Following the Indian Council of Historical Research’s (ICHR) decision to remove the names of Mappila or Moplah leaders from the ‘Dictionary of Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle 1857-1947‘, the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) Kerala unit released the ‘Dictionary Of Mappila Martyrs’ compiling the names of all the 387 martyrs.
The book “Dictionary of Mappila Martyrs” was handed over by Amjad Ali E M, State President of SIO Kerala to Alavi Kakkadan, a prominent historian and chairman of Variyamkunnath Kunjahammad Haji Foundation of India. Abdul Hakeem Nadwi, State secretary of Jama’athe Islami Kerala, Rashad V P, State secretary of SIO Kerala, and Sahel Bas Joint Secretary of SIO Malappuram were present at the launch of the event at Press Club Malappuram on Monday.
Amjad Ali EM said that the Malabar Uprising of 1921, which is described by historians as the first mass-scale uprising against the British in southern India, discomforts Hindutva politics and therefore the dictionary released by the governing Sangh Parivar can’t include Malabar martyrs.
A three-member panel, which reviewed the entries in the fifth volume of the Dictionary of Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle 1857-1947, brought out by the ICHR, recommended the deletion of the names of Mappila martyrs, saying that the 1921 uprising against the British was never part of the independence struggle but a fundamentalist movement focused on religious conversion.
This came close on the heels after former BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav said the Moplah uprising was one of the “first manifestations of the Taliban mindset in India“.
“The greatness of Variyan Kunnathu and Ali Musliyar lies in not getting into the good list of Sangh Parivar. And history will remember them for getting omitted from Sangh distorted history, therefore, to mention the names of the Mappila martyrs who were cut off by the ICHR is to express a strong stand against the Hindutva regime,” Amjad Ali said. Alavi Kakkadan, Abdul Hakeem Nadwi, Rashad V P, and Sahel Bas also expressed their opinions in the meet.
The 221 pages book released by SIO briefly introduces all the 387 Mappula leaders who fought British and Hindu feudal lords.
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