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കമ്പ്യൂട്ടർ ബ്രൗസറിൽ ഈ പേജിലെ ഏതെങ്കിലും ലിങ്കിൽ ക്ളിക്ക് ചെയ്തുകൊണ്ട് മറ്റൊരു സ്ഥാനത്തേക്ക് നീങ്ങിയാൽ, തിരിച്ച് പഴയ സ്ഥാത്തേക്ക് വരാനായി ചെയ്യേണ്ടത്, കീ-ബോഡിലെ Alt കീ അമർത്തിപ്പിടിച്ചുകൊണ്ട് back-arrow അമർത്തുക എന്നതാണ്.
മൊബൈൽ ഉപകരണങ്ങളിൽ, സ്ക്രീനിൽ താഴെ കാണുന്ന back-arrow സ്പർശിച്ചാൽ, നേരത്തെ ഉള്ള സ്ഥാനത്തേക്ക് നീങ്ങാം.
The Sastra says the peculiar duty of a king is conquest.
it may be safely concluded that, after the retirement of the Chinese, the power and influence of the Muhammadans were on the increase, and indeed there exists a tradition that in 1489 or 1490 a rich Muhammadan came to Malabar, ingratiated, himself with the Zamorin, and obtained leave to build additional Muhammadan mosques. The country would no doubt have soon been converted to Islam either by force or by conviction, but the nations of Europe were in the meantime busy endeavouring to find a direct road to the pepper country of the East.
“They (the Rajas) have (stimulated perhaps in some degree by the uncertainty as to their future situations) acted in their avidity to amass wealth, more as the scourges and plunderers than as the protectors of their respective little states.”
Of the 82 hindu victims, the caste status of 78 is determinable. Of these, 63 were members of high castes (23 Nambudiri brahmins, six non-Malayali brahmins and 34 others, very largely Nairs) and the other 15 of castes ranking below Nairs in the hierarchy,, eleven being Cherumarsj traditionally field slaves in Malayali society
the people have been driven to desperation and forced to take the law into their own hands by some intolerable tyranny
“it is impossible for people to live quietly while the Atheekarees (adhigaris) and Jenmies... treat us in this way.”
As Conolly noted "The low Moplah, never over-courteous in his manner, is pleased at an order which brings (as he thinks) his superiors in rank and education to his own low level
Another of the Tangal’s orders, that every Moplah should use the polite form of the second person when conversing with Nairs only when the latter used the same, was similarly exceeded.
Of course it was open to any hindu wishing to mitigate the formidable array of sanctions he was subject to at the hands of the jenmi to do so by becoming a muslim.
In fact it was commonly observed by British administrators that considerable numbers of low-caste hindus were exploiting this opportunity.
This is not to say that high-caste hindus always readily accepted the relaxation of caste restrictions the conversion of, say, a Cheruman to Islam was supposed to entail, and collisions between low-caste converts and Nairs were sometimes the result.
As Logan stated in 1887, in the event of a Cheruman convert being ‘"bullied or beaten the influence of the whole Muhammadan community comes to his aid” and that “with fanaticism still rampant the most powerful of landlords dares not to disregard the possible consequences of making a martyr of his slave”.
Indeed, during British rule, at least as late as the end of the outbreak period, should a jenmi have any important project in hand, his adian was expected to assist “with his money if need be, with his testimony true or false, and on occasions with his strong right arm”.
The “smallest show of independence” was “resented as a personal affront”,
Even so, there seems little doubt that this vassal relationship weakened under British rule which offered alternative means of protection to the adian ...
Of course it was open to any hindu wishing to mitigate the formidable array of sanctions he was subject to at the hands of the jenmi to do so by becoming a muslim.
The Zamorin of Calicut, it was noted that his feelings were “for the Nairs, Namburis and Brahmins, who returned with him from banishment in Travancore,
Even so, the earliest years of British rule in Malabar saw the influence of the Company’s European servants undermined by that of the Rajas whom they had placed between themselves and the people
Quite apart from the obstacle to centralised rebel organisation constituted by the jealousies of the Moplah Muppans, each with his own local power-base,
Thus in 1894, in a fatwa (judgement) condemning that year’s outbreak, a kazi of Calicut laid emphasis on the fact that the urban areas of the coast were free from these disturbances, which occurred only in the rural interior where the muslims were less “respectable”.
