It would be well if Mr. Gandhi could be taken into Malabar to see with
his own eyes the ghastly horrors which have been created by the
preaching of himself and his "loved brothers," Muhommad and Shaukat Ali.
The Khilafat Raj is established there; on August 1, 1921, sharp to the
date first announced by Mr. Gandhi for the beginning of Swaraj and the
vanishing of British Rule, a Police Inspector was surrounded by Moplas,
revolting against that Rule. From that date onwards thousands of the
forbidden war-knives ware secretly made and hidden away, and on August
20, the rebellion broke out, Khilafat flags were hoisted on Police
Stations and Government offices. Strangely enough it was on August 25th
825 A.D. that Cherman Perumal ascended the throne of Malabar, the first
Zamorin, and from that day the Malayalam Era is dated that is still in
use; thus for 1096 years a Zamorin has ruled in Calicut, and the Rajas
are mostly Chiefs who for long centuries have looked to a Zamorin as
their feudatory Head. These are the men on whom the true pacification of
Malabar must ultimately depend. The crowded refugees will only return to
their devastated homes when they see those once more in safety in their
ancestral places. Their lands, which they keep under their own control,
are largely cultivated by Moplas, who are normally hardy, industrious
agricultural labourers.
Our correspondent has sent accounts of the public functions connected
with my hurried visit to Calicut and Palghat, and that which I wish to
put on record here is the ghastly misery which prevails, the
heart-breaking wretchedness which has been caused by the Mopla outbreak,
directly due to the violent and unscrupulous attacks on the Government
made by the Non-Co-operators and the Khilafatists and the statements
scattered broadcast, predicting the speedy disappearance of British
Rule, and the establishment of Swaraj, as proclaimed by the N.C.O. and
Khilafat Raj as understood by the Moplas from the declarations of the
Khilafatists. On that, there is no doubt whatever, so far as Malabar is
concerned. The message of the Khilafats, of England as the enemy of
Islam, of her coming downfall, and the triumph of the Muslims, had
spread, to every Mopla home. The harangues in the Mosques spread it
everywhere, and Muslim hearts were glad. They saw the N.C.O. preachers
appealing for help to their religious leaders, naturally identified the
two. The Government was Satanic, and Eblis, to the good Muslim, is to be
fought to the death. Mr. Gandhi may talk as he pleases about N.C.O.s
accepting no responsibility. It is not what they accept; it is what
facts demonstrate. He accepted responsibility for the trifling bloodshed
of Bombay. The slaughter in Malabar cries out his responsibility. N.C.O.
is dead in Malabar. But bitter hatred has arisen there, as fighting men
from the dragon's teeth of Theseus. That is the ghastly result of the
preaching of Gandhism, of N.C.O. of Khilafatism. Every one speaks of the
Khilafat Raj, and the one hope of the masses is in its crushing by the
strong arm of the Government. Mr. Gandhi asks the Moderates to compel
the Government to suspend hostilities, _i.e._, to let loose the wolves
to destroy what lives are left. The sympathy of the Moderates is not, I
make bold to say, with the murderers, the looters, the ravishers, who
have put into practice the teachings of paralysing the Government of the
N.C.O.'s, who have made "war on the Government" in their own way. How
does Mr. Gandhi like the Mopla spirit, as shown by one of the prisoners
in the Hospital, who was dying from the results of asphyxiation? He
asked the surgeon, if he was going to die, and surgeon answered that he
feared he would not recover. "Well, I'm glad I killed fourteen
infidels," said the Brave, God-fearing Mopla, whom Mr. Gandhi so much
admires, who "are fighting for what they consider as religion, and in a
manner they consider as religious." Men who consider it "religious" to
murder, rape, loot, to kill women and little children, cutting down
whole families, have to be put under restraint in any civilised society.
