A three-member committee of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), which was formed to review the names of “freedom fighters” from 1857 to 1947, is said to have considered removing the 387 names of “Moplah martyrs” of 1921.
The ICHR, which comes under the ministry of education, reviewed the entries in the fifth volume of ‘The Dictionary of Martyrs, India’s Freedom Struggle from 1857 to 1947’, which was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.
It has considered removing the names of prominent Moplah rebels, including Variyan Kunnathu Kunjahammed Haji and Ali Musliyar for being associated with the Khilafat Movement.
The Malabar rebellion or Moplah Riots began from August 20, 1921 to 1922 in Kerala by Muslim tenants to resist British colonial rule and local Hindu landlords. The British were drawing legitimacy for their rule by giving feudal Hindus positions of authority. The Hindus who supported British Rule were fought against. The uprising led to the loss of around 10,000 lives, including 2,339 rebels, according to historical accounts.
The three-member panel has Omjee Upadhyay, director of ICHR, Himanshu Chaturvedi from Gorakhpur University, and CI Isaac from RSS Kerala, who works with J Nanda Kumar in Pragya Pravah.
Calling himself a “church-going RSS man,” retired professor Isaac said, “The manuscripts came before us and we found the names of fanatics listed as martyrs. The 1921 Moplah/Malabar Rebellion saw Hindus being murdered by people of another religion who were identified as martyrs in the dictionary.”
While talking about the two prominent Moplah rebels of 1921, he said, “The leadership was not for the cause of the country but for the religion. There were sharia courts, conversions and killings of Hindus. This cannot be considered for the dictionary of martyrs.”
He said the names will be removed in the next general council meeting “as they are the martyrs of their religion who fought for the Caliphate.”
The move has been condemned by MGS Narayanan, former chairman of ICHR from 2001-03. He said “this is nothing but politically motivated” and it also undermines ICHR’s credibility.
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