MALABAR RISING

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 138, 8 December 1921, Page 15

MALABAR RISING

FANATICAL RACE OF! FIGHTERS

SERIES OF EARLIER TROUBLES

MOPLAHS.IN THE ARMY,

The latest news by mail from India makes it clear that trouble had been brewing in the Moplah country for some time past, writes Mr. H. E. A^ Cotton in the Manchester Guardian. In view of the past record of these people it was perhaps unfortunate that the Indian infantry regiment which had been stationed at Cannanore should have been withdrawn, and that occasion should also have been faken for disbanding the 73rd Malabar Rifles, which had been raised from .the Moplr.b dans during the war. It has been repeatedly asserted in the cables, and not contradicted, that exSepoys have been found in the ranks of the insurgents. This is not the first time that an attempt has been made io discipline these restless tribes. As long ago aa 1896 the experiment was tried of recruiting Moplahs for the old 25th Madras Infantry; and' it could not have been altogether a failure, for Lord Kitchener's scheme for the reorganisation of tlie Indian Army included the formation of two Moplah corps, the 77th and 78th /Moplah Bifles, which took the place of i the 17th and 25th Begiments of Madras. [ Infantry. Major Holland Pryor, in his class handbook for the Indian Army on the Moplahs, noted in 1904 that the men were chiefly drawn from the Einad and Walluvanad taluks, which are now, as on previous occasions, the centres of disturbance. "They.are," he-wrote, "hardy and courageous, and with their superior stamina make excellent fighting material." "The Moplahs" (he continued), "in dark greenand scarlet, the only regiment in India which wears the ter-bush (fez), are notable examples of the policy of taming the pugnacious races by making soldiers of them which began with the enlistment of the Highlanders in the Black Watch." Unhappily this view was not shared by Army Headquarters at Simla, which is apt to think I in terms of Sikhs and Gurkhas, and both battalions were mustered out in 1907 after a very brief existence. • ■ PREVIOUS. RISINGS. There can be little doubt that the responsibility for the present rebellion largely rests upon the shoulders of Mr. Gandhi and the Ali brothers. But the fanaticism of this' sect in -Malabar is such a matter of notoriety that it is difficult to understand why measures of a preventive nature were not taken when once it was ascertained that Khilafat^ agitators were at work. For it must be borne in mind that since 1836 the public peace has periodically been broken by outbreaks among the Moplahs. .Since 1851, indeed, a detachment of British infantry hag been quartered at Malappuram, which affords a convenient watching post over the explosive tract, and, a special police force has been organised with headquarters at the same place. The need for such; precauT* on?oi]W' repeatedly been manifested. In 1841 a mob of two thousand gave considerable troubje before they were dispersed; and another rising took place two years later. In 1849 the Manjeri temple was. the scene of serious disturbances, and in 1854 Mr. H. V. Conolly, the district magistrate, who had been on tour collecting war knives, was murdered in his verandah at Calicut before the. eyes of his. wife by a party of Moplaha who had escaped from the local gaol. A special Act was passed in 1859 and put into force, but outbreaks continued- Jn 1884 a rising occurred near Malappuram, and trie taluks of Ernad, Calicut, Walluvanad, and Ponnani were disarmed. Nevertheless quiet was not secured. In the following year, at Trikalur, in the Ernad taluk, it became necessary to use dynamite to dislodge twelve fanatics from a Hindu temple of which they had taken possession; in 1894, at Mannarakkat, a howitzer had to be employed to break up a gang of thirty-five, and in 1896 nearly a hundred, men were shot down in the Manjeri' temple. Most of the place-names have figured in recent cable messages. AGRARIAN GRIEVANCES, The need for constant vigilance is emphasised by the fact, well recognised in official circles at Fort St. George, 'that agrarian grievances are rife among the Moplahs. The land in Malabar, and especially in the Walluvanad taluk, is held by janmis (proprietors) who belong to the caste of Nambudri Brahmins. The Nambudri regards himself as the salt of the earth. He keeps aloof from public affairs, despises Western education, and carries sacerdotal arrogance to such a pitch" that while, he permits himself to take a wife from the fighting caste of Nairs, he is compelled to bathe after touching the children which'result from | the union. The Moplahs, on the other hand, although in their origin descendants of Arab traders by Hindu women, are constantly replenishing their number by conversions from the Hindu slavecastes. Cherumans and. Nayadis, to name only two, are condemned to a status of the most abject degradation as Hindus, and naturally welcome the social emancipation which Islam offers. There is, therefore, no love lost between them and the haughty and exclusive NamBudri landlord. '"' Mr. Logan, who was Magistrate of Malabar in 1884 and has written an admirable manual of the district, has expressed the opinion that the Moplah outrages are designed to counteract the influence of the janmis, when backed by the British Courts. Similarly Mr. Atholl Macgregor, another Civil servant with long experience of Malabar, has stated that fanaticism is merely the instrument through which the terrorism of the landed classes is aimed at. Whether this be. so or not, the fanaticism displayed is of a truly remarkable character. In 1896 the insurgents refused to take cover and were shot down at a distance of 700 to 800 yards, every wounded man having his throat cut by a friend. The same disregard of death has been exhibited during the last few weeks, and as always the primary attack has been delivered against the landlords.

THE POWER OF THE HIGH PRIESTS. The high priests among the Moplaha are known as Tangals. It is the practice with the Tangals to pretend to an extraordinai-y degree, of sanctity: and of onev (Mambram Tangal) who flourished about 60 years ago, it is related that the Moplahs swore by. his foot as their most solemn oath and" treasured the earth on which, he opat. There' is a religious college at Ponnani called the Janmat Mosques, at which students are trained and the title of Musaliar conferred. The wildest-stories told by Tangals and Musaliars are implicitly believed., The question remains', how comes it that the British have not discovered the secret of pacifying this turbulent and superstition*! race of Mohammedan devotees? They have succeeded with.other sects, such as the Wahabees, who gave so much trouble in Bengal and on the North-west Frontier in 1863 and again in IS7O-7& Is the failure due to the peculiar social conditions which prevail in Malabar? There are, for.■instance. regularly eraduatad dejreea ot dinUnc'o 'within 'which one c;ute g{ Hindus it hjld &

pollute another; and a Nambudri or a Nayar, ac he returns- from his bath, »houts to ■warn low-caste men to step aside from the road into the fields. Again there is the prevalence ,'of the marumakkatayam law' of inheritance which makes a man's sister's children his nezt-of-kin, and is invariable among the Nairs and allied castes. A volume could be written upon these and other strange observances. It must suffice to Rive the merest indication of the fascinating field which lies open to the inauirer, „