The Chalappuram Gang and the Ameen Lodge
Posted by Labels: Abdurahman Saheb, Ameen Lodge, British Calicut, Calicut congress, Chalappuram Calicut, Malabar - English period 1900 -1950, Moplah rebellion
Those turbulent years, Calicut (1920-34)
Calicut under British governance was a different place than
you see it today. My own memories of childhood in Calicut take me to the days I
spent with my aunt at Ambalakkat house, Chalappuram. I still remember the walk down
the road from Ambalakkat towards Tali, turning right and going past the
Chalappuram post office, past the gates of the Achutan Girls school and
drifting to the Ganapati School, during my younger days in Calicut. And I
recall the temple behind N Ambalakkat, the house of Karunakara Menon my grand
uncle, Keshava Menon, Norman Achutan nair, the Anakara Vadakath people, and the
homes of so many others who are going to be mentioned in this article, though
they belonged to a bygone era. As I wrote in a previous article, it was a time
when there were horse driven jutkas, cycle rickshaws and hand pulled rickshaws
on the road. On those serene mornings, an odd Ex-servicemen bus roared by,
scattering the people on the road hither and thither, and people were sometimes
witness to a man (people held their noses as the wheelbarrow like cart with the
galvanized iron pots passed by) held in much disgust, the ‘thotti’ who would
trundle by, head hung low, pushing his night soil cart. Horns were hardly
heard, the rickshaw drivers yelled ‘kooyi’ or rang a bell to get a right of
way. The 30’s was still different, there was no electricity and the one person
who gave a personal account and provided a vivid description of life in Calicut
in the 1930’s is ARS Iyer.
Some miles away down the Chalappuram road was the Zamorin’s
Padinjare Kovilakom in Mankavu, a place I heard about now and then when the
elders talked. Across the road from our South Ambalakkat house was the
residence and office of the ageing Advocate and freedom fighter Karaunakara
Menon. It was said that he had been jailed often as a freedom fighter. My
grandfather Gopala Menon, Karunakaramama’s brother, who used to be the sub
registrar of Calicut had passed away before my birth.
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| KP Keshava Menon |
But well, we are not going to talk about such mundane matters,
we are instead going to talk about the people who got involved in governance,
noncooperation, the independence movement, satyagraha’s, Quit India moves, regional
politics and the nasty business of religious and caste divides. All of this
came to the fore in a decade commencing in 1920 and ended with a muted crash in
1934 or thereabouts after which the political scene of the region and thence
the state changed forever. In the process of generalizing the story, I will
introduce to you the members of the Chalappuram gang and the Ameen Lodge, the
very people whose dithering and bickering ways, which in reality had started after
the 1921 Moplah revolt, culminated in a divide in the Congress organization of
Malabar. Their acrimonious relationship held taut during the time when Muslim
group called the Hindu Congressmen as Sunday Congress or the Chalappuram Gang,
while the Hindu’s called the Muslim faction, the Ameen Lodge.
To get to these turbulent years, we have to touch upon the
Khilafat days preceding the 1921 Moplah rebellion and I promise to be brief, as
it has previously been covered in other articles. Indian nationalism was on the
rise following the Jalianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 and the imposition of the
Rowlett act. Emotions were running high and the desire to kick the butt of the
British was omnipresent. In summary, the Khilafat movement was a pan-Islamic,
political campaign launched by the Muslims in British India to influence the
British and to protect the Ottoman Khalifa or Caliph following the aftermath of
World War I. The effort won the support of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress and was
quickly embraced in Malabar.
1920 was a critical year in Calicut. Annie Besant, Gandhiji
and Shaukat Ali came by, exhorting the masses against the British and to
support the Khilafat movement. Of Gandhi’s visit to Calicut, the Moplah revolts
and the Khilafat days, I had written articles referenced, which may be perused
if interested.
