While the Union Government has announced to tag Paika Bidroha 1817 as the First War of Independence, some historians in Kerala have opposed the move, according to reports.
However, the Odisha Government and the Paika Rebellion propagandists of the State are yet to react to this.
The Kerala historians have stated that Kerala had witnessed a number of minor and major struggles against foreign powers even before the Sepoy Mutiny 1857 and Paik rebellion 1817. A few of them have even wanted that the tag of First War of Independence be accorded to the ‘Attingal Revolt,’ an agitation staged by locals in the then princely State of Venad against the East India Company in 1721. As many as 133 English East India Company soldiers were killed during the revolt, they said.
They said the struggles led by legendary king of Malabar, Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja against the British during the period 1795-1805, the strike by Nair Brigade in Travancore in 1804 and the agitation led by Travancore diwan Veluthambi Dalawa in 1809 were some of the uprisings against foreign powers witnessed by Kerala.
It is reported that Kerala’s ‘History Protection Council, is planning to submit a memorandum to the State Government to press the Centre to declare the ‘Attingal Revolt’ as the first freedom struggle instead of ‘Paika Bidroha.’
Eminent historian and former chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), M G S Narayanan said facts should be examined before including Odisha’s “Paika Bidroha as the first war of independence” in school textbooks as announced by HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar recently.