The Mappilla Rebellion, 1921: Peasant Revolt in Malabar Author(S): Robert L
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The Mappilla Rebellion, 1921: Peasant Revolt in Malabar Author(s): Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr. Source: Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1977), pp. 57-99 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/311886 . Accessed: 31/01/2014 10:11 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Modern Asian Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:11:50 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ModernAsian Studies, II, I (I977), pp. 57-99. Printedin GreatBritain. TheMagMpilla Rebellion 1921: Peasant Revolt in Malabar ROBERT L. HARDGRAVE,JR Unizversityof Bexasat Austin In anysociety the dominant groups are the ones with the most to hideabout the way societyworks. Very often thereforetruthful analyses are bound to have a criticalring, to seemlike exposuresrather than objectivestate- ments,. Forall studentsof humansociety, sympathy with the victimsof historicalprocesses and skepticism about the victors' claims provide essential safeguardsagainst being taken in by thedominant mythology. A scholarwho tries to be objectiveneeds these feelings as part of his ordinaryworking equipment. BarringtonMoorel IN I969, in responseto the demandsof the MuslimLeague in Kerala and as a rewardfor its politicalsupport, the United Front ministryof E.M.S. Namboodiripadredrew the boundariesof Kozhikode and Palghat districtsso as to carve out the new, predominantlyMuslim districtof Malappuram.Denounced by its opponentsas 'theillegitimate child of the old Two Nation theory,'Malappuram-'Moplastan' to its critics-combined within a single district those taluks which forty- eightyears before, in I92I, had beenthe sceneoftheMappilla rebellion.2 An earlierpreliminary version of this paperwas presentedat a symposiumat the MaxwellSchool of SyracuseUniversity in NovemberI973, and has been includedin the collection edited by Robert I. Crane, Aspectsof PoliticalMobilization in South Asia (Syracuse:Maxwell School, Syracuse University, I976). llesearchfor this paper was conducted in the India Office Library,London; the Tamil Nadu Archives, Madras;the KozhikodeRecords Office, Calicut; and theJawaharlalNehru Museum, New Delhi. For their assistancein trackingdown materialson the rebellion,I wish to thank ProfessorT. K. Ravindran,the Universityof Kerala; Dr. C. K. Kareem, Registrarof the Universityof Cochin;and C. H. MohammedKoya of Calicut. 1Social Origins of Dictatorshipand Democracy: Lord and Peasant in theMaking of the ModernWorld (Boston: Beacon Press, I966), p. 523. 2 See MemorandumSubmitted to the ChiefMinister of Kerala(Perintalmanna: Anti- DistrictBifurcation Committee, I968). For a discussionof Muslim politics in the post-independenceperiod, with specialnote of Kerala,see TheodoreP. Wright,Jr., 'The Effectivenessof MuslimRepresentation in India,' in Donald E. Smith (ed.), SouthAsian Religion and Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, I966), pp. I02-37. For a generalaccount of the community,see Rolland E. Miller, Mappilla Muslimsof Kerala,Bangalore: Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society,forthcoming. 57 This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:11:50 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 58 ROBERT L. HARDGRAVE, JR The Mappillas In AugustI92I, rebellionbroke out amongthe Mappillasin the Mala- bar districtof MadrasPresidency. Extending over some two thousand square miles, two-fifthsthe area of the district, the rebellion, the culminationof a long seriesof Mappilla'outrages,' was carriedon for six monthsby peasantbands in whatwas described by Britishauthorities as open war againstthe King. The Mappillas,the Muslimsof Malabar, traditionallytrace their originsto the ninth century,when Arab tradersbrought Islam to the west coast of India.3By I92I, the Mappillas(or Moplahs)constituted the largest and the fastestgrowing communityin Malabar. With a populationof one million,32 percentof that of A{alabaras a whole, the Mappillaswere concentratedin South Malabar.In Ernad taluk, the centerof the rebellion,they formednearly 60 percentof the popu- lation. The communityhas been characterizedas consisting'of pure Arab settlers,of the descendantsof Arab tradersand womenof the country, and of convertsto Muhammadanismmainly from the lower Hindu castes.'4The pattern of Arab settlement and of the conversions, however, fundamentallyaffected the character of the community. At the beginningof the sixteenthcentury, when Portugueseand Arab chroniclesprovide the firstdetailed descriptions of the Malabarcoast, the Mappillaswere a mercantilecommunity concentrated along the coastin urbancenters and dominatingintercoastal and overseastrade. Segregatedfrom the Hindu populationin separatesettlements, the Mappillashad considerableautonomy, and underthe patronageof the Zamorinof Calicut,they enjoyedprestige as well as economicpower. 