generations, reducing many who were formerly rich and prosperous to publicly beg for a pice or two in the streets of Calicut to buy salt or chilly or betel-leaf, rice being mercifully provided by the various relief agencies. These are not fables.”

Unofficial figures claim that around 5000 hindus were forcibly converted. However the Arya Samaj assumes the figure to be 2500. Mahatma Hansraj who was the President of Arya Pradeshaka Prati Nidhi Sabha of the Punjab, Sind and Baluchistan sent Pandit Rishi Ram to Calicut. As per Arya Samaj Register 1766 forcibly converted were reconverted back to Hinduism.

Some Pictures

As per the observation made by the MLC Prabhakaran Thampi

1.“ Moplahs who make such great fuss about the inviolable sanctity of their Mosques appear to imagine that the can desecrate or destroy Hindu temples with impunity. It is this spirit of religious antagonism which renders all hope of Hindu-Moslem Unity in Malabar impossible. I am anxious that it should be brought home to the ignorant Moplah that the Hindus regard their temples as sacrosanct as they do their mosques. This can only be done by Moplah religious leaders.”(Madras Mail dated 22.11.22) 2.“There is hardly a village that has not its own temple, in the majority of villages there is more than one , and almost every temple in the rebel area has been desecrated.” 3.Mr A. D Bavotti Sahib asked about the number of Mosques and Madarsas destroyed by the Military and the Police. The answer from the government was that none so far has come to it’s knowledge and the government would be glad if the Hon. Member would inform them if he knows any such cases.( Proceedings of the Legislative Council 21.12 1922, page 1098).

This article is a summary of the book “ The Moplah Rebellion 1921” written by Diwan Bahadur C Gopalan Nair and was published in 1923. Every sentence of it is without any bias as it is taken from Govt records, newspaper coverages, case files.