Malabar: Christian Memorials volume two release in January

The second volume of the book, Malabar: Christian Memorials, which covers the area from Wynad to Travancore, will be released in January 2017. This is a sequel to the earlier book with the same title, that dealt with Kannur, Tellicherry and Mahe, and published in February 2012.

Both books were researched and produced by New York social anthropologist Dr John C Roberts and Calicut-based journalist N P Chekkutty and published by South India Research Associates (SIRA), a voluntary network of scholars and genealogical researchers. This is the third book of genealogical research from SIRA in the past five years.  

The present book deals with both European colonial legacy as well as the local Christian society in Malabar and has details on thousands of burials based on meticulous research in cemeteries, church burial registers and archival records.  It covers English, French, Dutch, Portuguese and other European burials as well as of local denominations and covers all major towns and colonial outposts like Calicut, Malappuram, Palghat, Cochin, Alapuzha, Kottayam, Quilon and Trivandrum. 

The 300-page book has an extensive collection of rare photographs in an eight-page colour section. It also has a number of pen portraits of important individuals as well as a user-friendly index that will help researchers find the burials with ease.

For those who book in advance, publishers offer attractive discounts. For details, write to info.sira@yahoo.in  

Nilgiri Hills: A new book on European and Anglo Indian Heritage in South India

Here is an announcement on the forthcoming release of a new book on the Nilgiri Hills, one of south India's premier hill stations in 19th century. The book, Nilgiri Hills: Christian Memorials 1822-2006, is jointly researched and produced by Dr John C Roberts, social anthropologist in New York, and N P Chekkutty, senior journalist in Calicut.

The Nilgiris which became a major station for the English and other Europeans from 1820s has burials of thousands of the English, French and Anglo Indians spread over various towns across the district.

The South India Research Associates (SIRA) which carried out the two-year  research program and is now bringing out the book offers a very attractive subscription offer.

Here is the copy of the press note, pasted below:

Calicut

15 December 2013

Greetings for the New Year,

We wish to announce that we have completed our two-year comprehensive survey of cemeteries and isolated graves in the Nilgiri Hills and are going on-press this month for a February 15th release.

We are printing only a limited edition of 250 copies.  The quality will equal our Malabar Christian Memorials: 1723-1990.   Nilgiri Hills Christian Memorials: 1822-2006 will be approximately 500 pages with full-color reproductions of historical images done in the Hills by Richard Barron, George Hutchin Bellasis, Edmund Lear, E.A. McCurdy,  Samuel Ponsonby Peacock and Robert Pouget.  It includes a detailed map of the location of the tea and coffee estates as well as the cemeteries.

We offer a pre-publication price of Rs. 1000 to our subscribers.  The price after release will be Rs. 1250.  Postage outside India is an additional Rs. 500.  If you wish to gift copies to anyone in India the postage is free.

We thank you for your kind support in our voluntary endeavors.

Best Wishes,

N.P. Chekkutty

for South India Research Associates

For details, please contact info.sira@yahoo.in

Malabar:Christian Memorials- A new book on Malabar

Book on European graves in

Malabar released

 Kannur, Feb 6:

Malabar: Christian Memorials 1737-1990, a book on European gravestones and church memorials in the Malabar towns of Kannur, Thalassery and Mahe has been released at the International Book Fair in New Delhi. The book, researched and written by Dr John C. Roberts, a social anthropologist who worked at Oxford and Columbia universities, and N P Chekkutty, a senior journalist in Calicut, has details on the Portuguese, Dutch, French and English gravestones in the region. The book also has a complete list of Europeans buried in various cemeteries in these towns during the past two centuries,  based on the burial registers maintained in various churches.

The authors said research work on the book was launched in September 2010 and data was gathered from the extant gravestones in cemeteries, burial registers in churches, and quarterly returns on births and deaths maintained by the French and English governments on their citizens, kept in the British Museum and the French National Archives.

The book covers burials at the St Johns Anglican Church and Holy Trinity RC Church in Kannur, the St John’s Anglican Church and the Holy Rosary RC Church at Thalassery, and the St Theresa’s Church and cemetery at Mahe. The burials at the German Basel Mission cemeteries at Kannur and Thalassery are also recorded. The book has details on the European regiments and native troops stationed at the Cannanore Cantonment and details on deaths in armed forces.

The authors said the book gives a comprehensive picture of the health hazards faced by the Europeans in the colonial towns in 19^th century, as most of the entries have details on the cause of death.

The 272- page book, with two maps and a large number of photographs, is published by the South India Research Associates (SIRA), a voluntary network of researchers and scholars, registered in New York.

The SIRA was launched as a network of scholars and researchers interested in the European and Anglo-Indian heritage in south India, with a view to the retrieval and recording of their cultural assets, which are facing serious threats. In addition to the present book, the SIRA is shortly to release two more volumes--The Nilgiri Hills: Christian Memorials 1822-2000 and Malabar: Christian Memorials volume two that will cover areas from Calicut to Travancore. another study, Coromandal: Christian Memorials Fort St. George 1652-1947 is now at an advanced stage of preparation and may be redy for release in 2014. Those who are interested in these projects may contact info.sira@yahoo.in for details. 

Looming Violence, Political Threats and a Dispirited Media: On the Media Scene in Kerala

THERE ARE strident calls upon the media to make amends for its omissions and commissions, its pervasive intrusions into the privacy of individuals and the havoc it has wrought in the lives of many unfortunate victims. As a media person, I have always been extremely worried about these tendencies on the part of the media and have expressed my views that the media should introspect, and try be a responsible player in our democratic polity.

But the media, at the same time, cannot remain a toothless entity. It has necessarily to be aggressive, it has to gate-crash into domains that are closed to public review, and bring an objective view of things and developments to the public.

This is a tricky situation. How to strike a fine balance between the concerns of the public's right to information and the individual's right to privacy? Who is a private individual and who is a public person? How to define them and how to strike this nuanced position while reporting on them and their activities? And what constitutes private activity and public activity and where does the line of private activity of a public person and public activity of a private person merges or demarcates?

For almost a quarter century I have agonized over these questions and recently when I saw these clamours for public apology from our media to an American academic for some reports against him, I was thinking about these things again.

Here let me say that I am taking up the case of Dr Richard Franke only as a case study and I do not in anyway wish to express an opinion on his personal or academic activity. I presume that he is a well-meaning academic genuinely interested in Kerala and its people and all the past calumny against him, enumerated in the recent book by Dr Thomas Isaac and Mr N P Chandrasekharan and known to us Malayalis through various news media in the past few years, are simply baseless and the figment of the imagination of a politically motivated media.

Now a few questions arise. I will take up only two right now. First, how far the demands for an apology are legitimate; and two, whether there is any substance to the charge that the reports in media against Dr Franke proved to be an infringement on academic freedom?

This plethora of media campaign against Dr Franke was launched by Patom magazine of Mr Sudheesh, which was later taken up by many other Malayalam newspapers and other publications. The motivated nature of these campaigns was self evident, and most readers remained un-persuaded by most of these charges levelled against Dr Franke, Dr Isaac and a few others. It was a political shadow-boxing within the CPM, to which most of those involved in this battle actually belonged.

That means, the entire episode was part of our contemporary political life in the past few years. All the players were public persons and most of them were in the game for gains of a political nature and are endowed with political power in various ways.

Still, they make a camouflage attack on the media as if there was an infringement on media ethics. Indeed there was twisting of media ethics because the media often failed to check the authority of news items fed to them, but that in no way could be a case for seeking an apology from the media or the launch of an Inquisition from politicians. If anyone had been injured in such a scenario, it was the media itself because they suffered in their credibility, but here again there is no way a media organization can cross check such items fed to them because the Communist parties work behind iron curtains. They will not respond to media inquiries, but they still expect the media to play by rules. That is a very funny idea about democratic ways of functioning, indeed. A similar example could be when someone say, "head I win, tail you lose...!"

The second aspect that needs probing is whether there is any infringement on academic freedom. Dr Franke appears to be a US academic with some long- term connections with Kerala and has done some serious works here. He has been generally enthusiastic about Kerala and its development models though many may have differences with his points of view.

The charge is that his explanations were not given its due and that the campaign had been continued without any hitch even after such an explanation was offered. But why did Dr Franke become an object of attack? Was it because he was from US or was it because he was inadvertently (or perhaps even deliberately) involved in the CPM inner struggles?

The fact of the matter is that Dr Fanke became a target not because he was an academic or he was from US, but because he was seen to be taking a big role behind the curtains; being close to leaders in one faction in CPM and was also seen to be working with them on certain areas of serious concern to Kerala society and politics. When you are in politics, you are bound to receive attacks. Here, you see nothing academic, but everything is political. And in a political society, if anyone wants to exempt themselves from public criticism, why not take a leave and go back to your ivory towers, gentlemen? Why blame media in an injured tone when you confront your own battered pubic image?

When I launched this series of thoughts on the need for critical engagement on the part of media, I was aware of the severe accusations launched by this book.

But now that even a normally sober Sajan joins the brigade of critics, I must respond. I know Sajan himself had some part to play in it because he was among those experts who had read the text before it was published. Hence when I go ahead with my comments I hope Sajan would not get hurt, like the good comrade Ramakumar who finds me weak and unconvincing

I must say I do share a large part of the criticisms raised against the media in the book by Dr Isaac and Chandrasekharan, though I am not convinced about the premises on which they do so.

First, what kind of a book is this? Is it simply a partisan propaganda work by a group of individuals who belong to a political party, or is it a sincere attempt to study the inner workings of the media and its limitations in our society?

It started out as a serious critique and then sadly ends up as a partisan propaganda work which falls flat in convincing the reader of the objectivity of the arguments and the sincerity of their purpose. They highlight issues that are convenient to them and ignore issues which are not suitable to their purpose.

