Brahmadattan Nambudiri: an Unsung Hero of Malabar Rebellion
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Research Journal of Kisan Veer Mahavidyalaya, Wai (A Multilingual and Multi-disciplinary Research Journal) Issue-3, Vol.- 1, PP- 1-3 Jan-June, 2019 Brahmadattan Nambudiri: An Unsung Hero of Malabar Rebellion *Dr. Haripiry A. M NSS College Manjeri, Malappuram, Kerla, India The Malabar Uprising also known as the Khilafat kingdom. The Moplah rebellion was "Moplah Rebellion", Māppila also directed against local hindu land owners, Lahaḷa in Malayalam was an armed uprising in who fled their estates; Hindu tenant farmers 1921 against British authorities and Hindu land fought a long side the Moplahs. Despite their lords in the Malabar region of Southern India inferior armaments, the Moplahs waged by Mappila Muslims and the culmination of a successful guerrilla warfare for a time against series of Mappila revolts that recurred British troops. But at the end of 1921 the throughout the 19th century and early 20th Moplahs were forced to surrender. The century. The 1921 rebellion began as a reaction suppression of the rebellion was accompanied against a heavy-handed crackdown on by atrocities continued until the end of February the Khilafat Movement by the British authorities 1922. in the Eranad and Valluvanad taluks of Malabar. By ‘upper’ caste landlords to irrationality and The Khilafat meeting incited so much communal religious fervor, ‘fanaticism’ was picked up and feelings among the Muslims peasants, known as enshrined in nationalist history. Moreover, the Moplahs that it turned out to become an anti- reference to a ‘fanatical’ pre-history is pertinent hindu movement from July 1921 onwards. In the because the first line of the preface by M. B. initial stages, a number of minor clashes took Nambootiripad asserts:’it is wrong to call the place between Khilafat volunteers and the uprising of 1921 in Malabar Mappila lahala or police, but the violence soon spread across the Malabar lahala. It would be more appropriate to region. The Government had declared the call it a Mappila revolution or a Khilafat Congress and Khilafat meetings illegal. The revolution”. But despite this throughout the text Mappilas attacked and took control of police Namboodiripad keeps on referring to the event stations, British government offices, courts and as a lahala, revealing how well-established was government treasuries. the notion of a ‘fanatical zone’ and a ‘fanatic’ Thelargely kudiyaan (tenant) Mappilas also community. In nationalist historiography, attacked and killed jenmi (landlords) of without investigation and introspection, these the Hindu Nair and Brahmin Nambudiri castes. ‘outrages’ become a metaphor for the violence The majority of the Mophlahs were tenant of the mappila peasantry in Malabar: a metaphor farmers and agricultural labours. The rebellion for the past configured as memory which began after British colonial troops attacked a becomes the ‘truth’ of present and future events. large gathering of believers in a mosque in the Hence, all subsequent accounts parasitic on a small town of Tirurangadi on August 20. The prior memory’or representation. Later, the new rebels seized rail road’s, cut telegraph lines, and event of 1921, by now a lahala, figures in paralyzed the British administration. The rending the nation and becomes a trope for the rebellion was headed by a drayman,Kunahamad irrationality and violence of muslims in general haji, a participant in the Khilafat movement the The Mappila Rebellion & Some Hindu rebels took over the districts of Ernad and Leaders Valluvanad, and there they proclaimed a 1 Research Journal of Kisan Veer Mahavidyalaya, Wai (A Multilingual and Multi-disciplinary Research Journal) Issue-3, Vol.- 1, PP- 1-3 Jan-June, 2019 Typically cases mixing politics with religion, Namboothiri incidentally was the Cherplasseri where people whip up the emotions of others, Pradesh Congress secretary who led efforts and exhort them to commit violence. The against the British. He was a Gandhian who Moplah rebellion was also one such case, when slipped into the British dragnet unlike MP our own senior politicians did exactly that, Narayana Menon who worked for the Moplahs. mixing Khilafat, quickly becoming a lost cause, When Gandhiji told the masses that they have to with the Indian convicts who were supposed to support their brethren in the Khilafat struggle, be transported to the Andamans. I was initially Mozhikunnath Bhramadattan was the one to take under the impression that they were transported it up at Cherplasseri. When Bhrahmadattan a for life, but it was not so. Let’s take a look at spoke at the temple rally (it was Tilak’s death those interesting