Mr. Gandhi was shocked when some Parsi ladies had their saries torn off,
and very properly, yet the God-fearing hooligans had been taught that it
was sinful to wear foreign cloth, and doubtless felt they were doing a
religious act; can he not feel a little sympathy for thousands of women
left with only rags, driven from home, for little children born of the
flying mothers on roads in refuge camps? The misery is beyond
description. Girl wives, pretty and sweet, with eyes half blind with
weeping, distraught with terror; women who have seen their husbands
hacked to pieces before their eye, in the way "Moplas consider as
religious"; old women tottering, whose faces become written with anguish
and who cry at a gentle touch and a kind look waking out of a stupor of
misery only to weep, men who have lost all, hopeless, crushed,
desperate, I have walked among thousands of them in the refugee camps,
and some times heavy eyes would lift as a cloth was laid gently on the
bare shoulder, and a faint watery smile of surprise would make the face
even more piteous than the stupor. Eyes full of appeal, of agonised
despair, of hopeless entreaty of helpless anguish, thousands of them
camp after camp, "Shameful inhumanity proceeding in Malabar," says Mr.
Gandhi. Shameful inhumanity indeed, wrought by the Moplas, and these are
the victims, saved from extermination by British and Indian swords, For
be it remembered the Moplas began the whole horrible business; the
Government intervened to save their victims and these thousands have
been saved. Mr. Gandhi would have hostilities suspended--so that the
Moplas may sweep down on the refugee camps, and finish their work?
I visited in Calicut three huge Committee camps, two Christian, and the
Congress building and compound where doles of rice are given daily from
7 A.M. to noon. In all, the arrangements were good. Big thatched sheds,
and some buildings shelter the women and children, the men sleep
outside. They are all managed by Indians, the Zamorini's Committee
distributing cloths and money to all, except the Congress committee,
which work independently and gives food from its own resource. At
Palghat, similar arrangements are made by the Zamorini's Committee, and
the order and care in feeding are good to see.
Let me finish with a beautiful story told to me. Two Pulayas, the lowest
of the submerged classes, were captured with others, and given the
choice between Islam and Death. These, the outcaste of Hinduism, the
untouchables, so loved the Hinduism which had been so unkind a
step-mother to them, that they chose to die Hindus rather than to live
Muslim. May the God of both, Muslim and Hindus send His messengers to
these heroic souls, and give them rebirth into the Faith for which they
died. _New India, 29 November 1921._
* * * * *
Wilful murders of Hindus and arson were first begun in my own place by
Chembrasseri Thangal and his Lieutenant, another Thangal. You might have
read accounts written by me in the Malabar journal which was sent to you
last time. This contagion began to spread like wild fire and we began to
hear of murders daily. Within a fortnight cold-blooded murders of Hindus
became very common. From within the borders of Calicut and Ernad taluks
refugees come in large numbers with tales of murders and atrocities
committed by the rebels. At Puthur Amson in Ernad only 12 miles
northeast of Calicut--One day in broad daylight twenty-five persons who
refused to embrace Islam were butchered and put into a well. One out of
these who narrowly escaped death got out of the well when the rebels
left the place and ran to Calicut for life. He is now in the hospital.
So the accounts must be true as he himself was one of the victims.
During the last week news of numerous murders and forcible conversions
came from another quarter also, Mannur near Aniyallur and Kadalundi
railway station in Ernad taluk. This place also is only 14 miles away
from Calicut. Every train to Calicut was carrying with it daily hundreds
of refugees during the last week. If there were ten thousand refugees
fed by the Relief Committee last week, it must have fed fifteen thousand
this week. According to the statements given by them there must be at
least fifty murders and numerous cases of conversions and house-burning.
Can you conceive of a more ghastly and inhuman crime than the murders of
babies and pregnant women? Two days back I had occasion to read a report
given by a refugee in Calicut. A pregnant woman carrying 7 months was
cut through the abdomen by a rebel and she was seen lying dead on the
way with the dead child projecting out of the womb. How horrible!
Another: a baby of six months was snatched away from the breast of his
own mother and cut into two pieces. How heart-rending! Are these rebels
human beings or monsters? From the same quarters numerous forcible
conversions are also reported. One refugee has given statement that he
had seen with his own eyes that the heads of a dozen people were being
shaved by the rebels and afterwards they were asked to recite some
passages from the _Quran_. This he witnessed from a tree. I wonder what
is the authority of some people who contradict the news of murders, and
forcible conversions of Hindus. Let them come here and test the veracity
of these statements for themselves.