I will take up just one or two examples from the book to argue my points. First, it says that after the days of 'liberation struggle' when media played a critical part in attacking the Communists, it was in 2000s that the media took up such a concerted role. The People's Plan and Lavalin reporting are two major points they use to drive home this argument.

What they conveniently refuse to discuss is the political origins of this media strategy. They are quick to deride the media while they are unwilling to discuss what were the reasons which prompted the CPM to set up a number of investigation commissions in the State and local level in these days? What were the findings of these commissions and what did it tell the party about its inner workings ?

Now the defence will come that these are internal matters of the party. But here they are attacking the media for reporting things based on internal information, and even in the cases where such official commissions were set up why can't the party reveal all that they came by?

That would put a question mark on the sincerity of purpose and the manufactured consent that the media is the villain of the piece. But the media has been mainly a tool in the hands of the two powerful groups in the CPM and both groups had made much use of it. But unfortunately such a complex scenario of cynical use and misuse of media in the internal power struggles and the naked fights for control of the party never gets any mention here.

In the study on People's Plan, they say it was the media which had destroyed such a major effort at decentralization of power. Then they go ahead with the Sudheesh-Patom sob story and says the media parroted all that ultimately killing the programme.

This is less than a half truth. They do not even look at the various steps in the evolution of the People's Plan and where it actually went awry. If they had, they would have seen that it was the inherent weaknesses in the plan implementation and its meagre results compared to the Himalayan hopes it had generated, that was the real problems for its failure.

This dichotomy of what is actually achievable and the insurmountable hopes it could generate, leading to inevitable disillusionment which the writers do accept as a fact, had been pointed out right from the beginning by experienced and sober critics as you can see from the critical articles in the anthology, People's Plan: An Experiment in Decentralised Planning, edited by me and published by Calicut Press Club in 2000 based on a workshop organized by none other than the media people who are now facing the music for its failure! One hoped at least almost one decade on, Dr Isaac and others would show a little more willingness for soul-searching on why it failed instead of the easy of option of media-bashing.

But the gem comes in a comment where they assert, it was a sense of guilty consciousness on the part of media people, most of whom were former SFI cadres, that led the media to this pseudo-left critique of the programme! What a cheek to rubbish people who had been in SFI, who had suffered much and at least some of whom had faced lathis, knives and even bullets, who had taken up work in the media instead of the much coveted full-time political work and tried to do their job of reportong of the goings on in the corridors of power!

I do not know whether this wonderful insight comes from Chomsky original or is a contribution from our neo-Chomskys to the critique of media in 21st century. I must admit, as a former SFI cadre, it left me gasping for breath as I too happen to be a critic of left politics now...!

I was struck by a phrase from Damodar on the contemporary media practice of media criticism familiar to us. He described it as third degree methods of criticism.

Most people would laugh it off as an exaggeration but those who are familiar with the way media-persons are forced to work these days in Kerala would know this aptly describes the reality that confronts us today. There is an atmosphere of latent violence in the every day life of a media-person and he/she has to face crude violence or abuses and threats almost on a day to day basis. Often they erupt into an act of physical violence on the person who represents the media in the field and in most cases he/she works fully aware of the threats to his/her safety. This is no exaggeration: ask any media person- whether male or female- and they would tell you how unsafe the profession has become in the most literate Kerala society. Very few of these incidents, which take the form of direct physical attacks, are reported in the media and most others like threats and abuses are hushed up or silently borne for fear of provoking further attacks or threats. This is a contemporary reality.

Some of these are so ugly and some really comic: When I watched the video of the threat to Vidhu Vincent, a female reporter, from a group of Church believers, I was horrified because the ugliness of mob violence on a feeble female was so evident in all its details. She later left the profession.

When I heard about a friend in Indian Express who was bashed up at a bus stop in Thalassery, I asked him what happened. It was a rally of a big political party there and the buses were all stranded in the roads and he said something to the person next to him about the way they were persecuting the public. Men from the jatha overheard and he was pulled out of the bus and bashed up. He refused to complain because he was afraid next day he would face a fresh bout of violence.

My worst days as a journalist were when I worked with a television channel and I remember with horror the continuous harassment, abuses and threats I faced. They were friendly fire, as they say coming from guys who had an ownership role in it! Some of the people who were abusive were men of some senior positions and one of them today happens to be a member of Parliament.

But the saddest part is not physical violence or continuous threats. It is the loss of means of livelihood which could completely paralyze a person. Most camera-persons are forced to buy their own equipment in small organizations and when they are attacked, the loss is huge. Once when I worked as president of the Kozhikode unit of KUWJ, there was an attack and around a dozen people were injured but when I went to the hospital to see them, the major complaint was not about the injuries or pain, but about the loss of equipment like cameras and lenses and there was no way they could get that back in shape.

Now what I suggest is that an atmosphere of fascist tendencies is fast growing in Kerala and politicians and local mafias are the main culprits. It is a fearsome thing that such attacks are now getting an official stamp as even senior politicians do not care when media people are attacked.

From Jawaharlal to Rahul: On a Second Reading of Nehru’s Autobiography

Rahul Gandhi's visit to Kerala campuses trigger a wave of enthusiasm among the youngsters: news

AS ONE crosses fifty, a realisation slowly takes hold that one is no longer part of the present. Maybe not quite passé but still there is something that forces one to think about the past as well as the future. A person at 50, is a person like the Greek god Janus, he looks both to the past as well as to the future, with mixed feelings for both. At 50, a considerable part of one’s life is already behind, and of course there is another considerable part waiting in the future also.

I am at such a juncture, having left behind five decades behind and now I realise one of the things I always think about these days is the future; not my own-- there is nothing much to think about there-- but about our society’s, our country’s.

In the seventies when we were young people and active in politics, we were angry and impatient. We wanted change and nothing short of a revolutionary change, and hence we took up the red flag, the symbol of a revolutionary future.

Now more than thirty years on, I know that these dreams were nothing but pipedreams. We said the freedom from colonialism, from the white bosses to brown bosses that took place at Red Fort, was nothing but a sham. It was not real freedom.

But we grew up in such a country and slowly, but surely, we saw it coming to grips with the massive problems that beset the new nation. Not that we are a completely successful democracy, but what makes me happy now is the fact that we are surely not a failed nation, either.

That is why I was keenly watching the new generation of our leaders at the national scene, trying to come to grips with the Indian reality. Most of them make me sick and tired, but somehow Rahul Gandhi is one person on whom I pin much of my hopes right now.

I was keenly watching his performance at the national scene, and his visit to Krala’s campuses yesterday gave me the feeling that this young man has something quite similar to the spark shown by his great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, as he entered Indian politics as a young aristocrat almost a century ago, in the 1920s.

What I liked about him is his simple, straightforward style, his disarming frankness and palpable sincerity. All these qualities were evident in his numerous interactions with youngsters in all parts of the state in a one-day tour.

I was reading Jawaharlal Nehru’s Autobiography again last week and I could not but notice the same frankness, sincerity and straightforward nature of the person who wrote those lines, and his personality that comes through this thick volume that he finished as he spent so many solitary years in jail in the early forties.

Jaswant Sigh and the Need for Examining the History of India’s Partition

JASWANT SINGH has paid a price for being an objective observer of the history of Indian sub-continent in its most crucial period. The division of the country has always been a matter of serious and grave disputes, but what has been most critical as far as historical inquiry is concerned is that all facts relating to the division were never made available to the public or even the scholars.

What we had, instead, was one version of history written by the winners in this game played out on the country in the run up to division. In this Nehru, Patel and the entire Indian elite, upper caste Congress leadership came out in flying colours and people like Muhammedali Jinnah and B R Ambedkar were the demons. This official history held good for almost five decades and our children learnt this history in their schools and colleges and we, the first generation Indian after Independence, also imbibed such a history in our younger days.

I was a particularly keen student of history from my school days and I had spent a lot of time for reading history. In fact, I remember reading such huge tomes like the History of the Freedom Movement by Tara Chand (a multi volume project launched by Government of India), and the History of India prepared by a few Soviet scholars, during the days of Emergency and curiously withdrawn from the market in 1978 or 79 when Indira Gandhi returned to power) and many others. What these volumes had in common was that they carried the official line of the freedom movement, the official version of what led to the partition of the country.

But it was definite that such a totally one-sided history would not stand scrutiny of the times, especially as historical inquiry is a continuous process and every generation would seek fresh answers to the questions that keep up popping up, like persistent ghosts from a long buried past.

And in the case of India’s division and what were the circumstances that led to it and who were the people responsible for it, there has always been so many yawning gaps in the narration, which were papered over by our official historians. It suited our ruling classes very well, as both the Congress and the right wing Hindutva forces shared in the benefits of such a demonisation project, painting the Muslims and the Muslim League as responsible and Muhammaedali Jinnah as the wily villain of the peace.

But politics has never been such a neat black-and-white business. There has to be elements of grey in it and there are forces which benefited out of such tragic events in history. The Muslims never benefited anything out of it and in fact hey became second class citizens in their own country. They were reduced to be a non entity in Indian politics despite the fact that they are the second largest Muslim community in the world.

And the Congress and Nehru family benefited with a decades-long grip on power in India. All other streams in our national movement, whether it be the socialist, dalit, minority or communist, remained in the periphery and what we have come to see is the sharing of power alternatively between the congress an the Hindutva rightwing in India’s independent history.

Not that there were no voices which feebly complained about this elaborate hoax that is called India’s contemporary history, and read carefully even Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s autobiography is a cry in the wilderness. If one reads accounts of the activities of people like K M Munshi, the man who launched the Somanatha temple movement, who was a major force in the Nehru-Patel administration in the partition days one cannot but wonder how effective were these schemes of these wily gentlemen who decided the destiny of this nation at its most critical hour.

