The Ministry of Culture and the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is set to remove the Moplah Rebellion leaders Variamkunnath Kunhamed Haji, Ali Musaliar, and 387 other so-called “Moplah martyrs” from the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle.
The dictionary is jointly published by the Ministry of Culture and the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and after a three-member panel, set up the ICHR reviewed the entries in the fifth volume of the dictionary, it has reportedly stated that the 1921 rebellion was never part of the independence struggle but was a fundamentalist religious movement focused on forced conversion of Hindus to Islam.
The panel noted that none of the slogans raised by the freedom fighters was in favour of nationalism and anti-British in content but it was an elaborate religious riot in the name of Islam and the Moplah rebellion was an attempt to establish a Caliphate.
According to The Hindu newspaper, if the Moplah Muslims had succeeded, a Caliphate would have been established in the Malabar region India would have ended up losing that part from its territory.
The panel further concluded that Haji was a rioter who established a Sharia court and beheaded a large number of Hindus because they were non-believers.
The committee also revealed that a large number of alleged “Moplah martyrs,” who were awaiting trial died due to diseases such as cholera and natural causes and cannot be treated as martyrs and only a few were executed by the government after a court trial, the panel noted.
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