Historic Alleys

There is a furor these days about this 1921 Eranad rebel warlord and many expert opinions are being voiced. I was a bit intrigued as I had encountered VKH often in my Malabar Rebellion studies, but I had not really paused to study him, though spending a while on the Sinderby account caricaturing an antagonist based on VKH’s character. But it is time to do a little study and I will try to detail his actions as dispassionately as I can, referring to the numerous secondary sources I am in possession of. We will see that this is actually the story of a tired old man who had been perpetually on the run before 1921, nursing his grudges against the British, straying somewhat unwillingly into a larger revolt, with only a desire to help out his benefactor Ali Musaliyar, quickly changing his ideology when he became a fugitive and lording a gang who resorted to tactics he would not have approved otherwise.

While some feel Conrad Wood’s and Stephen Dale’s Mappila studies, as well as the official reports made by Hitchcock and Tottenham, are white man’s tales, others remark that accounts by some local administrators such as Gopalan Nair, Madhavan Nair, and Gangadhara Menon are congressmen’s studies, toeing the British line. Accounts by Bhrahmadattan Nambudiri and MP Narayanan Menon are mostly about their experiences, providing meager detail on VKH. There are a few Mappila writers who have made an effort, though these books are difficult to source and somewhat tilted in their handling of the subject. M Gangadharan is perhaps the only contemporary writer who authored books covering many of these events, referring to a larger number of sources. But of course, a number of people are happy to live with legends, myths, oral tales or songs on 1921, which over generations have been changing hues.  This study provides only an outline, is not exhaustive, and just a primer to those who wish to delve deeper into those terrible years.

When viewed on a broad frame, it becomes clear that while the impacts of the revolt were indeed felt heavily on Valluvanad, Ponnani and Calicut, violence related to V Kunahmed Haji was localized around Eranad. The revolt was as we can all agree, a culmination of many years of perceived servitude by the Eranad Mappila, catalyzed by religious fervor and at some instants, prodding by leaders who believed in making it a larger issue. Much of that, as well as the earlier influence of the Caliphate at Turkey, the first world war, the Mappila rifles disbandment, the expected support from other Muslim nations and of course the contempt shown by the British who preferred to deal only with Hindu landlords, were all reasons which caused the pent up resentment among Mappila’s, to explode. Add to it the disappointment that there was going to be no Turkish support, when the man on the street heard that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk himself had got rid of the Caliph, the very Caliph they looked up to as their savior. As Gandhiji and the Ali brothers faded away from the local scene, to focus on larger matters, it would turn out to be a Mappila rebellion against not only the British, but against all perceived enemies, namely the Hindu Landlord, the Christian estate owner, their own economic situation and the dark hole they were in (indebted and largely illiterate), the British administrator as well as the local police force commanded by the British captains.

As the revolt spread and martial law was imposed, in came the war hardened military folk i.e. the Leinsters and Dorsets aided by ruthless Gurkhas and the Chin-Kachin Burmese soldiers, whose orders were to take on and simply massacre the lightly armed Mappila mobs and gangs. The police force under Hitchcock worked separately from the military, an aspect to be noted (though Hitchcock got all the blame).

It was into the middle of this cauldron of hate, violence and disturbance that this Variyamkunnath Kunahmed Haji was thrown into. How did he get there and what did he do? People as you can imagine, behave differently in differing circumstances and VKH was a classic example of that, as we shall soon see. Incidentally, he was one among the four main leaders of the rebellion, the others being Chembrassery Thangal, Ali Musaliyar and Seethikoya Thangal.

VKH and his background

Kunhahamad Haji was born in the Valluvangad village situated in Eranad (Malappuram) in a time frame between 1861-75 as the son of Moideen Kutty Haji. Originally from Chakkipparamban house of the Nediyiruppu area near Kondotty, he belonged to a branch which settled down at Valluvangad. Variyankunnath was where Haji’s house was situated. As we discussed previously the region was famed for a large number of blacksmiths, so the agricultural implements and hill produce were transported to Calicut and other towns by bullock carts, and VKH himself a cart driver, was the cart driver’s leader.

In 1894 a terrible tragedy occurred, known as the Pandikkad event where some 32 Mappilas killed themselves in a fanatical outbreak and this was followed by an even more terrible event in 1896 when some 92 Mappilas of Chembrasseri became martyrs at the Manjeri temple. Because they were mostly wanton acts with little by way of concrete reasons, Mappilas were placed in the backward class for educational purposes, by the British. But something positive was now being done, strategic roads were laid into Eranad and schools were started. The Mappilas were pulled into the mainstream with army employment, jobs in Singapore, Burma, Colombo and the rubber estates, the Kolar gold fields, timber depots at Kallayi and other locales. This resulted in relative peace until 1915. But the British knew that there was an undercurrent of militancy in the region. Hitchcock, the other player in all these events had been deputed a few years earlier and was well placed in the Madras special police encampment at Malappuram, heading the intelligence acquisition team and in the thick of things.