Now a person like Jaswant Singh, who spent a lifetime in the BJP, has dared to question this sham of history and I am sure it would prove to be a great contribution to understanding modern India and its history in demystified context.

Muhammad Abdurahman: A debate on His Legacy and Contemporary Relevance

MY BIOGRAPHY of Muhammad Abdurahman (Muhammad Abdurahman, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2005), written on the occasion of the 60th death anniversary of the freedom fighter, has been in public domain for more than three years now.

It did not raise any storm, and I never expected any, but I was a bit sad no one really took note of the book, writing on which I had spent quite a lot of time in Delhi, where I began it after my friend Rubin DCruz of NBT asked me to do it, and then in Kerala where I researched much of it.

Recently, at the discussion forum, fourth-estate critique, the book received a critical attention. In a discussion on electoral politics and appeasement of religious fundamentalism in Kerala, it was M G Radhakrishnan, special correspondent for India Today , who first mentioned my work, which helped generate a debate based on the book.

Here is what M G Radhakrishnan said:

It runs counter to the great tradition and history of the proud secular stream of the community symbolized by Muhammed Abdurahman Saheb et al (Chekkutty can revisit his own brilliant book on the legend) which has fought the fundamentalists and communalists among them for long.

To this I responded, thanking him for referring to my work on Muhammad Abdurahman. I reproduce below an edited version of the text of parts of the debate:

N P Chekkutty: I am extremely thankful to my senior colleague M G Radhakrishnan for inviting me to my own work on Muhammad Abdurahman. I am not speaking with even an iota of irony, because I am sincerely thankful to him for referring to this work mainly because though this book had been available for almost three years in English, there has not been any serious critical reference to it in any forum.

Hence my gratitude to MGR for referring to this work. It happens to be the only English biography of Muhammad Abdurahman, a freedom fighter who has been generally forgotten in recent years though some Congressmen do conduct some programmes in Kozhikode and Kodungallur.

But the point to remember is: What is Abdurahman's legacy? Is it right to paint him as a 'Non-Talibanist' Muslim leader who fought all kinds of 'regressive' tendencies in the community, a la our beloved Hamid Karzai of Kabul or Abbas of West Bank?

It would be simplistic to isolate Muhammad Abdurahman from his times and transplant him into our own and making him a windbag which could serve our own purposes. Let me say that Abdurahman was a fighter and he was a fighter deeply religious and he never abandoned his faith for political purposes. His commitment to his own community one can see at the moment when he went to the house of KPCC president K P Kesava Menon who had shut himself inside his office at a time when rebellion broke out in Eranad. Abdurahman decided to go to Ernad alone, in the company of E Moidu Maulavi.

But he did fight the regressive forces in his community, and he did it valiantly. But who are the representatives of the Attakkoya Thangals of his time in our own days? I thought the legacy fell on the shoulders of those who are the comrades in arms of our own CPM gentlemen like Pinarayi Vijayan.

If anyone needs a refresher course in history of Malabar 1935-40 these days, I think they are Comrade Pinarayi and his team of Jayarajan triumvirate, who seem to have no clue about history.

M G Radhakrishnan: I have also wondered why the book hasn’t received its due attention. But I have read only the Malayalam version and not the English. I think it easily merits to be one of the best bios in Malayalam. Particularly liked the warmth and details of the narrative through which the Sahib comes through as humane and as heroic as ever. So palpable are the passion for secularism and the concern about sectarianism not just of the protagonist but the author too. And I really want my friend to introspect on his present positions on these issues. Hence I feel a far greater urge to join issue with you than any one else on this forum too. Take it as a desperate attempt to retrieve a distancing compatriot. You really don’t belong to where you are now.

I haven’t de-contextualized Saheb in any way. On the contrary I have tried only to re-contextualize him. I think he is what he is because his relevance goes much beyond his time. Why should you pin down him to his time alone? For me he is not a windbag but a whistle-blower for our troubled times.

Surprised you don’t see him as a non-talibanized Muslim! I have not equated him with the other names you have mentioned.

I also don’t agree with the way you have condemned Pinarayi and others. With all its warts, the Organized Left still remains more than anybody else, the rightful legatees of Saheb. My difference with them is when they digress from this legacy -which often they do- though that doesn’t make them on par with the NDF or such others which represent everything contrary to what Saheb stood, fought and died for. Sure the Left needs a lesson in history but strange to see that you think they need it more than the fundamentalists about any of whom you don’t have a single word to utter for long. (Haven’t you seen in this forum too Saheb being portrayed as not the "real" Muslim but an "imagined" one as was done to him years ago? )

N P Chekkutty: Good and kind words do make people feel happy and make them less combative, I suppose.

Hence my difficulty in crossing words with my senior colleague MGR. Though I have not had the privilege of working with him, I had the benefit of being very close to his father who was the person who took the initiative to translate a work on Nilakkal I did in Mainstream Weekly way back in 1984 giving me the first major break in serious media studies. I will always be indebted to PG for the kind of support and encouragement he gave me, like many others, in those times when I was a simple non-entity from a remote village with no claims to intellectual pedigree.

Having said this, I would request MGR to introspect about his own positions of late. It has appeared to me that he is not really tuned to the changing perceptions among Muslims, dalits and other backwards in our society in the post-90 period. I had the fortune or misfortune of being not only a witness, but a part and participant of these events and changes. That surely would have had an influence on my world view and perceptions.

Now the questions to ask is: Why did we change the way we changed? What forces did play in these events and why is our once homogeneous left partisans are now divided into such disparate, mutually antagonistic positions? I do really hope MGR would think about it, just as all of us need to go for a period of introspection now.

Here a person like Muhammad Abdurahman can be a great guide.

I think we need to take a few very interesting aspects in his career here. One thing is that in his own time, he was dubbed an extremist by the entrenched forces in his community and his detractors in Gandhi Sangham. The left then did not buy this argument because people like P Krishna Pillai and EMS who worked with him were also dubbed extremist those days. So labels do not tell us much, neither then nor today.

The second aspect: Can religious faith and left convictions see eye to eye? People like Pinarayi dub the new forces in Muslim community like Popular Front of India as a mix of LTTE and Taliban (here I quote from his 1998 speeches) and he seems to to keep the same views now. But he has no problems having alliances with Madani or Kanthapuram.

If you look at history, you will see Abdurahman was part of a new emerging middle class in his community, mainly coming from Kodungallur those days. He had to fight the pro-British elite segments among Muslims and later the Muslim League, a party launched by Talassery traders with a lumpen cadre base.

If historical parallels are to be drawn, I would think the new social forces in Islam now represented by groups like PFI do inherit much of the progressive and forward-looking legacy of Abdurahman.

But here we may have to agree to disagree, perhaps.

Dr B Ekbal: Muhammad Abdurahman was one of the greatest secular politicians of Kerala. Apart from Chekkutty's excellent biography both in English and Malayalm, N P Mohammed has written a biographical novel about him and his son has written a biography of Abdurahamn for children as well in a literary style. Along with these books the biography of KA Kodugallor by C P Rajashekran also throws light on the life and time of Muhammad Abdurahman. There are also a few lesser known biographies of him.

nfortunately, none of the present organisations carry or imbibe the secular values expressed by Muhammad Abdurahman. Nobody can claim his legacy.

John Samuel: Thanks Chekkutty and MGR for this serious dialogue. The tone and content of it is much appreciated. In fact such serious dialogues (as distinct from scoring a point or throwing a stone)- with mutual respect- are really helpful to explore the various historical perspectives to understand and appreciate the emerging realities in Kerala and elsewhere.

I too enjoyed reading the excellent biography ( published by NBT) of Abdurahman sahib by Chekkutty. In fact I have learned a lot by reading the book and also through discussions and observations during my recent trip to Calicut.

So my sense is that the political and social landscape is shifting- and this will have impact on the present day "Left" politics in Kerala. I also think that newspapers like Thejas cannot be equated with Organizer or such entrenched fascist propaganda. From whatever I read, Thejas is liberal in its outlook and it has relatively better editorial quality than many other newspapers. I have not seen it spreading hatred or violence or lies. I am willing to be corrected if any furnishes such evidence. We need to evaluate a newspaper or book based on its content and real performance- rather than sweeping conclusions based on prejudices or perceptions.

It is too early to make a conclusive statement about the new modes of social mobilizations, communicative expressions and media experiments among the Muslim community in Kerala. There is indeed a shift from the old politics- and there are many social, economic and political reasons for that.

In fact, I am more optimist than pessimist in the evolving scenario in Kerala- many of the present formations and formulations will be challenged. But that is a part of any process of substantive change in politics and society.

The political landscape of Kerala ( and elsewhere) is beginning to change. I also think the present phase of binary political formation (LDF and UDF) may not be able to survive in the long run.

The shift in sociological and economic conditions of various communities in the last fifteen years would also influence the political perspective and choices of Kerala. My sense is that the present NDF/PFI, PDP, BSP etc will become a part of the political mainstream and the new power arrangements in Kerala in the years to come.

We have had several discussions in this space about the various streams of reformations, renaissance and reactions that happen within various communities in Kerala. So it is important to see these changes and shifts beyond the usual binaries and black/white formulations.They are much more complex shifts than what we see on the surface of it.

K Satchidanandan: At times I wonder: can a party, an organisation or a nation be secular at all? I am aware of the Secular Collective, Sahmat, Anhad, the Kerala Secular Forum... with some of which I have had associations at various levels; still ultimately perhaps only individuals are capable of being secular as it has deep kinship with individual life-practices. I know this sounds an individualistic position, but an organisation can claim to be secular only when all its members practise secularism in their everyday: is this happening in any organisation today, left or right? What about their alliances? Let me immediately add: I do not posit the secular against the religious or the sacred as I do not equate the secular with the atheist or the rationalist: I would posit it rather against the communal, the bigoted, the insular, the hierarchical and the mono-logic. I am posing this not as an ultimate position, but a genuine doubt.