'Yesterday another report of murders came from a place very near
Kottakal. The report says that eleven Hindus (males and females), were
murdered by the rebels.
'A fortnight ago fifteen dead bodies of Hindus were seen under culvert
on the road between Perinialmanna and Melatur.'
Will you not be sick of these stories of murders? All these reports
are, as far as possible, proved also to be correct.
Words fail to express my feelings of indignation and abhorrence which I
experienced when I came to know of an instance of rape, committed by the
rebels under Chembrasseri Thangal. A respectable Nayar Lady at Melatur
was stripped naked by the rebels in the presence of her husband and
brothers, who were made to stand close by with their hands tied behind.
When they shut their eyes in abhorrence they were compelled at the point
of sword to open their eyes and witness the rape committed by the brute
in their presence. I loathe even to write of such a mean action. I thank
God that my family and relatives reached safe at Calicut without being
dishonoured by these brutes, though we sustained serious loss of
property and the loss of four lives (two servants and two
relatives,--More afterwards). This instance of rape was communicated to
me by one of her brothers confidentially. There are several instances of
such mean atrocities which are not revealed by people. _New India 6th
Dec. 1921._
* * * * *
Truth is infinitely of more paramount importance than Hindu-Muslim unity
or Swaraj, and therefore, we tell the Maulana Sahib and his
co-religionists and India's revered leader Mahatma Gandhi--if he too is
unaware of the events here--that atrocities committed by the Moplahs on
the Hindus are unfortunately too true and that there is nothing in the
deeds of Moplah rebels which a true non-violent non-co-operator can
congratulate them for. What is it for which they deserve congratulation?
Their wanton and unprovoked attack on the Hindus, the all but wholesale
looting at their houses in Ernad, and parts of Valluvanad, Ponnani, and
Calicut Taliques; the forcible conversion of Hindus in a few places in
the beginning of the rebellion and the wholesale conversion of those who
stick to their homes in its later stages, the brutal murder of
inoffensive Hindus, men, women, and children in cold blood, without the
slightest reason except that they are "Kaffirs" or belong to the same
race as the Policemen, who insulted their Tangals or entered their
Mosques, the desecration and burning of Hindu Temples the outrage on
Hindu women and their forcible conversion and marriage by Moplahs; do
these and similar atrocities proved beyond the shadow of a doubt by the
statements recorded by us from the actual sufferers who have survived,
deserve any congratulation? On the other hand should they not call forth
the strongest condemnation from all right-minded men and more especially
from a representative body of Mohamedans like the Khilafat Conference
pledged to non-violence under all provocation? Did the Moplahs, who
committed such atrocities, sacrifice their lives in the cause of their
religion?
(Sd.) +K. P. Kesahava Menon+,
Sec. Kerala Pro. Cong. Comit.
(Sd.) +K. Madhavan Nair+,
Sec. Calicut Dis. Cong. Comit.
(Sd.) +T. V. Mohamad+,
Sec. Ernad Khilafat Comit.
(Sd.) +K. Karunakara Menon+,
Treas. Kerala Pro. Comit.
(Sd.) +K. V. Gopal Menon.+
* * * * *
Maulana Mohani justifies the looting of Hindus by Moplahs as lawful by
way of commandeering in a war between the latter and the Government or
as a matter of necessity when the Moplahs were forced to live in
jungles. Maulana perhaps does not know that in the majority of cases,
the almost wholesale looting of Hindu houses in portions of Ernad,
Valluvanad and Ponani Taluques was perpetrated on the 21st, 22nd, and
23rd of August before the military had arrived in the affected area to
arrest or fight the rebels even before Martial law had been declared.
The Moplahs had not betaken themselves to jungles at the time as Moulana
supposes nor had the Hindus as a class done anything to them to deserve
their hostility. The out-break commenced on the 20th of August, the
police and the District Magistrate withdrew from Tirunangadi to Calicut
on the 21st and the policemen throughout the affected area had taken to
their heels. There was no adversary to the Moplahs at the time whom the
Hindus could possibly have helped or invited, and the attack on them was
most wanton and unprovoked.