One of the most important Khilafat leaders in Malabar during 1921 was Variankunnath Kunjahammed Haji. He is described as ‘belonging to a family with outbreak traditions’ by K.Madhavan Nair, Congress secretary and president, in his historic work Malabar Kalaapam (Malabar Rebellion ). Kunjahammed Haji and his Sunni faction in Ponnani headed by Mambram Thangal were sworn enemies of Kondotti Thangal in Eranad, whom they allege, belonged to the Shia section and kept away from riots.
Marxist Historian Conrad Wood argues that Variankunnath Kunjahammed Haji belonged to a prosperous family. According to Wood, “ reports on the 1894 outbreak indicate that the family of rebel leader Kunjahammad Haji, a number of whose close relations were implicated in that outbreak, had been comparatively prosperous cultivators and therefore almost certainly kanamdars”( leaseholders ).
Dr.Hussain Randathani, Islamic historian and left fellow traveler vindicates the arguments of Wood . In his paper titled ‘Varian Kunnath Kunhahammad Haji : Mappila Freedom Fighter of Malabar’ Randathani describes him as hailing from a rich family. Kunhahammad Haji was occupied with timber business, according to Randathani. During the riots of 1921 he made Nilambur his head quarters and ran a Khilafat regime for nearly six months . Why did Varian Kunnath Kunhahammad Haji select Nilambur timber belt as his abode for Khilafat, when plains were available? Randathani’s recent work,Communists and Muslims is forwarded by Sitharam Yechury secretary of CPI (M).
The forests of south Malabar are classified into Nilambur and Palakkad forest ranges. Nilmabur division comprised of Nilambur and Amarambalam ranges covering an area of 81198 acres. The soil of the south Malabar region can be classified as sandy, laterite and hilly or forest deposit.These two taluks are extensively rich in forest resources, especially timber, which was exported to west Asia and Europe. Forests are located in Vazhikkadavu, Edakkara, Moothedam, Pothukkallu, Karulai, Kalikavu, Karuvarkundu, Nilambur, Mampad, Urungattiri, Perakamanna, areas of Nilambur and in Mankada, Vettathur, Kariavattum and Arakkuparamba of Perinthalmanna, all in south Malabar. The Palakkad division had two ranges Palakkad and Mannarghat covering an area of 112 140 acres.The Nilambur valley in the erstwhile eastern Eranadu taluk with its world famous teak and hence known as the teak town. Nilambur teak known for its internationally superior timber has thus been accorded Geographical Indication status by GI registry Chennai in 2018.
The monopoly of Mappilla merchants on timber diminished after downfall of Mysore Sultans and occupation of Malabar by British. In a petition filed in 1808 at the Zillah Court in Tellicherry by Chovvakkaran Moosa, principal Mappila business tycoon of Kannur, claimed that the new regulations by British deprived Mappilla merchants of their ancient and customary rights in the forest.
The temple managements in Malabar which owned extensive tracts of forest land, especially in Eranad and Walluvanad, became suspicious and also hostile to Mappilas after the Mysorean incursions. This was mainly due to the rich Mappilas in Malabar who provided man power and other facilities for the invading Mysore Sultans. The large tracts of forest lands in Malabar, where the riots took place after the Mysorean incursions, were only managed under temple trusts and not privately owned by landlords. They were vassals of the Samutiri, such as Nilambur Tirumulpad, Eralpad Raja, Edavanna Kovilakam, Mannarkkad Muppil Nayar, Palat Krishna Menon, Trikkalayur Krangad Ashtamurti Nambudiripad and Wandur Nambudiripad. Trikkalayur was centre of large Moplah outbreaks in December 1884. Those who organized for outbreaks at Trikkalayur belonged to Iruvetti,(Ariakode) and Edavanna (Tiruvali) which were timber trade centres .
In 1880s, the Mappila elitists, who got education, began to involve in local politics and established Himayathul Islam Sabha (also known as Mappila Sabha).This Sabha never raised Mappila tenancy and agrarian issues in Nilambur or other areas of south Malabar, and made little efforts on the tenancy question in 1910 to invite public attention to Mappila grievances. Issues of tenancy and agriculture were not confined to a particular religious group to be raised only through the most brutal violence.
Variankunnath Kunjahammed Haji who also a prominent leader of the Khilafat in Malabar ‘ was occupied with timber business’, according to Dr.Hussain Randathani. Haji was definitely affected with the new steps taken by Hindu aristocracies which denied timber to Mappila traders. Haji who was a prominent leader of Khilafat, targeted Nilambur Kovilakam which owned extensive timber belts. Many timber tycoons in Malabar were Mappilas. Khan Bahadur Unnikkamu timber tycoon at Mannarkkad near Nilambur was the supplier of railway sleepers that British required for the construction of railways throughout south India.
Further, President of Central Khilafat Committee, Mian Mohammad Haji Jan Mohammad Muhammad Chotani was leading international timber trader . He established an agency in Rangoon and ventured into the teak business, and was able to take advantage of the expanding teak trade, caused by the gradual opening of the Burmese forests after the 1830s . The business was especially due to the boom in railway construction after the 1860s, which required vast amounts of timber for railway sleepers.
