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MalabarMAnchor
Commentary on
William Logan’s ‘Malabar Manual’
It is foretold! The torrential flow of inexorable destiny!
VED from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS
Mappilla outrage list

It is foretold! The torrential flow of inexorable destiny!

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I am listing out the various Mappillas outrages that started around 1836, as found in the book, Malabar. It will be clearly noticed that the English administration is actually not a part of this fight. However, the Hindus and the Nayars could very easily make them a party in a belligerence they could not understand.


However, the entry of the English administration could worsen the fury of the Mappillas. For, in almost all the police actions on the Mappillas, it is found that it was the peons or Kolkars who went for the killing or maiming of the Mappillas. These peons or Kolkars were mostly Nayars. There is actually no mention of any Thiyya peon or Kolkar in this book, Malabar, even though, that is also possible.


The Mappillas were not willing to surrender to these peons and other native officials. For, these native-officials would not treat them with any kind of courtesy expected by a surrendered fighter in English. They would be verbally abused by lower indicant words such as Inhi/Nee, Eda, enthada, vaada &c. even if the Mappilla persons are of good personal stature.


These words, the natives of the land know, are capable of despoiling a human soul like no other thing can.


Now, before embarking on the listing, I need to mention this much also.


The native English-speakers in England are slowly heading on to the same mental trauma which the Mappilla persons endured.


It is like this. One Malabari Muslim man with some Arabian blood-mix told me thus: When I was a young boy, I used to address a fifty year old aashari (carpenter) by his mere name, ‘Govindan’. No one told me that this was a very bad thing. Later when I grew up, I understood that I was being very cruel. After that I have made it a point to address all the non-Muslim elder persons with a Chettan (respected elder brother) suffixed to their names.


Actually what he had been practising was the original Arabian language culture, in which even one’s own father is addressed by mere name.


However, he was a Malabari and not an Arab. That was the problem.


I was once told by a Malayalam speaker, who came from England, that the English people are utter rascals. They do not show respect to ‘our elder persons’. Actually, English systems are the best in terms of communication. However, if and when England gets filled with feudal-language speakers, they communication standards would not be acceptable. They would be found to be ‘rascals’, and the immigrant folks will be hell-bent on make them their slaves, in retribution.


The native-English would be very powerfully placed in a lower slot of the feudal language. They would be very slowly made to understand that there are higher social levels above them. It would be a real shocking information for them. However, they would be by-then like the oppressed lower castes of the South Asian subcontinent. With no energy to retaliate or escape. The feudal language words have clasping power which might be compared to the sticking cobwebs of the spiders.


It would be then that they would start creating the same outrages that the Mappillas did in Malabar. However, the Mappillas did this on escaping from their shackles. As to the native-English, they would start the outrages when they get to feel the sticky shackles slowly winding round their feet and body.



The Mappilla outrage list


1. On the 26th November 1836 Kallingal Kunyolan of Manjeri amsam, Pandalur desam in Ernad taluk, stabbed one Chakku Panikkar of the Kanisan (astrologer) caste, who subsequently died of his wounds. He also wounded two other individuals, and a fourth who had been employed to watch him, and fled to Nenmini amsam in Walluvanad taluk, whither he was pursued by the tahsildar, taluk peons and villagers. He was shot by the police on the 28th idem


2. On the 15th April 1837 one Ali Kutti of Chengara amsam, Kalpetta desam, Ernad taluk, inflicted numerous and severe wounds on one Chirukaranimana Narayana Mussat (a Brahman janmi), and took post in his own shop, where he was attacked by the tahsildar and the taluk peons, and shot by the taluk police on the following day.


3. On the 5th April 1839 Thorayampolakal Attan and another, of Pallipuram amsam, Walluvanad taluk, killed one Kelil Raman and then set fire to and burnt a Hindu temple, took post in another temple and there they were attacked by the tahsildar and his peons and were shot by a taluk peon.