S Sanjeev: Since we are into biography and minority positions let us look at a significant discussion regarding the ‘impossibility’ of 'Muslim autobiography' in India. While comparing the unfinished autobiographical fragment of Maulana Mohammed Ali with two other autobiographical projects of the time – Gandhi’s and Nehru’s - M T Ansari notes, “Maybe even now, for Muslims in India writing an autobiography remains a fraught exercise” in the sense that “autos or the self is somewhere, the bios or life is elsewhere and the grapheme is nowhere, in that it does not work as an intersection point for the other two”. (See his brilliant doctoral dissertation, CIEFL, Hyderabad, 2002).

We could list major examples closer home such as Vakkom Moulavi or Basheer.

Speaking of Vakkom Moulavi it would be worthwhile noting that while the editor of Swadeshabimani has been etched in the Malayali consciousness as the epitome of courage, its founder publisher never figures in those hagiographies. Let me quote Joseph Mundassery referring to Ramakrishna Pillai in his autobiography Kozhinja Ilakal: “that Dheera deshabhimany was honored as a Janasevakan, his statue was erected and the stuff [confiscated by the Travencore Government] was returned. Its owner was a karanavar of Vakkom Abdul khader.” (Current books, 2004, p301, translation&emphasis mine).

N P Chekkutty: Sanjeev's note on Vakkam Maulavi reminds me about the vanished heroes of our struggle:

It is very interesting to think about how some of our freedom fighters simply disappeared from public memory through a conscious amnesia on the part of our mainstream society.

Muhammad Abdurahman has never been a big name in our textbooks, though he has been one of the very few freedom fighters who inspired our poets. Not only our Satchi daa, but a number of great poets like P Kunhiraman Nair, Edassery, G Kumara Pillai and Vailoppilly had written about him in glowing terms. Perhaps poets are greater visionaries and truth-tellers than historians.

But where did you see a mention about a person like M P Narayana Menon, who spent 24 years in jail, in our school textbooks? And anyone heard about E Kannan, a dalit freedom fighter and political activist who was a member of the Kuttikrishna Menon Committee on land reforms in 1937along with EMS and Abdurahman?

No. They are all gone. What else we could say about it but our conscious collective amnesia?

M G Radhrsishnan: Chekkutty says NDF is the true claimant of Saheb’s legacy! What I have learnt (from Chekkutty’s book too) is that Saheb’s life was devoted to further the cause of secularism and also to fight the conservatism within the Muslim religion. Can you cite any example to prove NDF is doing any of these to claim Saheb’s legacy ? Except Muslim League, at least in a minor way, does any of the religious group among Muslims ever talk about the rising fundamentalism or the need for social reformation inside the community ? Or do you think fundamentalism does not exist at all or there is no need for reformation?

N P Chekkutty: I need to add a few brief points here by way of clarifications:

1. When we try to understand the life and legacy of a person like Muhammad Abdurahman, whose public life spanned from 1920 to 1945, we must confront the fact that there is a big chasm that divides that period from that of us. The concepts like secularism, human rights, etc, of which we speak now, were not fully developed in those days.

2. If you try to understand the life of the Saheb, you will see religion has always been the primary fountain of his political life. In the Indian nationalist politics in the post-first world war period, people of the minorities could not hope to find any other catalyst to drive them into action other than religion.

3. This need not be a hindrance for eventual development of secular, modern politics and social thinking in such communities. They can't remain backward or fundamentalist for ever. New ideas would always seep in and that would have a natural churning effect in such communities.

4. Watching the Muslim community in Malabar, I feel such a deep and highly transformative churning process is now on. For example I have a colleague who had to leave his home recently because he refused to accept dowry from his willing father in law. While his parents demanded money and a car, he refused to take it risking the anger of his father. Poor boy had to walk out of the home with his young wife because his organisation, in this case PFI, had asked the young members not to accept dowry at any cost.

(Courtesy:fourthestatecritique.google.com)

Budgets as Literary Pieces: Creative Imagination in an Accountant's Profession

Kerala Finance Minister Dr Thomas Isaac invokes Thakazhi's novel, Kayar, in his new budget speech: news

They call it Mararikkulam rope trick...!

I AM not sure how effective are the budgets presented by Dr Thomas Isaac, our present finance minister, in promoting the economy of Kerala. And for that matter, any budget presented by any finance minister. For me, it appears the economy goes on its own way, the people find their own ways to survive, whether there is a budget or not. Frankly, the less meddling from the government, the better for the people and economy.

But in Dr Issac's case, at least he could lay claim to be a very effective literary agent. In his last budget he put his hands on Vaikom Muhammed Basheer's Pathummayude Aadu, to conclude his speech where he said like Pathumma with scarce resources managing her household, it was his duty to provide whatever little he had for all people who clamoured for his attention.

This time, he started his speech with a reference to the novel, Kayar of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, which gives us a wonderful picture of the class divisions emerging in Kuttanadu, and how the place changed over a period of time. Kayar has not only history, but it has an economy too, Dr Isaac discovers this time and he effectively uses the images in the novel to describe a crisis hit economy and society trying to come to grips and asserts the need for search for a new approach to move ahead, to make the difficulties into an opportunity for change.

That was a masterful interpretation of a piece of a literature to describe the present day Kerala society. Now who says the budgets are simply a sheet of accounting and calculations with some receipts and a lot of expenditures? I think we should read the budget speeches for their literary merit, as documents of creative imagination, even if we might not find anything worthwhile in them from an accountant's point of view.

A Note on My New Book on Society, Culture and Globalization

MY NEW book, a collection of essays on culture, media and the process of globalization and its impact, was released in Kozhikode this evening by poet and friend Civic Chandran.

The book is called Charithranubhavangalude Koodumattom: Aagoleekaranam, Samooham, Samskaram and it is published by Thejas Publications, Kozhikode. I am indebted to Prof P Koya, editor of Thejas, and K P Kamal, publications manager, for making this possible.

The book contains 16 essays that I wrote in several publications and journals like Samakalika Malayalam varika, Madhyamam weekly, Patabhedam and other small magazines during the period from 1997 to 2007. This is a period in which I underwent a series of transformations in my intellectual and political life, my firm conviction that the Marxist politics that I upheld from the seventies would eventually succeed in building a new, egalitarian and secular India slowly eroded and in its place the explorations for a new politics slowly emerged. I do feel these essays would provide a graphic picture of this transformation and the search for something new, something which is more deeply embedded in our social and cultural history. Perhaps it is now taking the shape of a politics based on identity and its socio-cultural and economic aspects.

But even as I think identity could be the new marker for our political associations for empowerment of the dispossesed sections, I do believe the fundamental Marxist principles of the economic base of a society and social divisions would still remain valid. What we do need is the integration of these two aspects which would held us evolve a new politics that would be truly people-oriented, and would ensure a more egalitarian and truly secular society for all of us.

I try to give a broad outline of such a society and its culture in the making and I do feel in the coming years we will see it much more clearly as the new forces now slowly emerging would become much more assertive and influential.

Barak Obama and the Skyscrapers of Expectations

My friend and former colleague in Indian Express K Govindan Kutty has been living in the United States for some time and he had sent me a few notes on his observations on American life especially in the days when Barak Obama was being elected to the presidency.

I think his notes are very perceptive and hence one of them is being pasted below to make it available to my readers here. (Please note that he eschews using capital letters.)


in what you presented as "american notes", we discussed last obama, lincoln and racism. they are now discovering new glories in obama, building up skyscrapers of expectations. and, i have been thinking of that, racism, colour, sense or lack of it of colour in all its conceivable manifestations. i have been doing so before i came here. i am sure it will nag my mind when i go away from here.

the thought came to me again when we had been to a photo studio in a sprawling mall
in virginia center commons the other day. this is the season everybody goes for a photo session. everybody means everybody, young and old, dead and unborn.when we were waiting for our turn to be called in by the young, buxom camerawoman, who enjoyed her work and kept animating the cramped room with her eternal giggling,
i saw an african-american family sitting by my side waiting for their turn.
the man had a weird hairdo, long yarns of matted hair flowing down his head,
much like long bunches of coconut flowers with their stem buried in a nirapara.
the woman had her hair intricately braided, some colourful net covering the pate.
the two kids also had their short hair meticulously done, reminding me the paddy seedlings tied with a band around them and thrown all around the field, ready for planting.

it stood out so starkly, their hairdo.it was, shall i confess, revolting to me aesthetic sense.consider the prospect of someone with that kind of remote and ribald hair style sitting in the oval office, chatting with heads of state of mighty and meek members of the wide comity of nations! i am sure you will not consider such a prospect because it is entirely unlikely. why do they do it? why do they wear such weird hair? mind you, it is quite expensive to put up your hair like that. it is quite time consuming.

i did not feel free to ask this question anywhere. such things, i am told, are not asked. it is a free country. anyone is free to wear his hair or whatever the way they like.i made a fool of myself one day by asking about the possible age of a rather decrepit woman in an assisted living home. that is their term for old age home. the woman was stretching herself to do with minimum help from others and it evoked my curiosity about her age. the officer of the home was aghast when i asked the question. my daughter-in-law was embarrassed. i should not have asked such questions. it is all a private affair. asking about the age range of someone who looked like in her eighties and still enjoying(?) being on her own and learning to
live with minimum assistance is an intrusion into her privacy. amen, i said.