In late July I92I, in the village of Pukkottur in Eranad taluk, a dispute arose between the Nilambur Raja and a Mappilla, active in the Khilafat movement. Tension grew in the village, and on August 1, drums began to beat in the mosques of the area, and in the course of the day, more than two hundred Mappillas, shouting war cries, gathered at Pukkottur branch of Nilambur Kovilakam. A large portion of them wore the Khilafat badge on their skullcaps, and the majority were armed with war knives, country swords, long spears, formidable bludgeons, and other weapons, including several guns. An outbreak was averted by the interference of Congress leaders and police officials. But peace remained only for few weeks.
The first and major riot began in August 1921 at Pukkottur which lies adjacent to Nilambur timber zone at Eranad in Malabar, accommodating the richest timber plantations in the world. C.Gopalan Nair, Deputy Collector of Malabar in his work The Mappila Rebellion 1921 (1923) describes Eranad which comprised Nilambur. According to Nair “it is a tract made up of hills, clothed with forest, the eastern portion including the valley of Nilambur which produces teak and other timbers. There were disturbances in every amsom of the Taluk”.
On August 21, hundreds of Mappilas armed with guns and swords assembled at Pukkottur on a false hearsay that, the Thirurangady mosque has been destroyed . They marched towards Nilambur Kovilakam and on August 21st night murdered sixteen members of the royal family which included twelve males, two women and two children . It was not tenancy issues, but widespread rumours regarding destruction of Thirurangady mosque that led to the outbreak and carnage.
According to Marxist scholar Conrad Wood, at Nilambur, “Moplah resistance moved along customary ‘fanatical’ lines with mobs assembling in niskarapalli (praying ‘sheds’) then advancing on the Tirumulpad’s kovilagom (palace) to demand its conversion to a mosque, and the head of its principal inmate, indeed of all kafirs… The emergent swaraj at Pukkotur was clearly Moplah raj”.
Many of the forest ` records kept in its divisional office at Nilambur were attacked and burned down during the insurgency of 1921. One of the oldest collection of books and other authoritative records of forestry in Malabar kept in the Divisional Forest Office in Nilambur, were also destroyed during the riots. District Forest Officer M.C. Chandy and his family was captured at Nedumkayam and their conversion them to Islam was given as an alternative to escape death . But they escaped to Mambat and left by boat to Kozhikkode .
The Malabar riots were launched by a section of rich Sunni Mappilas against Hindus, and also against some Mappilas who sheltered Hindus is indisputable. According to Conrad Wood “most notorious was the murder by men of Kunhahamad Haji’s gang on 30 August 1921 of retired police inspector Khan Bahadur Kurimannil Valiyamannil Chekkutti Sahib who had the temerity to harbour government servants and hindus at his residence at Anakkayam, as well as to display on his gate a directive of the authorities that all arms were to be surrendered”. Anakkayam lies twenty miles away from Nilambur.
Prominent timber merchants of Malabar launched the Muslim league in Kerala. In I969, in accordance to the demands of the Muslim League in Kerala and as a reward for its political support, the Communist government of EMS Namboodiripad carved out the new Malappuram district accommodating major timber regions which included the world famous Nilambur teak zone.
Nilambur and Mannarkad were core areas of Mappila riots of 1921. The Silent Valley National Park and the Attappadi Reserve Forests are in Mannarkad. Silent Valley constitutes the nucleus of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, an integral part of the Western Ghats, and named a a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2012.
Significantly, the largest encroachments are in Mannarkad (6,672.54 acres) and Nilambur divisions (1,691), where the Mappila riots took place and also at Wayanad (4,297.14) in Malabar . Another curious fact is, encroachers have not taken the government to court for including them in list of encroachers. More than three years after the High Court directed the state to recover encroached forest land, the Forest Department has managed to take into possession just 280 acres, or just about 1.5 per cent of the total encroached forest land of 19,277 acres ( Kerala: Only 1.5 per cent forest land reclaimed in Deccan Chronicle, Sept 25., 2017)
The extent of forest encroachment was the highest in this Eastern Circle of Malabar with 3,819.75 hectares, as per the statistics compiled by the Department of Forests and Wildlife on March 31, 2016. The circle comprises Nilambur North, Nilambur South, Palakkad, Mannarkad, and Nenmara divisions falling under Malappuram and Palakkad districts in Malabar (The Hindu, March 2, 2017).
Besides Hindu genocide, Nilambur was also centre of forced religious conversions to Islam during the 1921 riots. Variankunnath Kunjahammed Haji took initiative in the massacre and conversion of Hindus in Eranad Valluvanad taluks of south Malabar.
In the Nilambur context, a historic document has been provided by K.P. Kesava Menon. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1915 and served as the secretary of the Malabar branch of the Home Rule League as well as the Congress.
Menon was fully aware of the forced conversions into Islam during the 1921 Mappila riots in Malabar . He provided a critical account of the forced conversion of a Thiyya woman of Nilambur in the note, ‘Forced Conversion,’ ‘the Calicut Case,’ published on July 6, 1922.
Kesava Menon’s notes and an interview published in The Hindu were recently retrieved from the archives of the newspaper (Focus on K.P. Kesava Menon’s accounts of Malabar rebellion in The Hindu, July 8, 2020).The Thiyya woman narrated to Menon, who was secretary of the Kerala Provincial Congress Committee, that she and her children were taken to Edavanna, where she was called Rabia twice and made to “repeat Kilema”.
The heads of the children of the woman, who wanted to go back to Hinduism, were shaved by Mappila barber on the night they reached Kozhikkode and “on the next day they were given Mappila skull caps.”She also narrated her misery on how during the 14 days of her stay in the Pattanis house in Kozhikkode, she was compelled “to repeat Kilema” as reported in The Hindu.
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