Many members of VKH’s family were implicated and killed in the 1894/96 outbreaks and his father had been transported to the Andamans (he died there in 1907). I guess this was the event which triggered the revenge and hate in VKH, for we hear of him soon potentially involved in wayside robberies, first robbing a postal van in 1908, then in 1909 robbing and apparently murdering a couple of Palghat goldsmiths. VKH escaped capture and fled to Mecca, remaining there until 1911. Now a Haji, he returned to Eranad in 1911 (some say later in 1913-14). But the police did not allow him to reside in his old environs and so we see him working as an iterant bullock cart driver in Nediyirippu, Morayur and Kondotty, already red-marked a trouble creator in British eyes, and his family characterized as an ‘outbreak family’.

Two events were to catalyze the 1921 disturbances, one being the disbandment of a Mappila army battalion (I had covered this in a previous article) and the second being the aftermath of the first world war, with Turkey and the Islamic Caliph on the side of the Axis powers. Since 1911 (Turco-Italian war) the Mappilas had professed support for Turkey and a 40-day prayer was regularly conducted at the Perinthalmanna mosque in support of the Ottomans. During the First World War, the Mappilas came to believe that Germany had accepted Islam and with the entry of Turkey on its side, the defeat of the British and their allies would be inevitable. They believed that the Germans and the Turks would relieve them of the British and that all their rent, revenue demands and debts would thus be cancelled. Pilgrims returning from Mecca reaffirmed the rumors that the Turks and Germans were drubbing the British.

These wild rumors now spun into conclusions that the German army had landed in Bombay and with that the entire Eranad area was in a state of unrest. In Sept 1914, the German warship Emden shelled Madras and the news hit the region like a bolt from the blue. Soon the British, needing the army men elsewhere, replaced the regular army at the Malappuram barracks with a less experienced reserve battalion, manned by local recruits, with the result that the Eranad Mappilas now stepped on the gas, increasing dacoities and forced conversions (Wood 135-137). It was one such forced conversion that triggered the Innes murder event at Kalikavu (See article).

Hitchcock arrived on the scene, and soon many rebels were captured. Per the report - Four of the fanatics died fighting and one was captured severely wounded. Four Mappillas who had been arrested as a precautionary measure among them being the afterwards notorious Variankunnath Kunhamad HaJi and Potayil Ahamad Kutti Musaliyar were released, their apparent implication in the outbreak being, it was decided, an elaborate concoction of evidence by their enemies. What could that be? It appears that when VKH fled to Mecca, others appropriated his family lands and since then VKH and his mother were trying to get them back through the court system, this resulted in antagonism between his family & some others in the area. Seemingly one of them tried to trap VKH in the Innes murder case. Perhaps all this affected VKH and we thus come across an oft repeated opinion that VKH was not an affable person, was quite quarrelsome and easily brought to a boiling rage. In 1919 he was finally given permission by the British to go back and live in his home town.

Around this time, the disillusioned Mappila’s who had been employed in the British army were back home, terminated by Kitchener who deemed the short experiment a failure. Many were indoctrinated by local preachers and other leaders, increasing their grouse against the Brits, as 1921 turned the corner. Conrad wood explains - In fact there can be no doubt that the insurgents were able to draw on the military expertise of large numbers of Mappila ex-sepoys who joined their ranks which in some cases, such as with the gang of Kunhamad Haji, were made up largely of men of this type.

The Rebellion Starts – Aug 1921

VKH was sporadically involved with the lower levels of Khilafat movement (as a secretary) though he scoffed at the whole Khilafat proposition as a Turkish problem later. But he was already a noted man and the district magistrate, Thomas, added VKH to the list forbidding (together with Madhavan Nayar & Gopala Menon) them from addressing meetings in the troubled zone. He did not enter the fore of the Malabar or Mappila rebellion until the violence erupted at Pandikkad on Aug 21st 1921. Amid conflicting statements about the formation and governance of a Khilafat state, VKH took on leadership for an area covering Nellikuth and Valluvangad after Ali Musaliar’s surrender (he heard a rumor and believed that Musaliyar was dead) and that the dreaded Hitchcock had been murdered and was out of the picture.