4. On the 6th April 1830 Mambadtedi Kuttiathan stabbed and severely wounded one Kotakat Paru Taragan and then came among the police party, consisting of two tahsildars and others, who were occupied in framing a report connected with the preceding case, and stabbed and wounded a peon. He was captured, brought to trial, and sentenced to transportation for life.


5. On the 19th April 1840, in Irumbuli amsam, Ernad taluk, Paratodiyil Ali Kutti severely wounded one Odayath Kunhunni Nayar and another, set fire to Kidangali temple and took post in his house, where he was attacked by the tahsildar and his peons. He rushed out and was shot by a taluk police peon on the following day.


6. On the 5th April 1841 Tumba Mannil Kunyunniyan and eight others killed one Perumbali Nambutiri (a Brahman janmi) and another at Pallipuram in Walluvanad taluk, burnt the house of the latter victim as well as four other houses (belonging to the dependents of the Brahmans), the owner of one of which died of injuries then received. The Mappillas then established themselves in the Brahman’s house and defied the Government authorities. They were attacked and killed on the 9th idem by a party of the 36th Regiment Native Infantry and the police peons and villagers.


The chief criminal in this outbreak was one Kunyolan, and the cause assigned was the duplicity on the part of the Nambutiri Brahmans in the matter of a garden for which Kunyolan advanced Rs. 16, and of which he wished to remain in possession. Another Mappilla brought a suit in the Munsiff's Court to evict Kunyolan on the strength of a deed of melkanam obtained from the Brahmans.


7. On the 13th November 1841 Kaidotti Padil Moidin Kutti and seven others killed one Tottassori Tachu Panikkar and a peon, took post in a mosque, set the police at defiance for three days, and were joined by three more fanatics on the morning of the 17th idem.


8. On the 27th December 1841 Melemanna Kunyattan, with seven others, killed one Talappil Chakku Nayar and another, and took post in the adhikari’s house on the 28th idem. They rushed upon the police peons and villagers who had surrounded the house under the Ernad tahsildar’s directions, and were before the arrival of the detachment sent out from Calicut, all killed and their bodies were brought to Calicut and interred under the gallows.


9. On the 19th October 1843 Kunnancheri Ali Attan and five others killed one Kaprat Krishna Panikkar, the adhikari of Tirurangadi, and proceeded, at the suggestion of a seventh Mappilla who joined them afterwards, to the house of a Nayar in Cherur, and posting themselves in it, avowed not only the murder they committed, but their determination of fighting to death.


10. On the 19th December 1843 a peon was found with his head and hand all but cut off, and the perpetrators were supposed to be Mappilla fanatics of the sect known as Hal Illakkam.


11. On the 4th December 1843 a Nayar labourer was found dead with ten deep wounds on his body, and his murder was believed to be the work of the Hal Ilakkam sect just described.


12. On the 11th December 1843 Anavattatt Seliman and nine others killed one Karukamanna Govinda Mussat, the adhikari of Pandikad in the Walluvanad taluk, and a servant of his while bathing. They afterwards defiled two temples, broke the images therein, and took post in a house.


13. On the 26th May 1849 Chakalakkal Kammad wounded one Kanancheri Chiru and another and took post in a mosque. When the Chernad tahsildar (a Pathan) proceeded towards the mosque in the hope of inducing the murderer to surrender himself, he rushed forward with a knife, and a peon put an end to the fanatic on the same day.


14. On the 25th August 1849 Torangal Unniyan killed one Paditodi Teyyunni and with four others joined one Attan1 Gurikkal. They with others on the following day killed the servant of one Marat Nambutiri and two others and took post in the Hindu temple overlooking Manjeri, the headquarters of the Ernad taluk. They defiled the temple and in part burnt it.


15. On the 2nd October 1850 information was received that the sons of one Periambath Attan the Mappilla adhikari of Puliakod amsam in Ernad taluk had, with others, concerted to kill one Mungamdambalatt Narayana Mussat and to devote themselves to death in arms. Security was required of nine individuals on this account.