Annie Besant chaired the Malabar District Political
Conference held at Manjeri on April 28, 1920. Various prominent leaders of Calicut such as
K.P. Kesava Menon, Manjeri Ramayyar, M.P. Narayana Menon, K Madhavan Nair,
Abdul Khader, P Moideen Koya, took part. A non-cooperation resolution was
adopted. The meeting passed a resolution protecting the rights of the tenants
of Malabar, which of course raised the ire of landlords and as a result of
which they dissented and left the Congress. The Moplah outrage act was also
discussed. The District Congress Committee was now reorganized as the Kerala
Provincial Congress Committee. Keep in mind that while a District Congress
Committee had already been formed in 1908 it was not until 1916 Palghat
conference with the founding of the All India Home Rule League that Malabar
began to awaken politically.
Various matters occupied the minds of our elders and
activists in Malabar. On one hand the desire to oust the British was foremost,
on the other hand, the local issues relating to the tenancy act, the urge to
get out of the matrilineal society norms was on the other. Pressures were
building from both the lower castes as well as the Moplahs regarding the
tenancy aspects. The middle class Nair community was at gearing up for a
formalization of inheritance norms, away from the matrilineal principles. The
wealthy landlords were getting increasingly nervous and then there was the
looming issue regarding the concept of marriage in the community. In all, it
was a heady mix of local issues specific to Malabar and the pressures to
support a larger national cause.
The original Malabar Congress was in reality a Hindu
organization, dominated largely by Nair vakils
 |
| AV Kuttimalu Amma |
In 1920 after Gandhiji had come and left, the Malabar DCC
became the KPCC and was headquartered in Calicut. Madhavan Nair, Gopala Menon
and Moideen Koya were soon arrested for dissent and with that the noncooperation
movement started in Malabar. But it was quickly shadowed by the 1921 Moplah
revolt.
The 1921 conflict is a very complex subject which I will not
get into here, but suffice to say that for various reasons the Moplahs revolted
and refused to pay taxes to the British. This snowballed into a violent
conflict (starting at Tirurangadi) where religion was used to foment anger and
retaliation by the British and some leaders, resulting in the Military being
brought in and vicious repression which followed. The horrid tragedy continued
for months. Thousands of Moplahs were killed, and wounded by troops, thousands
of Hindus were butchered by the rebels, women subjected to shameful
indignities, thousands forcibly converted and entire families burnt alive. It
was a massive tragedy, the results of which we will now see.
The Congress-Khilafat movement formed by ‘interlocking the
discontent of the Moplahs and the common interest of the people of Malabar’ (as
EMS put it) ended up in the traumatic events of 1921. The Moplah leader’s cries
to leave Hindus alone were not listened to as the bands became undisciplined
and uncontrollably violent while the panic-stricken Hindus quickly withdrew
their support to the Moplah’s and some even supported the British authorities. A wedge had been firmly and deeply driven
between the two communities as amity degenerated into animosity and eventually
enmity.
 |
| AbduRahman Saheb |
The eventual visible result in the Nair and upper Hindu classes
was the edict ‘the Moplahs cannot be relied upon’. Thus there was a lot of nervousness
post 1921 in Hindu minds, when it came to working with Moplahs, while at the
same time, the Moplah leaders felt the same having seen some Hindus work with
the British to protect themselves only during the riots and decry the Moplah
leaders.
Another complaint of the Moplah was that they observed many of the
Hindu Congressmen appointed as members of the Hindu Mahasabha, supporting the
Aryasabha in reconversions or working as members of the Nair Service society. The
gulf between the two groups became so wide that though each claimed to be a
group of congressmen, one could not cooperate with the other even in organizing
the Congress day to day matters. KPK Menon concluded - Enmity towards the
Congress was evident everywhere.... Some Hindu leaders accused the Congressmen
of treason for not joining the Khilafatists.... The Muslims complained that
those who had induced them to join the Congress, abandoned them when police
oppression and firing by the troops started".
The Hindu congressmen who were vociferous in supporting the
Khilafat Moplahs and who had lost their faces and voices, now went into a shell
and the congress machine of Malabar ground to a complete halt. Who incidentally
were these Hindu congressmen? Keshava Menon, U Gopala Menon, Madhavan Nair, MP
Narayana Menon, Ambalakkat Karunakara Menon, AV Kuttimalu Amma and so on.
Almost all these gentlemen and ladies resided in the aristocratic area of
Chalappuram. As a result, their organization, working sometimes from the home
of Madhavan Nair, was termed the Chalappuram congress or the Chalappuram Gang.