so i never ask anyone about the african-america hairdo. i avoided looking at them for more than a second. my son has warned me that it is not safe to have eye contact with any group of african-americans going about boisterously. they could turn violent, he says. he should know better.our neighbour john, a policeman, whenever he stops by to have a word of pleasantry talks about his trepidation as he goes for patrolling in an african-american neighbourhood on dark nights. so i chose not to ask anyone about the hairdo. i am not sure if any african-american leader,
john brown or frantz fanon or frederick douglas or jessie or king, had said it would be useful to dispense with that kind of hair style that segregated them, visually, up to a point culturally.

gandhi would have done that in his time. making people clean was his way to introduce a kind of social equality. there is no need for homogenization. but there is a need for sophistication. i suppose it would be part of a modernizing exercise to declare such hairdo out of fashion. african-americans do not retain their old african tongues, swahili or whatever, as hallmarks of their identity. but they, many of them, enjoy sporting a primitive hairdo that costs so much money
and so much time, and makes them look rather aboriginal. i know it is a difficult thing to change such styles, without an ataturk. i recall stories of my father being practically disowned by his father when he had his tuft cut off and the style of the times reflected on his pate. my grandfather declared that he would not see
his son with such hair style. it took so long for us to agree that kuduma, whether tied behind or before, is not a sign of modernity.

my thoughts on segregating hairdo and slithering colour sense in america took me back home, took me back both in space and time. lines from an earliest verse i had learnt came back to me, rather raucously. i have no idea how it was taught. perhaps its meaning was lost on those who taught it and those who were supposed to recite it. it had built in its heart a strong sense of colour prejudice,a base view of contempt, which should not have informed any kid song. don't you remember that song?

varanda thondayode nhaan
varunnu kochumallike.
vallathum tharumo daaham
valarunnorenikku nee?
karivande varollente
aritkil then tharilla nhaan.
nalla poompaattakalkke nhaan
nalkoo madhuramen madhu.

look at it, you are a little black bee, and i have no love or honey for you.
my nectar is reserved for beautiful butterflies.

what shows through this kid song, recited by millions of kids with gusto,
is the seething contempt of the little jasmine for the colour of the thirsty lover,
more than even his pathos. what morale does it have? what do kids learn from that?

it bespeaks a mindset. and it was written by g. i would have never associated with him such prejudice but that is what shows through his popular kid song. i hold g in high esteem even though i am boggled by his monstrosities like ANATHANUKSHANAVIKASWARASUNDARAPRAPANCHADIKANDAM.
mind you, it is malayalalm. i am ready to live with it but that little poem about the insolent flower and the jilted black bee is pernicious.

that is our contribution to colour sense. do we still have it in our primary syllabus?

Narayaneeyam and the Lord of Guruvayur

THE FIFTEENTH century Manipravalam poem, Kokasandesam, is one of the earliest texts that refer to the temple of ‘Kuruvayur’ which later became one of the foremost pilgrim centres in Malabar region. It was the reign of Zamorins, who came to power in 12th century with the port city of Kozhikode as their capital, and Guruvayur was on the outer limits of his kingdom and was a strategic location where his forces often used as a transit point during their raids to the southern kingdoms.

The temple and its deity, Krishna, had become quite famous by the end 15th century and early 16th century. Bhakti poet Poonthanam and scholar-poet Melputhur Bhattathirippad were closely associated with the temple and some of the historical information we have on the early days of Guruvayur come from their writings. Poonthanam’s Jnanappana, one of the early Malayalam texts along with Cherusseri Namboodiri’s Krishnagatha and Ezhuthacchan's Adyatma Ramayanam, give us an insight into the development of the bhakti cult in deep-south which all over India had, by then, been spreading a renaissance culture with focus on the language of the common people, unlike the more Brahmanical Sanskrit which held sway in the classical ages. One of the interesting aspects about all three poets is that they belonged to the northern part of Kerala, Cherusseri hailing from a region under the Kottayam Rajah while Poonthanam and Ezhuthacchan lived in the Zamorin kingdom.

One of the specific mentions of the age and time is seen in Narayaneeyam, the great Sanskrit kavya by Melputhur, who ends his poem with a note on ayurarogyasoukhyam, a reference to a Kalidina number which translates into a date in late 16th century according to the Kollam Era that was popular in this region. Since there are references that both poets were contemporaries, we infer that Poonthanam and Melputhur lived in the kingdom of Zamorin in 16th century.

Narayaneeyam is a text that is more pedantic and scholarly, and according to legends the lord of Guruvayur himself had commented he preferred the bhakti of the poor Malayali Brahmin to the vibhakti of the Sanskrit scholar-poet. Surprisingly, we see that Melputhur always held sway in the temple town despite the deep bhakti that we encounter in Poonthanam.

There have been a few attempts to translate Narayaneeyam into Malayalam, one of the well known works being that of C V Vasudeva Bhattathiri. Recently I came across a new translation done in Dravidian metres, Neythiri, executed by Balendu. This is a commendable effort for a variety of reasons, first and foremost being the difficulty of rendering a popular text into our language without losing its musical and poetic elements. As I went through the text I found it was a beautiful rendering of Narayaneeyam in Malaylam and it deserves a better attention from Malayali reading public.

I had a talk with the poet, who hails from Elanhi in Ernakulam and now lives in Bangalore, on his work:

On the poet’s devotion and inspiration to work:

I am a believer in God as a source of Divine justice. More than any of the famous temples I like Gramadevatha. I like the epics as the best purposeful fiction. Krishna is my favourite character. I don’t consider Rama as very significant. I like Ramayanam. I went inside Guruvayur Temple only after writing Neythiri. I have “read” in few sapthahams just to read Bhagavatham.

On Narayaneeyam:

Till 1994 my only encounter with Narayaneeyam was through P.Leela’s rendering. I don’t know Sanskrit. I tried to read Narayaneeyam, but could not make much headway till I joined a group of devotees in 1999 in chanting sessions.

The musical quality attracted me the most. I loved the literary excellence too. As a spiritual work I think Jnaanappana is better.

Idea of translating:

It struck me like a blitzkrieg (October 2002). It was as a means of understanding Narayaneeyam better. My close relatives have always liked my translations. (I know six languages).

On other translations of Narayaneeyam into Malayalam:

I have seen a few translations. I did not see any that was worth talking about. Those which were in the sankrit vrithams had a lot of handicaps. I had seen only one like Neytthiri, in Dravida vrithams, but not before I had actually started mine. Well, I believe it is a sloppy work.

How long it took to complete the work:

Almost three years, from October 2002 to 25th July 2005. Spasmodic is the proper adjective for the process. Or rather like Punartham njatuvela.

What were the problems faced:

Mainly Pattery’s slesham. It is simply un-translatable.

Even Kumaran Asan had spoken about the limitations of our language:

I disagree. He was talking about language in general. Not about Malayalam specific, when he said, innu bhaashayithapoornnam.

As a translator how did you find these limitations:

My work is not exactly a translation. It is Narayaneeyam retold.

Where do you place Narayaneeyam:

Narayaniyam’s place is very high; should be at par with Bhagavatham and Ramayanam. But, it is in Sanskrit

Do you look at your own translation as a contribution to the rich tradition of devotional literature?

Well! Is it not better that I leave it for the readers to answer that. So far many (well known writers, spiritual gurus, and well read public) appreciated the work. Only three persons have pointed out mistakes. One is my wife, the two others had extremely good intentions.(Such good work should be spotless, they said.)

On Thunchan:

Thunchan is my inspiration. I believe Malayalam as a language has not progressed from where he had left it. His works are also punaraakhyaanams, not paribhasha.

What else did you do by way of original writing:

I have published six books for children. Three are collections of stories, two novels, one kuttikkavithakal. One of my stories is a lesson in 4th standard Malayalam text.

Details on the book:
Neythiri, Sahitya Manjari Publications, Onakkur, Ernakulam. Price: Rs.180.
Contact the poet: kavibalendu@gmail.com

Muhammed Abdurahman in the Days of Malabar Rebellion

This is the third chapter of the biography of freedom fighter Muhammed Abdurahman. For the earlier chapters, see blog archives February and March, 2008.

AROUND NINE p.m. on August 19,1921, a special train carrying a contingent of 500 men, including 100 British troops, 150 armed reserve policemen and others left the Calicut Railway Station. The forces were led by Capt. Mc Enroy of the Royal Indian Army and the team included Malabar District Collector E. F. Thomas, District Superintendent of Police Hitchcock, and other officials. They were going towards the south, to the Mappila heartland to arrest rebel leaders and seize arms and ammunition. The authorities were expecting another outbreak of violence, and measures were in place to suppress it.

The Government had issued orders for the arrest of 29 senior leaders of the Khilafat Movement in Malabar, including Ali Musaliar, who was the chief musaliar at the Tirurangadi mosque. Born in 1861 at Nellikkuthu, a small village in Ernad, Ali Musaliar was a well-known and highly respected ulema leader. He had worked for seven years in Mecca and later on at Kavarathi in Lakshadweep islands before he came to Tirurangadi in 1907. The army surrounded the mosque and arrested a number of persons, but they could not get Ali Musaliar. As rumours spread that the mosque had been defiled and religious leaders arrested, enraged Muslims started moving to Tirurangadi in large numbers, with whatever weapons they could get hold of. Nahara, a special percussion instrument used in wars was sounded, announcing to the Khilafat volunteers and members of the Mappila community that the army had arrived. The mosques were flooded with zealous crowds, ready to die in battle. A group of Mappilas who marched from Tanur to Tirurangadi was stopped by the police. In the encounter, 20 Mappilas died and 30 injured. On the Government side, two British officials and an Indian constable were killed. By the morning of the next day, August 21, the rebellion was raging. Ali Musaliar was declared the caliph of the liberated areas of Malabar in defiance of the colonial raj.

