As a prelude to its original demand for the creation of a separate Malabar State incorporating the regions of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political outfit of the extremist organisation Popular Front Of India, launched a month-long agitation on Wednesday in Malappuram asking for the setting up of a new district with Tirur as district headquarters.
According to a release issued by the SDPI, the next 30 days would see party activists staging demonstrations in front of all Taluk offices in the district calling for the immediate creation of the new district. The Muslim Youth League in its annual State conference held last year had declared that the party would launch an agitation for the creation of separate Malabar State bifurcating Kerala and adding some districts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
It may be remembered that Malappuram district was formed in 1969 by the then United Front Government led by the CPI(M) in which the Muslim League, CPI and some regional outfits were the constituents. The Muslim League had joined the alliance on the condition that a separate Muslim district would be formed as a quid pro quo.
The year 2021 being the centenary year of the Moplah Rebellion of 1921, an event dear to the Islamic outfits in the State. Though it was launched as an agitation against Britain demanding the restoration of the Khalifa of Turkey, the struggle turned out to be a pogrom in which thousands of local residents belonging to a particular community were annihilated for their refusal to undergo religious conversion.
“We have been subjected to the worst kind of treatment during the last five decades and we want speedy economic development of this region. The formation of a new district with Tirur as head quarters is the only solution for the same,” said the SDPI release.
Tirur is the birth place of Thunchathu Ramanujan Ezuthachan, the father of Malayalam language who authored Aadhyatma Ramayanam. But the local body controlled by conservative Islamists have not allowed to instal a statue of the Father of the Malayalam language in his place of birth.
Leaders of the SDPI called on P Ubaidulla, MLA and submitted a memorandum demanding the formation of the new district.
Sadiq Naduthodi, vice president of SDPI told reporters that the agitation would be continued till July 16.