16. On the 5th January 1851 Choondyamoochikal Attan attacked and wounded severely a Government native clerk named Raman Menon, who had been employed in inspecting gingelly-oil seed (ellu) cultivation in Payanad in Ernad taluk in conjunction with the village accountant in view to settling the Government share, and he then shut himself up in the inspector’s house, setting the police at defiance. No persuasion could induce him to surrender himself. He declared he was determined to die a martyr. The tahsildar (a Mappilla) tried to induce him to deliver himself up, hut he utterly refused to do so.


17. On the 15th April 1851 Illikot Kunyunni and five others were reported as designing to break out and kill one Kotuparambat Komu Menon and another. Evidence of the fact was deficient and the accused were released, but it subsequently turned out that the information was only too true.


18. On the 22nd August 1851 six Mappillas killed one Kotuparambat Komu Menon (above referred to) and his servant on the high road between Manjeri and Angadipuram as they were returning home from the Mankada Kovilakam of the Walluvanad Raja. They were joined by three others, with whom they proceeded towards Komu Menon’s house. But finding a brother of Komu Menon’s ready to meet them with a gun and a war knife, they left the place and went to the house of Ittunni Rama Menon, another brother, who was then bathing in a tank close by. They killed Kadakottil Nambutiri, who was seated in the porch of the house, the family of Rama Menon escaping in the tumult.


19. The murderers next overtook Rama Menon, who had endeavoured to escape, and cut him down. Setting fire to the house, they marched towards the house of one Mudangara Rarichan Nayar, whom they wounded severely and who subsequently died of his wounds. They then set fire to the house of one Chengara Variyar.


They proceeded to the house of the Kulattur variyar, an influential janmi who had opposed the erection of a mosque. They were in the meantime joined by five others. On their arrival, the attendants and family escaped ; all the women and children were told by the fanatics to go away. They next killed two servants of the Variyars. Two of the junior Variyars escaped. But the old Variyar, a man of 79, probably shut himself up in a room of his house where the fanatics eventually discovered him.


The Hindus sent for the Mappilla chief men of the place and others. About fifty persons appeared, two of whom joined the insurgents, calling out “the chief pig is inside.” The old Variyar was then brought out into the paddy field adjoining his house, to a distance of sixty yards from the gatehouse, and one Pupatta Kuttiuttan and another there, in the sight of all the people assembled, hacked him to pieces, severing his head from his body.

20. On the 5th October 1851 information was received that Tottangal Mammad and three other Mappillas of Nenmini amsam, Walluvanad taluk, were found in possession of certain arms and were designing to commit an outrage.


21. On the 9th November 1851 information was received that Choriyot Mayan and eight others were designing to break out and kill one Kalattil Kesuvan Tangal, a wealthy and influential Hindu janmi of Mattanur in Kottayam taluk. Evidence was lacking, and the tahsildar omitted to report the matter.


On the night of 4th January 1852 the party named above and six others, making in all fifteen, supported by a large mob estimated at 200, proceeded to the house of the abovesaid Kalattil Tangal in Mattanur, Kottayam taluk. They butchered all the unhappy inmates (eighteen in all) and thus extirpated the family, wounded two other persons, and burnt the house on the following morning.


They then, unattended by the said mob, burnt four houses and a Hindu temple, killed four more individuals, defiled and damaged another Hindu temple, entered the palace of a Raja, took post there temporarily, defiled and destroyed two other Hindu temples, and finally fell on the 8th idem in a desperate and long-sustained attack on the house of the Kalliad Nambiar, another wealthy and influential janmi in Kalliad amsam of Chirakkal taluk.


A detachment under Major Hodgson off the 16th Regiment, consisting of two companies of that corps and 100 Europeans of the 94th Regiment, were sent out from Cannanore, but before they arrived on the scene, the Mappilla fanatics had been all killed by the country people, retainers of the Nambiar.


22. On the 5th January 1852 information was received that certain Mappillas intended to break out and kill one Padinyaredattil Ambu Nambiar, and security was taken from five of them.


23. On the night of the 28th February 1852 one Triyakalattil Chekku and fifteen other Mappillas of Melmuri and Kilmuri amsams in the Ernad taluk "set out to die and to create a fanatical outbreak.”


