Moplah Rebellion

• The Mappilas were the Muslim tenants inhibiting the Malabar region where most of the landlords were Hindus.
• Mappilas or Moplahs rose in revolt against their landlords in 1921.
• Their grievances centred around lack of security of tenure, high rents, renewal fees and other oppressive exactions.
• The Mappila tenants were particularly encouraged by the demand of the local Congress body for a government legislation regulating tenant-landlord relations.
• It was led by Variyamkunnath Kunjahammed Haji.
• The Khilafat Movement had started in 1919 in India in support of the restoration of the caliphate in Turkey. The Indian National Congress (INC) was aligned with it.
• During the same time, the agrarian situation in Malabar was worsening with the low-class tenants suffering under the oppressive measures of the landlords who were patronised by the British.
• It became a movement directed against the British as well as the Hindu landlords of Malabar.
• In November 1921, 67 Moplah prisoners were killed when they were being transported in a closed freight wagon from Tirur to the Central Prison in Podanur. They died of suffocation. This event is called the Wagon Tragedy.
• The year 2021 will mark the 100th year anniversary of the Malabar/Moplah uprising of 1921.

Why in News: 

Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) member C.I. Issac seeks removal of Malabar Rebellion leaders from the book, “Dictionary of Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle 1857-1947” claiming that almost all the Moplah outrages were communal.

Additional Details

The Non – Cooperation Movement has had four main causes:

1. 1. Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and Resultant Punjab Disturbances
   2. Dissatisfaction with Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
   3. Rowlatt Act
   4. Khilafat Agitation

• The Khilafat movement in India arose out of the sentiments of the Indian Muslims to protect the institution of the Khalifa in Turkey.
• The Khalifa in Islamic tradition was considered as the successor to the Prophet Muhammad, religious leader and the custodian and protector of the Muslim holy places
• The Muslims in India launched the Khilafat movement to pressurise the British to be lenient and preserve the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire and the institution of Khalifa.
• In early 1919, a Khilafat Committee was formed under the leadership of the Ali brothers (Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali), Maulana Azad, Ajmal Khan and Hasrat Mohani. 

ICHR

• Indian Council of Historical Research is an autonomous organization which was established under Societies Registration Act (Act XXI of 1860) in 1972. Its objectives are
• to bring historians together and provide a forum for exchange of views between them;
• -to give a national direction to an objective and scientific writing of history and to have rational presentation and interpretation of history.

Reference:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/moplah-rioters-not-freedom-fighters-report/article32537886.ece