7.3 Moplah Rebellion 1841-1920
1840s - 1850s
- Mopilah descendents of Arab traders, converted lower caste Hindus, slave case.
- Jenmi recognised as absolute owners of land, right to evict tenants.
- Reduced Kanamdar (tenure holders) and cultivators to tenants and leaseholders.
- Imar Qazi, Sayyid Alavi Tangal, Sayyid Fazal Pookkoya etc led.
- Mosques became centres of mobilisation.
- Centres were Manjeri, Kulathur, South malabar and Mattannur.
Moplah Rebellion (1921)
- tenants rebelled against majority Hindu landlords against lack of security of tenure, renewal fees, high rents, oppressive extractions of landlords.
- Manjheri association of the Congress supported the tenants stirred by Khilafat struggles.
- arrest of local priest from a mosque provided the spark that was needed.
- Hindu landlords, govt courts, police stations, treasuries etc were looted/attacked burning records.
- Martial law was declared and Hindu landlords were pressurised to give away names of rebels.
- The movt soon took communal overtones.
- Jenmi landlords backed by police, law courts and revenue officials tightened their grip over Moplah peasants.
- DN Dhanagare argues that burning the bodies of the peasant to demoralise them incited the peasants to retaliate.
- Defiling of temples by peasants gave it an anti-Hindu turn and after 1896 it took communal orientation to what was a class struggle.
PYQs
Mopla Rebellion in Malabar (1841-1920)
- "The roots of Moplah discontent were clearly agrarian…." Comment. [1986, 20m]
- tenants rebelled against majority Hindu landlords against lack of security
- The roots of the Moplah uprising (1921) were clearly agrarian. Do you agree? [1990, 60m]
- tenants rebelled against majority Hindu landlords against lack of security
- The 1921 Moplah rebellion was "in essence an expression of long-standing agrarian discontent which was intensified by the religious and ethnic identity." Comment. [2000, 20m]
- tenants rebelled against majority Hindu landlords against lack of security
- Was the Moplah Rebellion in Malabar an expression of anti-landlord and anti-foreign discontent? Discuss. [2018, 20 Marks]
- tenants rebelled against majority Hindu landlords against lack of security