24. Ominous rumours of an intended Mappilla outbreak in the Kottayam taluk in April 1852 drove many of the Hindu inhabitants into the jungles.


25. On the night of the 28th April 1852 the house of Kannambat Tangal in Kottayam taluk was fired into and the out-buildings of the Kallur temple were set on fire. The tahsildar (a Hindu) was of opinion that it was done by Hindus wishing to profit by the absence of the Tangal, the great janmi of the locality.


26. In April-May 1852 two Cheramars (the property of Kudilil Kannu Kutti Nayar, peon of Chernad taluk), after embracing Muhammadanism, reverted to their original faith after the departure of Saiyid Fazl, through whose influence they had become converts. Some Mappillas did not relish this, and consequently determined to murder Kannu Kutti Nayar and the two Cheramars, and thus become Sahids (martyrs).


27. On the 9th August 1852 information was received that three Mappillas of Kurumbranad taluk had taken up a position in the house of the accountant of Puttur amsam in the same taluk, and had resolved to die as Sahids (martyrs). They wounded a Brahman and were on the 12th idem killed by the police, of whom two received wounds.


28. Two Mappilla fanatics, Kunnumal Moidin and Cherukavil Moidin, murdered a Brahman named Chengalary Vasudevau Nambutiri on the 10th September 1853.


29. In December 1854 Mr. Conolly proceeded on a tour to collect the war-knives through the heart of the Mappilla country, and brought in 2,725, and by the 31st of the following month of January 1855 (the latest date on which the possession of a war-knife was legal) the number of war-knives surrendered to the authorities amounted to the large number of 7,561.


The above are the Mappilla outrages in south Malabar in the year starting 1836 till the time this book, Malabar, was written. None of them were really directed against the English administration per se. The English officials came into the scene only as the officials responsible for the law and order. However, in current-day Indian academic history, the whole theme is twisted out to make it a freedom fight by the Mappillas. This contention more or less is utter nonsense, as is most of the other contentions of Indian academic history studies.


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Commentary                MMVol 1               MMVol 2

Book Profile


1. My aim


2. The information divide


3. The layout of the book


4. My own insertions


5. The first impressions about the contents


6. India and Indians


7. An acute sense of not understanding


8. Entering a terrible social system


9. The doctoring and the manipulations


10. What was missed or unmentioned, or even fallaciously defined


11. NONSENSE


12. Nairs / Nayars


13. A digression to Thiyyas


14. Designing the background


15. Content of current-day populations


16. Nairs / Nayars


17. The Thiyya quandary


18. The terror that perched upon the Nayars


19. The entry of the Ezhavas


20. Exertions of the converted Christian Church


21. Ezhava-side interests


22. The takeover of Malabar


23. Keralolpathi


24. About the language Malayalam


25. Superstitions


26. Misconnecting with English


27. Feudal language


28. Claims to great antiquity


29. Piracy


30. CASTE SYSTEM


31. Slavery


32. The Portuguese


33. The DUTCH


34. The French


35. The ENGLISH


36. Kottayam


37. Mappillas


38. Mappilla outrages against the Nayars and the Hindus


39. Mappilla outrage list


40. What is repulsive about the Muslims?


41. Hyder Ali


42. Sultan Tippu


43. Women


44. Laccadive Islands


45. Ali Raja


46. Kolathiri


47. Kadathanad


48. The Zamorin and other apparitions


49. The Jews


50. SOCIAL CUSTOMS


51. Hinduism


52. Christianity


53. Pestilence, famine etc.


54. British Malabar versus Travancore kingdom


55. Judicial


56. Revenue and administrative changes


57. Rajas


58. Forests


59. Henry Valentine Conolly


60. Miscellaneous notes


61. Culture of the land


62. The English efforts in developing the subcontinent


63. Famines


64. Oft-mentioned objections


65. Photos and pictures of the Colonial times


66. Payment for the Colonial deeds


67. Calculating the compensation



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