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Sangh-backed committee wants memorial to mark 100 years of Moplah killings
The RSS is opposed to recognising the killings that began in August 1921 as a part of an uprising against the British or the landlords and asserts that those were “targeted killings of Hindus”
The 1921 Malabar rebellion martyrs remembrance committee, a group backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has demanded that September 25 be marked as Malabar Hindu genocide day and a “memorial” be built to mark the killings a 100 years ago in Kerala’s Malappuram.
The RSS is opposed to recognising the killings that began in August 1921 as a part of an uprising against the British or the landlords and asserts that those were “targeted killings of Hindus”.
“Even Annie Besant had challenged Gandhiji to come and see what happened in Malabar. Muslims in Mumbai had said this is not Islam; in a statement that was published in the Hindu, they said this (killings) is a one-sided attack on a society, forcing them to convert. C Sankaran Nair, who was the president of the Indian National Congress called it a genocide… however after 1975 it was illegally deemed as part of the freedom struggle,” said J Nandakumar, the all India convener of Prajna Pravah, a Sangh-backed think tank, and a member of the committee.
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Nandakumar said while the Kerala government has not considered their demand, they are hopeful the Centre will consider the observations of BR Ambedkar, Annie Besant and more recently CI Issac, member of the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR), who has dubbed the incident as communal outrage.
Last month, a three- member committee of ICHR, formed to review the names of freedom fighters from 1857 to 1947, considered removing the names of 387 “Moplah rioters”.
On September 25, the committee will hold an exhibition and a programme in Delhi’s Palika Park to pay homage to those who died a century ago. A day later, it will make a formal demand for building what could be India’s first genocide memorial. Events will be held across the country to commemorate the day.