The unanimous opinion of those who commented on the question was that the Ernad Moplah’s ignorance of Islam was abject.
for nothing was more chilling to the local hindus than the thought of frenzied fanatics for whom death not only held no fears but was eagerly sought.
Perhaps it was partly because “the Moplah [was] only formidable when under the effects of fanaticism that the despised coolie and abused tenant was attracted to such a suicidal form of action in which even war-like Nairs in possession of arms “rushed into the jungle, climbed trees, and ... descended into wells leaving their wives and children and their property at the mercy of (a) gang” of outbreak participants.
In 1822 it had been noted by H. S. Graeme, then commissioner in Malabar that the low-caste hindu generally refrained from “appealing to a superior tribunal against the authority” of his jenmi.
“what is the loss to the Nairs and Numboories if a piece of ground capable of sowing five Parrahs of seed be allotted for the construction of a Mosque? Let those hogs (the soldiers) come here, we are resolved to die”
Thus in 1852, H. V. Conolly noted that hindu jenmis were at times “very averse to the introduction of Settlers of the Moplah persuasion in their vicinity”
Inferior castes, however, cannot thus speak of their houses in the presence of the autocratic Nambutiri. In lowliness and self-abasement they have, when talking to such an one, to style their houses “dungheaps,” and they and their doings can only be alluded to in phrases every one of which is an abasement and an insult.
On the very day (17th February) that the Government appointed Mr. Strange as Special Commissioner, Mr. Conolly reported that 10,000 to 12,000 Mappillas, “great numbers of whom were armed” met at Tirurangadi and held a close conclave with the Tangal on rumours being spread that he was at once to be made a prisoner and disgraced
Mr. Strange was directed to report whether the Tangal should be brought to a formal trial, or treated as a State prisoner, or be induced to quit the district, quietly.
But meanwhile Mr. Conolly had been successful in his negotiations to induce Saiyid Fazl to depart peaceably. The Tangal avowed that he had done nothing “to deserve the displeasure of the Government ; that he repudiated the deeds of the fanatics ; and that it was his misfortune that a general blessing, intended to convey spiritual benefits to those alone who acted in accordance with the Muhammadan faith, should be misinterpreted by a few parties who acted in contradiction to its precepts.”
But he added “as his blessing was sometimes misunderstood and his presence in the country unfortunately had led to deeds of horror, he was willing, if the Government chose it, to end further embarrassment by leaving Malabar and taking up his permanent abode among his people in Arabia.
Mr. Conolly on his own responsibility then acted upon this proposal, a measure which the Government afterwards approved, and on the 19th March 1852 the Tangal, with his family, companions and servants (fiftyseven persons in all), set sail for Arabia.
In consequence, the Madras government reluctantly decided on the appointment of T. L. Strange’s Special Commission,
In 1849 Conolly remarked that seldom did “a Moplah of the lower order” pass the grave of any participant in earlier outbreaks “but in silence and with an attitude of devotion, such as is usual in this district in passing a mosque”
In 1822 Madras Governor General Sir Thomas Munro ascribed Mappilas as the "worst race in Malabar" and the "Most hostile" to the British administration'.
the Kottala Mappila family and other wealthy Mappilas were trying to increase their land possessions in the village.
Ominous rumours of an intended Mappilla outbreak in the Kottayam taluk in April 1852 drove many of the Hindu inhabitants into the jungles.
For a brief period in 1852 the issue in fact seems to have reached something of a climax with Syed Fazl, the Mambram Tangal, using his influence to uphold the Moplah’s insistence that all his caste-fellows should receive less contemptuous treatment than the Nair was accustomed to mete out to low castes. The campaign seems to have centred on the demand that the high-caste hindu should not fail to make use of the respectful form of the second person when addressing Moplahs.
