Islamists who draw inspiration from the Genocide of Hindus in Malabar in 1921 have planned a series of events to celebrate the 100th year of the bloody chapter of Indian history. The purpose of this year-long celebration is to establish a psychological victory of Islam over Hindus and to obliterate the savagery of their forefathers. Left historians, by distorting history, which they are good at, have helped the Islamists’ cause in a big way.
An attempt is already underway to make Kerala an Islamic State and who could be a better icon in that project than the Butcher of Malabar – Variamkunnath Kunju Ahmed Haji, who led the murderous campaign of 1921 which saw the massacre of more than 10,000 Hindus and the exodus of about one lakh people? A hardened criminal and bigot, Variamkunnan had established a short-lived Islamic State in Malabar – Al Daula – and instituted Sharia Law and imposed Jazia tax on Hindus. Forcefully converted hundreds of Hindus and those who refused were done to death by Variamkunnan’s foot soldiers.
To glorify Variamkunnan, Islamists had planned a movie, starring popular Malayalam film star Prithviraj, which they were forced to shelve owing to massive protests. Having bitten the dust in the film project, scriptwriter Ramees Mohammad O, a staunch Islamist, came up with a biography, Sultan Variamkunnan, with an audacious claim that the book has “for the first time in history the real photo” of the bigot. Ramees claimed that a researcher stumbled upon Vaiamkunnan’s photograph in a French publication, Sciences et Voyages (published in 1922), one-and-a-half years ago during his research. Ramees claimed that this image was published in The Guardian on January 14, 1922. Even more laughable was the claim that the book carried letters written by the semi-literate (some say he was illiterate) Islamist bigot to the then US President and other world leaders.
The sudden emergence of the brand new Variamkunnan had triggered a flurry of debates and discussions in social media. The main reason is that the image looked out of sync with the descriptions of Variamkunnan made in the contemporary literature on the Malabar riots. Madhavan Nair, former president of Kerala Pradesh Congress, who had interviewed Variamkunnan and written a book on Malabar riots, describes him as “a dark-skinned” and “short” man with unimpressive features. From the image, it seems, Ramees’s Variamkunnan has undergone a botox procedure and a physical makeover to look young and handsome with sharp features. The image has a typical Arabic character to it. The designer who photoshopped the image must have spent days together to create this artistic splendor, which, I am sure, would go down in history as a fine piece of craftsmanship. (Many skeptics argue that Ramees must have photoshopped his own photograph by giving a vintage tinge to it.)
Soon after the book was released the image of the new-found Variamkunnan was posted in Wikipedia, citing the source of the image as The Guardian. When contested by enthusiastic researchers about the veracity of the image, Wikipedia removed it in a matter of 24 hours. So the image died a sudden death. But Ramees won’t give up: His team posted an image of his book on Wikipedia. He is honest with the source now: “Own work”!
The photo controversy has more to it than a simple case of forgery by an upstart historian. It is a psychological and intellectual onslaught; a well-planned conspiracy and farsighted plan to foist false history upon us, pollute our memories and capture our mind-space. We should remain vigilant.
Tailpiece: Journalists in Kerala who fume at “rewriting history” and accuse the Sangh of indulging in peddling fake history have lapped up all the outlandish claims of Ramees without raising a question. After the controversy over fake antique dealer Monson Mavunkal who took the Kerala top cops and journalists for a ride, RameesGate is another slap on the face of the media.
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