UNREST IN INDIA

Otago Witness, Issue 3523, 20 September 1921, Page 18

UNREST IN INDIA

FAMINE IN ERNAD DISTRICT. DEI.HI. September 12. One thousand rebels are moving in the Palghat district. A punitive column arrested 200 l’onanis. The police captured two of the leaders. There is famine amongst the Hindus in the Ernad district. Rice is being distributed. The extremists are making bitter accusations of Government brutality, saying that the Moplahs are made to sit and are deliberately shot. Actually 3 the officials and the police displayed the greatest forbearance, parleying with an immense

Moplah throng. Only after Mr Rowley (magistrate) was beaten and stabbed to death was fire opened on the mob. IMPORTANT RECORDS BURNED. DELHI, September 13. A large body of rebels in Palghat district burned the records in the Monnarghat Courthouse, and also set lire to forests and burned a number of buildings. LOOTING IN ERNAD DISTRICT. DELHI, September 14. Twelve hundred rebels are preparing to defend Nilanga, There is wholesale looting in the Ernad district, another large, band of rebels being located in the vicinity. Tlie threatened attack on Palghat failed to materialise. One hundred arrests were made. A Calicut message states that when the military columns pass, the rebels emerge from hiding and recommence their depredations. “ CONVERSIONS ” TO ISLAM. DELHI, September 15. Influential Moplah merchants at Calicut state that it is unjust to condemn all the Moplahs on account of the Ernad fanatics, who have been badly led, and waged war at the instigation of agitators. The merchants likened them to mad dogs, who should be shot at sight. They are of opinion that the magnitude of the outbreak was due to the abolition of the Maiapparam and Trannanore military stations, which were the centre of the disturbance. The merchants recommend their restoration. A large portion of the rebels served in the British Indian army in Mesopotamia, hence the destruction of bridges, railways, and telegraphs—a hitherto unknown feature of Moplah risings. Business is paralysed at Malabar. At a modest computation 70 Hindus were outraged by forcible conversion to Islam. SYSTEM OF ORGANISED BLACKMAIL. LONDON, September 15. ■ The Indian Railways Committee reports that the existing railways are entirely inadequate to meet the needs of the country. The Government cannot provide adequate funds, thus the system is paralysed. Bribery in connection with wagon allotments has grown into a system of organised blackmail. DELHI, September 15. A Malabar communique states ; MiliI tarv columns are still operating in some iof the disturbed districts. The rebels sniped the troops after passing through some of the villages. It is reported that a police sub-inspector and two constables were murdered at Yatekura ; also that all the Government buildings at Nilambur were burned, and the bridge between Mamfcad and Nilambur destroyed.