Many of them were lawyers who had once left the service of the courts and
worked fulltime with the noncooperation movement. Now with the turbulent
situation, they had gone back to working in the cutcheri, working as lawyers on
weekdays.
The British had succeeded in one aspect, planned or
unplanned, they had by now managed to split the congress along communal lines in
Malabar and arrested its workings, one that was now being touted as Khadi
against Khaki. On top of that they had
classified the Moplah as a troublesome character and the situation was such
that if a Moplah donned khadi he would be jailed.
It was at this juncture that two newspapers arrived on the
scene, each to voice the concerns and objectives of these two leading religious
communities, they were the Mathurbhumi started by the above group of lawyers
and the Al Ameen (The voice of honesty) by the Moplah leaders. Papers like Malayala
Manorama, Mithavadi and the Kerala Patrika were present at that time, but not
considered nationalistic enough.
The Mathrubhumi was started by Keshava Menon and Madhavan
Nair and had as directors Madhava Menon, Sundaram Iyer, A Karunakara Menon, AR
Menon, P Achutan, AV Kuttimalu Amma etc. It commenced publishing thrice weekly
from 1923. The paper was conceived as a tool to serve national movement for the
attainment of freedom and not as a business for profit. Ramunni Menon and Karoor
Neelakandhan Namboothiripad also worked for its promotion.
The Al Ameen was the brain child of Mohammed Abdurahman (Kunju
Mohammed) from Kodungallur who had settled down at Calicut. Initially educated
at the BEM (now MCC) college in Calicut, continuing his studies in Madras at
the Muhammaden College and later the Presidency College. He left Presidency in
1920 following the boycott appeal of Gandhiji and joined the Aligarh University
for his Honors degree. He arrived in Malabar in time for the Ottapalam
conference, and was quickly thrust into the Congress-Khilafat movement, moving
to Calicut, and later into the Moplah revolt at Eranad which he tried bring
about some control, but could not. After the revolt, he was punished with a 2
year jail sentence at Bellary and Madras for disseminating false information
about the government. When he arrived in Calicut after a rigorous sentence in
1923, he found the apathetic Hindu congressmen and the withdrawn Moplah
congressmen doing nothing much for the cause of Indian freedom.
The Al Ameen ironically was started with the help of an
appeal by Mathrubhumi to support Abdurahman’s effort. The founders and
supporters lived at the Al Ameen lodge owned by Moidu Maulavi and that is the reason
why they were called the Ameen lodge gang. The first issue came out in Oct 1924
and Mathrubhumi officially welcomed it with an article. In June 1930 it became
a daily and was perpetually in debt. It is stated that the British dreaded many
a provocative article published by it (e.g. the communist manifesto in
Malayalam) and its support for the Muslim voice.
The 1927 provincial congress conference brought about a
small amount of reconciliation. The Simon commission recommendations had to be
protested against, boycotted and Swaraj had to be declared.The Malabar Tenancy
act of 1929 was released and came in support of the kanamdars to provide them
the required protections against eviction. But it also resulted in creating a
new substrata of mini landlords. The divide now reduced from three to two and a
semblance of haves and have-nots (the verum pattakars) an unbalanced situation
which a younger groups of socialists led by Kelappan and EMS in the congress
were soon to target. The lower classes were observing all this, lukewarm in
supporting the congress which they believed were only favoring the landlords as
mentioned earlier. A concept that there would be a congress for the rich and a
congress for the poor was being bandied about by leaders like Krishna Pillai
and the younger leaders.
The plan to start the next phase civil disobedience movement
was debated for a while, and it was finally under the leadership of K Kelappan
that the youth started their march for the Salt Satyagraha at Payannur joined
by Abdurahman. Slowly Calicut caught on and a salt Satyagraha was organized in
Calicut in May 1930 by Abdurahman, Krishnaswamy and Kelappan. Abdu Rahman was
jailed again.