As news of the army movement spread, Mohammed Abdurahman sent a messenger to Ali Musaliar, urging him not to resist the army and to make every effort to maintain peace. He expected the army to march to Pukkottur, where a few days ago, the Mappilas had had a violent confrontation with the police and forced them to retreat.

Abdurahman was agitated by the news. As soon as the train left the station, he rushed to the KPCC office at Chalappuram along with E. Moidu Maulavi to report the developments and to plan urgent action to stop imminent bloodshed.

K P Kesava Monon, then KPCC secretary, writes in his memoirs: Around 10 p.m. on August 19, Mohammed Abdurahman came to see me at the Congress office. He said a military train had left for the south an hour ago but he was not sure where it was headed. He wanted me to go to Pukkottur, where he thought the military had gone, to stop any untoward incident and pacify the people…But I thought it would be pointless starting to Pukkottur at that time and urged him to come back to me with more specific information.

It was evident that Kesava Menon was not willing to take the risk. Moidu Maulavi has recorded that he had told Abdurahman that it was unsafe for him, a Hindu, to go to Putkkottur. Moidu Maulavi sarcastically notes that when they went to the KPCC office around nine p.m, Kesava Menon had locked up the house and had even removed the board of the KPCC. It was only after Abdurahman shouted loudly that he came out to meet them. Historian K.N. Panikkar feels that it was not his personal safety that Kesava Menon was worried about when he refused to go with them to Pukkottur. He was afraid that the Mappilas would not listen to him as they had little faith in Congress leadership. The rift that divided the Congress leadership had already developed. The dominant leadership was acutely aware of it.

Though Kesava Menon refused to act, Mohammed Abdurahman decided to go immediately. He told Moidu Maulavi and others that when their brothers were being shot dead by the army, he could not stay back.
Mohammed Abdurahman, Moidu Maulavi and Ponmadath Moideen Koya left for Pukkottur that night in a horse-drawn carriage. A few miles along that journey, the horse ran amuck. They had to leave the horse and travel in a bullock cart. They reached Kondotty at nine in the morning. At Kondotty they came to know that the military had gone not to Pukkottur, but to Tirurangadi. They heard about the developments in Tirurangadi and decided to rush to Pukkottur, a nerve-centre of the Khilafat Movement, where the Mappilas had been preparing to face the British Army.

Abdurahman had reasons to worry. He knew the Mappilas were making preparations for an armed conflict. He had stopped a group of Mappilas from a violent conflict with the police three weeks ago at Ponnani. The Khilafat volunteers who came there for an ulema meeting in a charged atmosphere had clashed with the police, and the situation was brought under control by the intervention of Abdurahman and K Kelappan who rushed to the scene.

Abdurahman and others reached Pukkottur by noon. A big crowd had gathered, brandishing arms, ready to march to Tirurangadi to seek revenge. Rumours spread that the Tirurangadi mosque had been destroyed, that the sacred jaram at Mambram had been defiled, and that Ali Musaliar had called for jehad against the foreign rulers.
Abdurahman climbed on top of the bullock-cart he arrived in, and addressed the gathering. He said he too would be happy to lay down his life for a sacred cause, but it was futile to fight the powerful British Army, which was well equipped to crush them. But his words were falling on deaf ears. Desperate to stop the crowds from moving to Tirurangadi, Abdurahman rushed to Manjeri in the same cart to seek the support of senior Congress leader K. Madhavan Nair.

Madhavan Nair had been released from the prison only three day ago. He was arrested in Kozhikode on February 15 along with Yakub Hassan and two other Congress leaders for defying prohibitory orders. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Released on August 17, a huge pubic reception had been arranged for him at the Kozhikode beach. The next day, Madhavan Nair had reached his home at Manjeri, a small town in the middle of Ernad which had become a political volcano on the verge of explosion.

Madhavan Nair remembers the eventful day in his book Malabar Kalapam: It was afternoon and I was sitting on the verandah of my house. Suddenly a huge cloud gathered in the sky and completely covered the sun. A fierce storm started and then darkness fell along with a tremendous downpour. As the rain started pelting, I saw a bullock-cart coming in my direction and two persons jumped out of it: the first was Mohammed Abdurahman, secretary of the Kerala Khilafat committee…

Madhavan Nair had already held a meeting with some Pukkottur Mappila leaders that morning. On the day of his release, M.P. Narayana Menon, secretary of Ernad Congress committee, met him at Kozhikode and urged him to go to Pukkottur. As he reached home, he sent word to Pukkottur requesting the leaders to meet him. He saw that the Mappila leaders of Pukkottur were divided, one group willing to listen to him and the other aggressive and defiant. They told him that arrest warrants had been issued against them. “If you are arrested the police may take you in a car, but if we are caught our bones will be crushed,” they said. He reasoned with them patiently to convince them that violence would only bring more disaster.

Madhavan Nair recalls that Abdurahman was sad and agitated. There was not even a moment to lose. They alerted M.P. Narayana Menon and all the three rushed again to Pukkottur in a last-ditch effort to stop the Mappilas from taking up arms.
They reached Pukkottur around six p.m. More than 200 people armed with swords, guns and knives had collected there. They were getting ready to march to Tirurangadi.
Madhavan Nair’s speech to the crowd there was fervent and emotionally charged. He told the crowd to stop their violent plans, and to drop their weapons. Violence would only bring disastrous consequences to them and their families, to the freedom movement and Khilafat, and to the Hindu-Muslim unity forged over the years. He tried to quell the rumours that the Tirurangadi mosque had been destroyed. Even if it had actually happened, what was the use of taking up arms? “I urge upon you in the name of God to drop your arms and remain peaceful. If you are willing to listen to me, I will be the first man to face the British bullets standing in front of you”, he told them.

Abdurahman told them that resorting to violence was against the interests of the Khilafat Movement. It was also against Islam. The appeals by leaders had brought some temporary reprieve, but they knew they had lost the battle to win their hearts. They decided to return. Abdurahman, Moidu Maulavi and Moideen Koya returned to Kozhikode and Madhavan Nair and Narayana Menon left for Manjeri. K N Panikkar says that it was a wrong decision not to stay back; as leaders, they were abandoning the crowd to their fate.

The next day Abdurahman reached Kozhikode. By that time the rebellion had spread.

Mohammed Abdurahman and senior leaders of the Congress and Khilfaft movements made two attempts to return to the rebel zone in the next few days, but their visits had no impact on the rebels. They had already established their own rule and Variankunnath Kunhahammed Haji, who had been declared as the king, had started issuing passports for travel in the rebel zone. Their first visit to Ernad took place on August 21. The leaders, including K.P. Kesava Menon, U. Gopala Menon, Mohamed Abdurahman and E. Moidu Maulavi, encountered teams of Mappilas cutting trees to put up roadblocks; people return with booty after looting government offices and courts. According to Kesava Menon, they had to walk through remote routes and they returned after visiting Kondotty and Tirurangadi, without meeting Ali Musaliar and other leaders of the rebellion. On their return journey that night, they found a bridge being destroyed at Ramanattukara. They had to travel by the Chaliyar River in a boat to reach Kozhikode.

The second trip was on August 26. Martial law had already been in force, the military had taken over the entire region and entry to the rebel zones was restricted. Special permission from the district collector and martial law administrators was required for entrance. There were 24 members in the team led by KPCC secretary Kesava Menon and Khilafat Committee secretary Mohammed Abdurahman. Kesava Menon describes this trip and their meeting with Ali Musaliar in his autobiography.

The KPCC had sent a letter to the District Collector Thomas, requesting his permission to enter the rebel zone with a message of peace, urging rebel leaders to surrender. The permission was granted two days later and the Congress activists wearing khadi dress and cap left for Ttirurangadi in six vehicles. They were stopped at Feroke bridge where the military was camping. The railway station there had been converted into a military camp. G.R.F. Tottenham, the commanding officer, gave them permission, with a note on the letter: Pass 24 non-cops [non-cooperatives] from Calicut taluk to Ernad along the Feroke bridge.

From Feroke, they walked towards Tirurangadi. They saw that the railway lines had been removed, roads had been blocked with huge trees, and people hid in deserted houses keeping vigil against the police and the military. They were members of Ali Musaliar’s guerilla forces and they recognized the Congress and khilafat volunteers. Since the rebels were roaming about and were likely to shoot anyone found suspicious, they sent a messenger to Tirurangadi alerting the rebels about the arrival of the Congress leaders from Kozhikode.

It was evening when the group arrived at Tirurangadi. At the Khilafat office, Ali Musaliar arrived to meet them. Kesava Menon, Abdurahman, Gopala Menon and Moidu Maulavi went to the office room for a discussion with the Musaliar. Kesava Menon and Abdurahman urged Ali Musaliar and his followers to surrender, to save the people from British retaliation. They would certainly meet with punishment, but they argued that for the safety of majority of innocent people, it was better to avoid bloodshed.

Ali Musaliar said he could decide only after consulting his lieutenants, Lavakkutty and Kunhalavi. But Kunhalavi told Kesava Menon that there was no question of surrender. They were determined to fight to death.

As the discussions continued, the followers of Ali Musaliar were restive as they suspected the motives of Congress leaders. Sensing danger, the team decided to take leave. That was the final attempt at making peace. Travelling through rebel zones, they returned to Kozhikode, taking a pregnant woman who was trapped there with them to safety.

In the next few days, the rebellion spread to the entire South Malabar region. The armed Mappilas attacked police stations, looted treasuries, destroyed Government offices and set fire to revenue records. Railway lines were removed, telecom links damaged, bridges destroyed and roads blocked. Within a week, the entire region was controlled by the rebels. Even the Chief Secretary reported to the Government that South Malabar, except the Palakkad taluka, was under rebel administration. Government machinery was at a standstill. Courts and Government offices were deserted, and police and revenue authorities withdrew to safety.