persons. anniversary), he as actually getting right into the It is interesting to note that some of these people middle of British crosshairs. Soon the revolt at the fore of the Khilafat movement were turned to mayhem and after the resulting losses Hindus. There were many others like KP in death and property and the eventual lull, the Keshava Menon etc on the fringes, but let’s police arrested many, Brahmadattan included. focus on those who were in the midst, for now. Narayanan Somayaji his father would have like We have so many books of the Malabar him to become a Vedic scholar, but who was to rebellion, and these works are interpreted on the know that this person would enter the violent way that the mappilas were the rebels and they scenes that swept the region, end up in jail and fight against the hindu jenmies. But we can see get excommunicated from his Nambudiri many Hindu leaders were also supported the society. khilafat movement and participated in it. As Nambudiri writes, it was a time when two One of the Hindus in the midst was MP revolts were running the same course, the Narayayana Menon, who is covered well in the agrarian and the Khilafat – nationalist struggle. MPS Menon book, another was Brahmadattan When by chance religious animosity was thrown Nambudiri who himself wrote his memoirs into the cauldron, the resulting mix was an about the events. I am not too sure who the third uncontrollable explosive. As expected it blew up and the fourth Nayars were, perhaps Elaya Nair, when the British police unleashed their atrocities Kesavan or maybe Kelu Nayar was alsothe third against them and the resulting fires lasted some and fourth. Perhaps there was Parambote 4-6 months killing many, maiming many, Achutankutty Menon in this mix. Let us take a destroying families and property, inciting the look at a couple of those Hindu leaders and British against the locals even more, and ended figure out why & how they were involved in with thousands in jails and many transported to what was primarily a Moplah revolt. the Andamans. Brahmadattan Nambudiri Nambudiri was eventually sentenced to Nambudiri was involved in verbal attacks transportation, but this was later reduced to against the British in August 1921 and imprisonment and he was interned at Bellary. imprisoned. Briefly he met MP Nnarayana His experiences can be read in his book which is Menon at the Coimbatore jail and asked him to very much available in stores. A simple man help him avoid the hangman’s noose. MP who followed his ideals, his bravery was in his Nnarayana Menon castigated Namboothri for his heart and not mind or body. He suffered like a fears and scoffed as to why he got involved if he common man, not unflinching or anything like was so scared. that, but crying and wailing like a commoner he was. His story after his return, his 2 Research Journal of Kisan Veer Mahavidyalaya, Wai (A Multilingual and Multi-disciplinary Research Journal) Issue-3, Vol.- 1, PP- 1-3 Jan-June, 2019 excommunication due to his lower standing in All these stories from small parts of the large society is all only too revealing of the many canvass called the 1921 Moplah rebellion. It is different types of people who got jailed. These not very easy to understand or explain, unless books about Brahmadattan Nambudiri tell us you are somewhat neutral in your thoughts and quite a bit about the events and the people today with a collection of first hand reports from involved but many others have written their own the archives, the story becomes clearer than the versions about the revolts, but there is one duller Version published previously. Anyway person who is not talked about much in those the rebellion ran its course, many were put to books. That is an individual named Mannarghat trial and imprisoned or transported, and finally Kochunni Elaya Nayar, and so let us see what Britain’s waning grip on the Jewel of the Crown we can mine about him from the treasure trove were soon loosened of archived resources. References Nambudiri was the spearhead at Cherplasseri 1. Dr. MPS Menon -MP Narayana Menon and the person who took the reins at Mannarghat a Forgotten Pioneer was one Elaya Kochunni Nair . He had 2. Brahmadattan Nambudiri-Khilafat associated himself with Seethi Koya Thangal Smaranakal and marshaled the support of the traders and 3. M Gangadhara Menon-- Malabar trading Moplahs of Palghat. It appears that he Rebellion was also a junior member from the local Janmi 4. R H Hitchcock -Peasant Revolt in family. He was supposedly one of those who Malabar ended up in the middle of it all, partaking also in 5. M. Naeem Qureshi - Pan-Islam in some of the atrocities. British Indian Politics: A Study of the Khilafat Movement. *** 3 .