Meanwhile the two papers coexisted but were different in
character. The Al Ameen paid no heed to authority, while the Mathrubhumi was
cautious, desiring longevity. Al Ameen frequently decried Mathrubhumi’s silence
on certain topics as a sign of its servitude to the British. But they were not
too acrimonious and settled up usually, at the end of the day. It was on one
such occasion that Abdurahman called the cautious Chalappuram members as the
Chalappuram gang of Sunday Congressmen. The lawyers worked for the courts on
weekdays and halfheartedly for the congress on Sundays, so said Al Ameen and
the socialist cadre youngsters. It was in those days that the Hindu part of the
KPCC exhibited the two stark factions, the upper caste Chalappuram gang and the
so called Kelappan or Gandhian group.
The Guruvayoor Satyagraha was another event which made the
upper caste Chalappuram gang stand apart. The fight to get entry for all Hindus
into the temple heated up, with even Gandhiji involved and during this event,
most of the Chalappuram congressmen sided with the trustees and the Zamorin in
opposing it or by not protesting. This was something that further alienated it
from some of the younger working class members of the congress led by Kelappan,
EMS, Manjeri Ramayyar etc.
The Calicut Municipal Election in 1931 and the consequent
developments which caused a loss of homogeneity and unity among Congressmen of
Malabar is something to be briefly looked into, next. Abdurahaman was allotted the
VI ward, where he had little chance of winning. Protesting, he got the VII ward
from where he won handsomely. Regrettably, he did not get the nod due to a communal
divide and Abdurahman stayed away from Congress activities for a while. The writings
in the newspapers became acrimonious and Abdurahman did not lose the opportunity
to attack the Chalappuram gang as often as he could. The rivalry continued into
the 1934 elections where again Abdurahman was allotted Kelappan’s ward and got
defeated, protested and left. Then came the CLA elections, where again
Abdurahman lost to Sattar sait.
As squabbling was going on between the seniors, the younger group
with socialist leftist views
supporting the working classes strengthened with
AKG, Krishna Pillai and EMS Namboothiripad. Very soon, they had occupied a
position of popularity and control. The CSP and subsequently the Muslim league formation
is yet another story, and we will get into that in the course of time. That was
eventually to deal a death blow to the ageing rightist group, though anti
British activities continued their course, though slightly dampened as Nehru was
heard to remark once.
During and after the Salt Satyagraha, women increasingly
enrolled themselves as volunteers. Many went to jail braving police harassment.
Kuttimalu Amma was a classic character and was associated with the Chalappuram
gang not only as the wife of K Madhava Menon, but as an activist in her own
right. Many others can be listed, like Karthiyayani Amma, Narayanikutty Amma, Gracy
Aron and Meena Ammaal.
As it is time to wind up, let us check what happened to all these
people as time passed by. Abdurahman continued with the CSP faction, his Al
Ameen folded in 1939 and Abdurahman soon drifted towards NSC Bose and the INA,
getting jailed again. The Mathrubhumi thrived, but the Chalappuram gang aged
and struggled with the internal left right rivalry and the rising young Turks
of the CSP. Keshava Menon as you will recall went to Malaysia and Singapore,
got involved with the IIL and INA. U Gopala Menon continued with his legal work
and the bar association. Madhavan Nair passed away in 1933. Madhava Menon was imprisoned
often but continued with Congress and Mathrubhumi administration at Calicut. Ambalakkat
Karunakara Menon was also involved with administrative capacities and was
arrested in the Satyagraha movement and Quit India movement, and eventually got
to working for the Harijan Sevak Sangh. Kuttimalu Amma also went to jail fighting
the British and continued with the KPCC for a long time. Many of those old
aristocratic houses are not to be seen in Calicut anymore. I heard recently
that Karunakara mamas North Ambalakkat house had been sold off. The South
Ambalakkat house where I grew up is still there and I had seen it a couple of
years ago, but I guess it is all a matter of time when these things will be
just history.
It was in the course of these studies that I came across an interesting
tidbit. During these troubling 20’s, we knew of course that covering the upper
half of their bodies was neither the norm nor permitted for women of the lower
classes. In fact men were also supposed to be bare bodied, as serfs. Only Nair’s
and upper classes could wear shirts. As these freedom movements strengthened
and took hold, all men took to wearing shirts and of course, the women too were
clad in blouses. But there was another matter of interest. I read that only
Nairs could sport a mustache in old Malabar and that it was during the freedom
movement when many other classes took the opportunity and started sporting mustaches.