A poignant meeting with Madhavan Nair just before the bank incident provides a better understanding of VKH’s situation. As news spread of the arrival of rebels in the Manjeri area, Madhavan Nair too joined other Hindu’s in moving to areas of safety. It was then that he was summoned by VKH who had arrived with his mob to take control. At the meeting, a tired, short-statured, 60-year-old and armed VKH, dressed in black, aged around 60 according to Nair, asked him what he should do next. Taken aback, Nair recommended that VKH surrender or go home. VKH answered saying that he got involved in the whole fracas only because he was indebted to Ali Musaliyar and had started all this to support Musaliyar. He added that it was too late to step back and had no choice but to face the consequences.

What is evident in that emotional discussion was, from that point onwards, VKH’s acceptance that he was a fugitive. With no great support from the rest of the world, Turkey or other Muslims, or even an absolute lack of contact with any of them, the three Mappila leaders, Thangal Haji and Koya were left to their own devices, with no way out, faced with the prospect of annihilation by the heavily armed British forces and the police. All they could do was create turmoil, get their voices heard and hope for the best. In that respect it was not a fight for national freedom or anything like that. Anyway, let’s continue with VKH’s exploits from then on.

Now situated at Manjeri and turning down congressman Madhavan Nair’s advice to stop any revolt, VKH asserted that he will continue armed and violent revolt if only to help Ali Musaliyar’s cause, but agreed not to harm or loot any Hindu households, adding that he will deal firmly with any Mappila who does so. Some initial actions portrayed him as a kind of Robin hood, where he stopped the looting of the Namboodiri bank, but returned all the pledged ornaments to the owners. He also warned the Mappila people not to convert the people to the faith forcibly. But it is quite apparent that VKH did not plan to wage a larger war against the British, though as a fugitive, he fought hard to defend his gang and himself from them. Meanwhile, martial law had been declared.

Aided by the ex-servicemen and other volunteers, VKH’s next task was the collection of firearms by attacking Pandikkad station. As SI Karunakaran Nair and his men took the hills the gang set fire to the Police Station, Travelers Bungalow, Amsha kacheri, the Post Office, and other Govt. Buildings were demolished. Bridges were pulled down, trees cut and houses were looted for arms money and provisions. Haji deemed that all property obtained by loot belongs to the Khilafat. ‘In fact, without the supply of food, arms and money commandeered from the inhabitants of the area of insurrection, it is cleared that the khilafat troops would have lacked the means of continuing resistance to the British rule.’ (Conrad Wood).

With this, an armed VKH gang was formed and ready for action. But what they unleased was regrettably, mayhem. VKH moved from Pookkottur via Karuvarakkundu, collected more arms and proceeded to Angadippuram through Melattur. Here at Mudikkod his gang confronted constable Hydross and killed him. Kalikavu was to figure prominently during the Aug 1921 revolt too, when some of the rioters burned forty houses belonging to other Mappilas who did not associate with the revolt.  Stanley. P. Eaton, a planter of Pulleugude Estate, was beheaded and paraded with his head placed on a spear. His bungalow was looted.

Particularly brutal was his intolerance against Mappila’s working for the British, notably the Head Constable at Mudikkad and the retired Khan Bahadur Chekutty Saheb who were murdered by his mob and Chekutty’s severed head was carried around on a spear and exhibited to the populace. While some would fob off all this as actions aimed against the British, it was far from it, for VKH had a previous grudge towards the Khan Bahadur who had been responsible for punishing his father in the Mannarkkad riot. Some 35 including 2 Mappilas of Tuvur, who had helped the British troops were then done away with, many houses were burnt and VKH next moved on to Nilambur and proclaimed himself to be the new Khilafat king (He styled himself, Rajah of the Hindus, Amir of the Mohammedans, and Colonel of the Khilafat Army).

VKH and his gang continued their violent acts and a Chetti of Nilambur who sold cigarettes and was found helping the troops was killed, so also a Mappila Sub Inspector Shaikh Mohideen and two Nayar constables. With Nilambur as his temporary headquarters, he moved to prevent any information leaks and started his rule in a systemic fashion, cutting off many telegraph lines and destroying bridges and isolating Eranad.

Khilafat state

While the Chembrassery Thangal was formally appointed as the Emir of Chembrassery, Karuvarakkundu, Melattur, and Kalikavu, VKH was to govern Nellikkuthu and Valluvangad area and Kodalayil Musakkutty Haji, was appointed as the Emir of Pandikkad area. Seethikkoya Thangal was appointed as the Emir of Mannarkkad area.

VKH raided the Nilambur Kovilakom and took away all its wealth, emptied its granary and armory. It was quickly decided that all boys below 16 will be sent away and not required to fight, that the British military will not be attacked, but that they would defend themselves, all houses would be looted for provisions and cattle. Operating through numerous small gangs, and with the three leaders Thangal, Koya, and Haji in frequent contact, the British army units found themselves hard-pressed to effectively retaliate. By October 1921, the rebels and their leaders were making an impact, and bodies piled up. To counter this, new battalions arrived and a special police force MSP was set up.