Government retaliation was brutal. Three squads of the Leinster Regiment had already been alerted. On August 21 the military commander Captain Mc Enroy took over the administration from the District Collector, Thomas. Martial law was declared all over Malabar on August 26. Special forces set to work to repair the roads, rails and bridges, and reinstate communication lines. A marine unit also arrived in HMS Comus to help army operations. The rebels had a direct confrontation with the army at Pukkottur on August 26 and again at Tirurangadi on August 31. This resulted in huge casualties. Later, they avoided direct conflict and took to guerilla warfare. As the military found it difficult to face the changed tactics of the rebels in an alien terrain, fresh forces were requisitioned; the Gorkhas and Garhwalis specializing in jungle warfare arrived and brutally quelled the rebels.

The army’s tactics can be seen from the way the men of the Dorset Regiment ran over the villagers of Melmury on October 25. They forced the Mappila women, children and old men out of their homes, bayonetted and killed a number of them. They set fire to houses on the suspicion that they had supported the rebels.

The rebels had started surrendering by late October. By the first week of December, as many as 27,000 Mappilas had laid down their arms and surrendered or killed. They included Ali Musaliar, Variankunnath Kunhahammed Haji, Chembrassery Thangal, Konnara Thangal, Seethikoya Thangal and others. Around 10,000 people were killed in the course of the rebellion and 50,000 were arrested or surrendered to the army. More than 14,000 were court-martialled and either sentenced to death or transported for life.

On the Government side, too, casualties were heavy. Around 50 special armed police officials were killed and 126 mortally wounded; 24 reserved policemen died and 30 wounded. Eight army officers including one colonel were killed; 200 men were either killed or seriously wounded. Hundreds of Government offices, including eight revenue offices, 10 registration offices and 53 local administration offices were looted or destroyed and around 1000 Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam in the course of the six months of rebellion.

The rebellion had a long-term impact on the social and political life of Malabar. It seriously damaged the atmosphere of communal harmony that existed in the region while forcing upon the ordinary Mappilas extreme levels of hardship. A large number of them faced jail terms or death, and others had to pay huge amounts of money as penalty for losses caused during the rebellion. The Government came up with a Mappila Scheme, known as the Andaman Scheme, as a kind of a “final solution” to the rebel threat. L Large-scale deportation and resettlement of the Mappilas in the distant Andaman Islands was planned. One of the most significant consequences was the setback to the nationalist political movement as the Mappilas who lost their faith in the Congress Party drifted away from it and were strongly attracted by the Muslim League and its two-nation theory in later years.

Mohammed Adburahman steadfastly remained a nationalist and had to carry on a fight against the divisive politics that crept into his community in the aftermath of the rebellion. It was a hard battle for him. On the one hand, he felt the Congress leadership was not fair towards Muslims. He had even bitterly complained that the relief efforts launched by the Congress leadership in the wake of the rebellion were addressed only to the Hindus. At the same time, he felt a strong disagreement with the policy of isolation and division that the Muslim League stood for in national politics in the years to come.

(Courtesy: Muhammed Abdurahman, a biography in the national biography series, National Book Trust-India, New Delhi.)

Muhammed Abdurahman as Khilafat Secretary

This is chapter two of the biography of freedom fighter Muhammed Abdurahman. For the earlier chapter, see blog archives, February 2008.

Mohammed Abdurahman was born in a traditional Muslim family at Kodungallur in 1898. In the school records, the date of birth is recorded as the first of Edavam, the month of the onset of the monsoon season in Kerala, in the Malayalam year 1072. The practice of recording the time of birth was not widespread those days, and parents often were reminded of it only when they took their children to school for admission. Abdurahman was the first son of Karukappadath Punnachalil Abdurahman and Ayyaril Kochayisumma, a rich and conservative family at Azhikode in the Kodungallur taluk of the erstwhile Cochin state. His parents called him Kunhimuhammed. When he went out of Kerala for his higher education, he came to be known as Mohammed Abdurahman.

Kodungallur had an important place in the history of Malabar . Its beaches are still vibrant with the memories of thousands of years’ relations with the outside world, across the Arabian Sea. Its historical eminence is recorded even in the Bible. It was known as Muziris in ancient records. The place became the capital of the Second Cera Empire and it was then known as Mahodayapuram, according to local historians. It was a well known port; the ancient Jews, the early Christians and the first Muslims came to the land then widely known as Malabar through the port of Kodungallur. It was a major port of call in the east for ancient Roman ships, which came in search of spices like pepper and ginger. Recent archaeological excavations in the area have proved this rich and long association with the western world. Evidence of the rich and colourful past is found in magnificent churches and mosques that the Christians and Muslims built in Kodungallur as they entered, to a hearty welcome from local chieftains who were eager to develop these contacts because they brought flourishing trade, without threatening the peace. According to historians, the first Muslim settlements in Kerala were at Kodungallur; the first mosque was built there by Malik Ibn-Dinar who came in the early years of the rise of Islam in West Asia. It was from here that the last Cheraman Perumal, king of Kerala, embraced Islam and set sail to Mecca.

Abdurahman’s family had a rich folklore of its own heroic past. The young Kunhimohammed imbibed tales of heroism as a young child. This family, according to tradition, could be traced to Kalanthan Pocker, of the Marakkar family of Kottakkal, famous as the naval chieftains of the Zamorin of Kozhikode. The family had fought the Portuguese in famous sea battles, but weakened by war, the Zamorin permitted the Portuguese to build a fort in Calicut in 1529. The Marakkars continued the resistance, but the alliance of a weak Zamorin and the powerful Portuguese resulted in the capture and execution of the last Kunhali Marakkar. The families of the Marakkars were forced to leave the country to escape persecution at the hands of the Portuguese and the king. Kalanthan Pocker was one of those who left home and family to save himself from the wrath of the king. He was welcomed by the king of Kodungallur, who was not on good terms with the Zamorin. With his support and land endowments, Kalanthan founded his new home, known as Karukappadam in Eriyad village in the taluka of Kodungallur.

Abdurahan’s parents had three sons and three daughters. His brother Kunhikkomu became active in the Cochin Prajamandalam, a political movement for responsible governance in the Cochin state. His youngest brother, Ebrahim, came to Malabar to work with him in the national liberation movement.

Unlike the Muslims in the interior who were extremely poor and illiterate, the comparatively affluent families in the coastal belt, were the descendants of the early settlers who had rich land endowments and trade-related prosperity. They also enjoyed chances for better education. Eventually Kodungallur became a major centre for social reform in the Muslim community. Many of the Kodungallur Muslims had travelled widely. They were exposed to the goings on in the outside world, and some members of Abdurahman’s family, his uncles Kuttikkammu Haji and Kunholan Haji, for instance, had been to Mecca and Medina on the Hajj pilgrimage. Among the important religious leaders who helped Kodungallur become a centre of Muslim reform efforts was Sheikh Muhammed Hamdani Thangal who established the Lajnathul Hamdani Sabha and Lajnathul Islam Sangham in the area as part of his educational and social reform efforts. A scholar in Arabic, the Thangal set up a school in the area on the model of the Mohammedan School in Aligarh. It imparted religious as well as modern education to young students. Abdurahman first went to this school and then joined the Azhikode Primary School in the third standard. His name is entered in the documents as K.A. Mohammed. There were only five Muslim students in the class, and all of them were Abdurahman’s relatives. Among them was K. M. Seethi, an important figure in the Muslim reforms movement in later years. Seethi was Mohammed Abdurahman’s friend and colleague in the reform efforts in the Aikya Sangham, a movement for Muslim unity which was built up as part of their social reforms efforts. They later parted ways, Abddurahman emerging as a staunch nationalist leader and the president of the Provincial Congress Committee while Seethi became a founder-leader of the Muslim League in Kerala.

After a year at the Azhikode Primary School, young Mohammed went to the high school at Kodungallur. In the early years of the First World War, he left high school and went to the religious institution, the Madrassa Islamia at Vaniyambady, where he learnt his first lessons in public life as captain of the volunteer corps at the South India education conference of 1916. Sir Akbar Hydari, the president of the conference, praised his leadership skills. The conference was a big success. Mohammed continued his friendship with Sir Akbar Hydari in later years, this gentleman guided him in his studies for entry into the coveted Indian Civil Service. While he was at Madrassa Islamia, Mohammed lost his father. He was 16 years old.

An incident at the Madrassa Islamia had a profound influence on the life of Mohammed. It brought to light his qualities as a leader: his will and determination; his refusal to compromise with injustice and his willingness to accept the consequences of his actions. Though a small incident, it caused the young man to quit college and organize the first protest march of his life. The Madrassa Islamia, situated in a Muslim-dominated, Tamil-speaking town had many Malayalees and Tamils as students. An unfortunate rift developed between the young students, and divided them on the lines of language. When the headmaster of the institution, Qureishi, took a view in favour of the Malayalee students, he incurred the anger of the management, and the dispute led to his eventual resignation. Mohammed, a leading student, decided to leave the institution in protest. It was at Madrassa Islamia that Mohammed changed his name to Mohammed Abdurahman.

Leaving the religious institution at Vaniyambady, Mohammed Abdurahman went home. As a private student he scored high marks in the matriculation examinations. Then he went to the Basel Mission College in Kozhikode, a famous educational institution established by Christian missionaries from Basel in Germany, where he spent one year as an intermediate student.