It was a big thing, and to this day you will see most Malayalee’s continuing to
sport mustaches, for it was not just something manly, it was perhaps a little
act of protest and equality!
Well, those were different days when egos, ideology, religions,
classes, castes and communities clashed. For a while the singular desire to be
free from the British united everybody, and in that path to freedom, true
character and grit was exposed. But as we all saw, those undercurrents
continued to direct or misdirect many of the characters as days passed by, and
as we know, they still do. It is true that each party had justifications for their actions, and the debates will continue on for ever. Maybe it will all change one day, when such petty
aspects don’t matter anymore, maybe it won’t. Who knows???
References
Stealing
Congresses’ thunder – Ronald J Herring, (When parties fail – ed. Kay Lawson,
Peter H Merkl)
Congress and
Kerala Politics – KS Nayar
History of
the Communist movement in Kerala – Dr E Balakrishnan
Kerala
society and politics – EMS Namboothirpad
Mohammed
AbduRahman- NP Chekutty
How I became
a communist - EMS Namboothirpad
Who’s who of
Freedom fighters in Kerala – K Karunakaran Nair
Peasant
Protest and Revolts in Malabar during the 19th and 20th Century - Dr. K. N.
Panikkar
Political
journalism and national movement in Malabar (Thesis) –Thilleri Vasu
Mobilisation
against the State and not against the landlords: The Civil Disobedience
Movement in Malabar – K Gopalankutty
The Task of
Transforming the Congress: Malabar, 1934-40 – K Gopalankutty
Muhammed
Abdurahiman: Pursuits and Perspectives of a Nationalist Muslim Thesis - Muhammed
Poozhikuth
11 comments:
Interesting article on the political history of malabar.
Thanks ramnath
Glad you liked it
Rgds
Hi Sir
I am so glad I came upon your blog. I am a Keralite too and I love blogs about our state written with substance . This was a well researched and nicely written article. Hope to see more.
Treesa
From, the old history of Nair's,thiyyas, and Kerala history you are coming to recent history of of Kerala just before independence, nice to read , kudos
Thanks treesa and jayan
Appreciate your comments
It is NORMAN not NORMAL Achuthan Nair.
thanks navnit
Typo corrected, thanks for pointing it out.
Excellent capsule history of the troubled period of the 1920s in Calicut. The Chalappuram Congress of (mostly Nairs and Menons) nevertheless had contributed to maintaining peace and the spirit for the freedom struggle when the leadership of Gandhi was being seriously questioned. Those were years of doubt and mutual suspicion, as the drifting away of stalwarts like Kelappan and Abdurahman showed.
There was a parallel women's movement in Chalappuram about which we had blogged some time ago : http://blog.calicutheritage.com/2017/08/the-legendary-verkot-house-in-calicut.html
The common links in the two movements were A V Kuttimalu Amma, Mrs. Madhavan Nair and Mrs. Gopala Menon.
The narratives could have highlighted the contributions of two leaders whose houses in Chalappuram were the unofficial headquarters of the Chalappuram Congress : K Madhavan Nair and P K Kunhisankara Menon. Their houses on the road now named as Madhavan Nair Road (connecting Chalappuram with Francis Road) were the hub of activities, specially after these gentlemen left their lawyers' jobs on Gandhi's call and subjected their families to avoidable penury. On a lighter note, perhaps you took the right turn from Chalappuram Post Office while going to Achuthan Girls School and did not notice their houses due west of the junction.
Thanks CHF..
It was an unreasonably long article already and each reading of sources provided new tidbits, but I stopped finally. I did mention Madhavan Nair's house being used for the activities! True though i don't recall visiting their homes. I went by the locale the other day and nothing seemed to be left. The N Ambalakkat had been fully demolished and most of South Ambalakkat was gone as well. They are now just memories.
How is Manmadhan Ullattil related to Ambalakkat ?? :)
You can find the answer here
https://maddy06.blogspot.com/2014/02/vidwan-ettan-thampuran-my-great.html?m=1
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