In the Khilafat state, strict martial rules were imposed and curfews were enacted at night. A system of entry and passes were imposed, and all historic tenancy rules were abolished. Anybody who tilled a piece of land owned it henceforth in this new kingdom. The first year’s tax was not levied. VKH started a weapon fund with the money derived from the sale of passports, in effect safe conduct passes. Trespassers were severely punished (e.g. a Sub Inspector of Police and two constables were killed when they tried to cross the frontier marked by khilafat flags). Landlords had to pay security taxes.  It was also decided to start courts to deal with popular grievances.

Many smaller, armed gangs were then created and spread out, VKH himself taking control of Kalikkavu, but allocating other areas to his friends and relatives.  Readers must note that all these locales are not how they look today, they were all undeveloped poor hamlets amidst dense jungle terrain. Roads and bridges were very few and motor transport was not easy. Even the military had to march with their guns and heavy uniforms and kits. As the army was on the move towards Nilambur, we come to hear of atrocities in the new state, of terrorizing acts, forced conversions, the murder of Edru Haji, and so on. VKH had probably believed that he would remain lord for a long time and was perhaps shaken, with reality starting to set in after two months of stress. You can imagine how it is for a 55-60-year-old underfed man perpetually on the run and incessantly fearing for his life.

His (purported) letter in July to the Hindu blaming the police for various atrocities and his opposition to looting Hindu homes and forced conversions shows some honesty in his views during the initial phase of the rebellion. But there is no doubt that it changed and between Sept and Dec they attacked and robbed a large number of houses for food and arms and killed their occupants, Hindu and Muslim. It is also documented that his accomplices were involved in many forced conversions (VKH stated they came and converted willingly!). Also evident is that some of the attacks by his accomplices were acts of revenge for previous cases.

It was at this juncture (Oct 21) that he and his band of followers decided to attack the Kondotty Thangal who was apparently favoring the British. It was an abject failure and the grand entry into Kondotty quickly became a hasty retreat after VKH’s bodyguard was killed.

We also note that there is some discord in his ranks since many were unhappy that VKH neither participated in nor led most raids, he stayed behind the scenes. Add to that the general discontentment and the fact that feeding his troops was becoming a problem (no houses left to loot), so disillusionment was quickly setting in. VKH no longer had a fixed place to stay and was constantly on the move, the old man he was must have been dead tired.

This is where Sinderby’s (He was with the Dorset’s at Malabar) account adds color to the story, and you can read the details in my previous article. It was rumored that VKH had kidnapped a Hindu lady during this time, very much in line with Sinderby’s account. But Geetha in her book insists that it was just a rumor and that his 3^rd wife Malu, an educated Mappila was perhaps earlier convert, this aspect lending itself to the rumor. According to Madhavan Nair, this lady eloped with VKH’s brother towards the end, further stressing and infuriating VKH. By November, the rebels had lost the support of the locals and some gang members were starting to give up and surrender. The British moved in for the kill, with a large force headed to Pandikkad where VKH was located. Perhaps to motivate his tired gang, VKH decided to confront the British head-on, this time, as the leader of his troops.

In Nov 1921, on the auspicious day of 14th, the combined forces of Thangal and Haji attacked the Gurkha camp at Pandikkad. But a mob armed with sticks facing a Lewis machine gun is not very clever and 200 rebels were massacred by the Brit forces disproving VKH’s exhortations that British bullets will not harm any Jihadi. The British decided to push forward and drive the rebels to the South of Eranad, dividing the area into five zones and sending a battalion to take care of each zone. VKH and his followers now fled to hideouts near Kalikkavu. But when the military seized the paddy which had been stored for food, their end was near. Frenzied attacks and counterattacks took place between the rebels and the British led forces. VKH fled to Edakkara, burning the TB there and destroying the bridge leading to the village, next attacking Pandalaur.

It was around this time that the terrible wagon tragedy occurred, a sad story which I had covered earlier.

The rebellion was unraveling, Chembrassery Thangal and the Seethi Koya Haji had reached the end of their tethers, ready to surrender by mid-Dec and VKH was the lone rebel on the run. The remnants of Seethi Koya's band were captured at Mannarghat. The Thangal upon capture claimed that VKH had exhorted him to join the rebellion, that he was just a religious person, and that it was his associates who committed the many atrocities. Koya and Thangal were tried and shot dead on 9th Jan 1922. Moideen Haji, VKH’s brother was also arrested around this time.