It was in this period that Mohammed took the initiative to set up a social organization in Kodungallur, the Cochin Muslim Education Society. Promotion of education among the backward community of Muslims was its professed aim. Along with some friends, Mohammed petitioned the Cochin Diwan for educational concessions for Muslim students in the principality. It was a successful venture in public activity as the Diwan was pleased to order annual scholarships for Muslim boys and two-rupee monthly scholarships for Muslim girls.

Though Mohammed Abdurahman was interested in social work and concerned about the backwardness of his own community, he had never before shown any interest in the gathering storm in national politics, following the First World War. Indian aspirations had been completely ignored, although the national leadership had supported the British Empire in its war efforts. Though Home Rule League activities had been confined to the drawing rooms of a few upper caste lawyers in Malabar, it was a big force under Annie Besant in Madras, where Abdurahman had reached in the wake of the War as a senior F.A. student at the Madras Mohammedan College.

E. Moidu Maulavi, his life-long friend and comrade in the freedom struggle, in his autobiography wrote: “I knew Abdurahman from the days of the Home Rule movement. He was a student at the Christian College and I was at the Darul-Uloom Madrassa. We used to meet then, and he had shown no interest in politics at all. Often his friends teased him, calling him a bookworm…”

The metamorphosis of the bookworm, hidden under books in his Victoria Hostel room, into a colourful political butterfly was sudden and unpredictable: it happened in the span of one night.

Mohammed Abdurahman, under the guidance from Sir Akbar Hydari, had joined the Madras Presidency College to pursue his B.A. (Hons). It was much in demand as a stepping stone to the ICS. Mohammed was a bright and energetic student. In those days in Madras, he had already learnt Urdu, Tamil, Arabic and German. He was quite at home with his mother-tongue Malayalam, and English.
K. Muhammed, another Malayalee student at the Presidency College, who was Abdurahman’s close friend, keenly followed political developments. Muhammed persuaded him to join the national movement, quit the college and jump onto ranks of the Non-Cooperation Movement. The friend was ardent in his speeches at the hostel room, he asserted his determination to leave college and join the struggle himself. He challenged Abdurahman to follow him in the arduous journey for freedom.

Abdurahman, however, was unmoved. He was keen on the ICS, and when his friend persisted with his impassioned speeches, he listened with amusement, but never left off his studies. Then one day Muhammed brought a book, Khilafat and Jazeerathul Arab, by a young nationalist, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Abdurahman’s first biographer, T. Muhammed Yusuf, describes the scene dramatically:
“Read this, even if you don’t agree with what it says,” said his friend.
Abdurahman took it, lazily looked through the pages and kept it aside. But that night, he was up till the wee hours, quite absorbed by the book.The powerful words of Maulana Azad transformed him completely. The young man was unable to sleep. The next morning, as his friend walked in, Mohammed Abdurahman declared:
“Yes, my friend, you are absolutely right. It is the time for struggle, and let us quit college tomorrow.”
Mohammed could not believe his ears. He had never expected this bookworm friend to be so transformed.
“But…” he faltered. He said he had to write to his parents, get permission from his father.
Mohammed Abdurahman said, “Whatever you decide, I am quitting college and going back home tomorrow.”

The very next day Mohammed Abdurahman submitted a letter to the principal of Presidency College, announcing his decision to quit studies as he was following the call of the national movement for non-cooperation with British authorities. This was in November 1920. His mother, close friends and relatives made every effort to dissuade him, but he would not relent.

As for his nationalist friend, he never took the step. He continued his studies at Presidency College, managed to get a scholarship from the British Government, and pursued his studies in England. He returned to India as a senior officer in the Education Department. Later on, Mohammed Abdurahman had a meeting with his old friend; it turned out to be an unhappy reunion.

After leaving the Presidency College, Abdurahman decided to join the Jamia Millia Islamia set up as part of the nationalist movement. Maulana Muhammed Ali was the vice chancellor and eminent nationalist leaders like Maulana Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Qwaja Abdul Majeed and others served as instructors.

Abdurahman could spend very little time in Jamia as he had to return to Malabar under instructions from Maulana Muhammed Ali. The Khilafat Movement had become powerful there, and Congress leaders were finding it difficult to control the Mappilas who were restive against British authorities. They needed a leader who could communicate with the Mappilas, identify with them. This onerous responsibility fell on the young shoulders of Mohammed Abdurahman.
The Congress leadership in Malabar was predominantly upper-caste and Hindu. Most of them were practicing lawyers, while the large majority of the people attracted to the Non- Cooperation Movement were Mappilas. They were poor peasants, and their main concern was the safety of the Khilafat. Unlike in the past when the Congress meetings were thinly attended, there was huge popular enthusiasm. The Manjeri conference of the Congress held in April 1920 had an unprecedented attendance. A large gathering of Muslim peasants arrived in small processions, K Madhavan Nair, who became secretary of the KPCC in 1921, recalls in Malabar Kalapam (The Malabar Riot).

The authorities as well as the Congress leadership were aware of the dangers of the Mappilas turning restive. The had a long history of violent confrontation with British authorities in Malabar. When Gandhiji and Shoukat Ali came to Kozhikode in 1920 with a call for non-cooperation, leaders like M P Narayana Menon, the secretary of the Ernad Taluk Congress Committee, had expressed reservations about exciting the Mappilas. M. P. Narayana Menon, according to his biographer, met Gandhiji at Kozhikode and apprised him of the nature of Ernad moplahs and the inherent danger of exciting them without proper training in non-violent methods. Janab Abdurahman (then a junior Congress Khilafat worker and disciple of Mohammed Ali) supported these arguments “but we were outnumbered and outgunned,” says M P Narayana Menon . Menon was arrested under the martial law on 10 September 1921, and transported for life. However, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment later, following a public outcry.

The local Congress leaders were aware of the dangers of a violent Mappila agitation. They had invited Yakub Hassan, a prominent Khilafat leader from Madras and a former Member of the Madras Legislative Council, to visit Malabar to address the Mappilas. Though Yakub Hassan arrived in Kozhikode on February 15,1921, he could not address any meeting, as the district authorities had promulgated prohibitory orders. The authorities arrested Yakub Hasan, U. Gopala Menon, K. Madhavan Nair and P. Moideen Koya, all of them important Congress leaders, on charges of violating prohibitory orders. They were sentenced to six months imprisonment and sent to Kannur jail. The arrest of Yakub Hassan infuriated the Mappilas and they came in large numbers to the city in defiance of the prohibitory orders. A violent confrontation occurred with the police in Kozhikode beach.

Madhavan Nair was the secretary of the KPCC. Since the situation was turning very grave in Malabar, K P Kesava Menon, a lawyer in Madras, returned to Kozhikode and took over as secretary of the KPCC. An energetic leader was sought to handle Khilafat affairs. Mohammed Abdurahman was asked by his mentor, Maulana Mohammed Ali, to go to Kozhikode immediately to take over as the secretary of the Khilafat committee there.
Kesava Menon writes in his memoirs: “Mohammed Abdurahman was a student in Aligarh when the Non-Cooperation Movement was launched. Dropping his academic studies, he soon arrived in Kozhikode to take part in the Congress, Khilafat activities. He was a tall man, with a heavy moustache and energetic ways. His contribution to the Congress and Khilafat movement during those days was immense.”

In the brief period he had spent in Aligarh, Abdurahman had become close to many national leaders. He had also attended the Nagpur session of the AICC, along with K. Madhavan Nair. At the Nagpur session, Madhavan Nair brought about a resolution that all the three parts of Kerala—Malabar, Cochin and Travancore—be considered one state, and a united Provincial Congress committee be set up. The resolution was supported by Mohammed Abdurahman and adopted by the AICC. The same year, the All-Kerala conference of the Congress was held at Oottappalam. Madhavan Nair was elected the first secretary of the KPCC.

As soon as Mohammed Abdurahman arrived in Kozhikode, an office was arranged at Palayam in the heart of the city for the Khilafat activities. The Malabar District Khilafat Committee was reconstituted, with Kattilassery Muhammed Musaliar, a well known Khilafat leader in Ernad, as president. Mohammed Abdurahman became the secretary and T. Hassan Koya Molla was the treasurer.

Among the active Khilafat leaders were E Moidu Maulavi, Ponmadath Moideen Koya, (leaders in Kozhikode); Thaliyil Muhammed Kutty Musaliar alias K M Maulavi, Ali Musaliar, P M Pookkoya Thangal (leaders in the Ernad& Valluvanad taluks); K V Kunhippocker Haji, Pottayil Kunhahammad, K Koyatty Maulavi (based in Tirurangadi); and others. Kattilassery Muhammed Musaliar, who steadfastly exhorted his co-religionists to eschew violence, stood firm in his resolve for peaceful agitation. He went underground after the suppression of the rebellion, and reached Vellore from where he escaped to the French Protectorate of Pondicherry. Moidu Maulavi was arrested in September 1921 and released in 1922 after the revolt was suppressed. Ali Musaliar, who became the leader of the armed resistance in Tirurangadi, surrendered to the British forces and was later hanged to death at the Coimbatore jail. K.M. Maulavi escaped to Kodungallur in Cochin state to avoid capture. K Koyatty Maulavi, who witnessed the incidents, was one of the first to write an account of the rebellion.

Abdurahman and his friends started organizing Khilafat committees, trying to keep them firmly on the non-violent path. During this period he established a nationalist school at Chirakkal in North Malabar with the help of the Central Khilafat Committee.

But tension rose and a violent conflict between the ordinary people of the Malabar villages and the British Army appeared inevitable, lacking only the first spark to begin the conflagration. Rebellion engulfed the region for six months resulting in a bloody battle. Those months saw the young and inexperienced Abdurahman emerging as a powerful leader, a man who refused to bow before the elemental furies of his own people as well as the organized terrors of the British Empire.

(From Muhammed Abdurahman, biography published by National Book Trust-India, November,2006.)