The Moplah rebellion of 1921 against British and local landlords in Kerala’s Malappuram has come under controversy with the RSS seeking to see it as against Hindus in the region. An RSS-affiliated think tank demanded on Wednesday that the Moplah Rebellion of 1921 be termed as a “genocide and a memorial be set up”.
The Government should build a “genocide memorial” to mark the 1921 Malabar killings that took place 100 years ago in Kerala’s Malappuram and mark September 25 as the “Malabar Hindu Genocide Day”, the all-India convenor of Prajna Pravah, J Nandakumar, was quoted as saying by News agency Press Trust of India (PTI).
He maintained that the Sangh had been opposing the recognition of the Malabar killings as part of an uprising against the British or landlords, he said it was “targeted killings of Hindus”.
“Annie Besant and C Sankaran Nair, who was the president of the Indian National Congress, called it a genocide. But after 1975, it was illegally deemed as part of the freedom struggle,” Nandakumar was quoted as saying by agency.
He said the Kerala government has not considered their demand, but they are hopeful that the Centre will look into it.
The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) formed a three-member committee recently to study the Moplah Rebellion.
The panel reportedly recommended removal of several hundred names from the list of the victims.
The RSS-backed organisation will be organising an exhibition and a memorial programme for the victims in Delhi as well as in every block in Kerala on September 26.
A set of historians, most of them from the left, have studied The Moplah rebellion of 1921 was an uprising by poor peasants against ‘crushing revenue burden’ imposed against them by British and landlords , majority of them being Hindus.
The RSS is now wanting to study the ‘rebellion’ from not strictly as anti-colonial or anti-tax revolt by the peasants and favours a fresh assessment of the famous incident in the British era.