'Hindu-Muslimrelations. appear to have been characterizedby limitedcontact and self-interestedtoleration.'S From the sixteenth century, while Mappillas remained urban merchants, the greater portion of the community -'throughthe interrelatedprocesses of immigration,intermarriage and conversion'- increasinglycame to be agriculturaltenants, low in status and 3 For accounts of the origins of the communityand the meaning of the word Mappilla,see Edgar Thurston,Castes and Tribesof SouthernIndia, Vol. IV (Madras: Governmentof MadrasPress, I909), pp. 456-6I; and C. A. Innes, MadrasDistrict Gazetteers:Malabar and Anjengo (Madras: Government Press, I9I5), pp. I89-go. 4 Innes, Malabar,p. 26. 5 StephenDale, 'Islamand SocialConflict: The Mappillasof MalabarI498-I922,' unpublisheddoctoral dissertation, University of California,I972, p. 2. This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:11:50 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MAPPILLA REBELLION, I 92 I 59 desperatelypoor.6 With the rise of Portuguesepower in challengeto Mappilla commercialinterests, many Mappillas moved inland in searchof new economicopportunities. As they movedinto the interior of Malabar,they broughtthe fervorof Islam, heightenedin the inten- sity of conflictwith the Portuguese. Earlyconverts to Islam appearto have includedmany from among the propertiedclasses of the highcastes, for along the coastand in North Malabar, where they Srst settled, the Mappillas are characterized predominantly by the marumakkathayamlaw of inheritance- the TABLEI Mappilla Population % of total Region and Taluk Population population South Kanara I30,562 IO.5 North Malabar Chirakkal 86,207 24o9 . ! #kottayam s4,7go 23.6 Kurumbranad 95,939 26.9 Wynaad I 2,833 I 5 I _ _ _ woutz Ma a zar Calicut 86,952 29.9 Ernad 236,873 59. I Ponnani 228,522 42.9 Walluvanad I 3 I,487 33u3 Palghat I8,060 4.2 Malabar: Total Mappilla population I,oo4,327 32.4 Source: Censusof India, I92I, Vol. XIII, Madras,Pt I, Report,Madras: GovernmentPress, I922, P. I60; Pt II, Tables, pp. I2I, 3+, and 350. matrilinealpattern traditional to the high castes of Malayalisociety. Though in violation of Muslim lawj this traditionalsystem of joint ownershipand inheritancethrough the female line served to retain propertywithin the familyunit. In sharpcontrast to the generalpros- perity enjoyedby the Mappillasof the North, the Mappillasof South Malabarwere principallyconverted from the lowerTiyya, Cheruman, and Mukkuvancastes, for whom 'the honorof Islam'brought freedom from the disabilitiesof ritual pollution.Governed by the makkathayam law of inheritance,these converts were by their own tradition in 6 Ibid., p. 22. Also see pp. 54-82. This content downloaded from 128.83.205.53 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:11:50 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 60 ROBERT L. HARDGRA5tE, JR SOUTH MALABAR 1921 Taluk Boundary @ District Headquarters 0, , 1,0 , 2,0 Crnlo in Miloc \ % COCHIN f 6ulU,,, ,tJ conformitywith Muslimlaw, but the divisionof what little property they had amongall heirsserved to perpetuatetheir poverty.7 It was in theseinland areasof the South,in Ernadand Walluvanad taluks, and among the poorest sections of the population that the Mappillacommunity expanded most rapidly.R. H. Hitchcock,in his secret history of the Mappilla rebellion, describedthe Mappillasof SouthMalabar as havingbecome entirelyseparate from those of the rest of Malabar.... The low state of their intelligence, the subserviencein which they had hitherto lived, and the absence of any men of learning to instructthem in their new religion, even were they capableof understanding,all tendedto providea race which would prove an easy prey to fanaticismand lawlessness.8 7 See Hamid Ali, Customand Law in Anglo-Muslimjrurisprudence (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., I938). F. Fawcett noted the distinction in inheritance and wrote that in contrast to the Mappillas of North Malabar, those of the South are wretchedly poor and 'divide up their property in such a way that prosperity is impossible.' 'The Moplas of Malabar,' Ehe Imperialand Asiatic QuarterlyReview, Third Series, Yol. IV (October