.'where are the Ameen sent by District Munsif to attach the land on which the mosque was being erected and the Kolkars and the pig who oppose the erection of the mosque'
So early as 1702, the year in which British rule commenced, a proclamation was issued by the Commissioners against dealing in slaves. A person offering a slave for sale was to be considered as a thief.
Vessels used in trade (except fisher-boats) were to be confiscated. But the proclamation was not to prevent the privileged superior castes from purchasing the children of famine-stricken parents, as had been customary, on condition that the parents might repurchase their children, as had also been customary, on the advent of better times.
A report was called for, and Mr. Vaughan in his letter of 24th August 1822 merely said that the slaves were under the protection of the laws. The general question of slavery was not, however, allowed to drop—as, indeed, at that time it was not likely to be—for the British public mind was in great excitement on a question of the kind nearer home.
The Directors on learning what had been done "entirely approved” of the measures adopted, and requested the Government to consider how to extend similar measures to the slaves of private owners, and urged the necessity of carrying out the measures with "extreme caution”.
This was contained in the Directors’ despatch of 17th August 1838, and in penning it they evidently had before their eyes the fear of being heavily mulcted after the West Indian fashion in compensation to owners if any overt act was taken towards publicly recognising a general emancipation of slaves.
“to watch the subject of the improvement of the condition of the Cherumar with that interest which it evidently merits, and leave no available means untried for effecting that object.”
.... Mr. E. B. Thomas, the Judge at Calicut, written in strong terms on 24th November 1841 a letter to the Sadr Adalat, in which he pointed out a number of facts which had come judicially under his notice. Women in some taluks fetched higher prices in order to breed slaves
The average cost of a young male under ten years was about Rs. 3-8-0, of a female somewhat less. An infant ten months old was sold in a court auction on 10th August 1841 for Rs. 1-10-6 independent of the price of its mother.
And in a recent suit, the right to twenty-seven slaves was the “sole matter of litigation, and it was disposed of on its merits.
In a second letter, dated 24th August 1842, Mr. E. B. Thomas pointed out that the slaves had increased in numbers from 144,000 in census 1835 to 159,000 in census 1842, and he observed that “no gradual extinction of slavery is really going
It was apparently these letters of Mr. E. B. Thomas which eventually decided the Board of Diroctors to send out orders to legislate in the matter, for in their despatch of 27th July 1842 they first sent orders “for the entire abolition of slavery”,
On the passing of the Act, its provisions were widely published throughout Malabar by Mr. Conolly, the Collector, and he explained to the Cherumar that it was their interest as well as their duty to remain with their masters if treated kindly.
The Cherumar are supposed to be so styled because of their low stature ((Cheru = small) but low feeding produces low stature,
He proclaimed “The Government will not order a slave who is in the employ of an individual to forsake him and go to the service of another claimant; nor will the Government interfere with the slave’s inclination as to where he wishes to work.
Any person claiming a slave as janmam, kanam or panayam, the right of such claim or claims will not be investigated into at any of the public offices or courts.
In the other portions of the proclamation, he closely adhered to the language of the Act.
These measures in due course received the cordial approval of the Court of Directors, who, in their despatch of 30th July 1845, wrote as follows :
“It would defeat the very object in view to create any estrangement between them and their masters, and , moreover would be an act of injustice and bad faith of which the masters would be entitled to complain.
The caste is very scantily clad; in many places the men do not wear cloth at all round their waists, but substitute for it a fringe of green loaves.
In the latter also, in outlying parts, both men and women are still afraid to avail themselves of the privilege of using the public roads.
In passing from one part of the country to another they tramp along through the marshes in mud, and wet often up to their waists, rather than risk the displeasure of their lords and masters by accidentally polluting them while using the public roads.
They work very hard for the pittance they receive; in fact nearly all the riceland cultivation used to be in former days carried on by them.
The influx of European planters, who offer good wages, has had a marked effect in releasing this class from some of their bonds, and the hold which their masters had over them has been proportionately relaxed.
It is said that the difficulty of providing for their woman is the chief obstacle to their complete release from their shackles. The women must have dwellings of some sort somewhere, and the masters provide the women with huts and allow their men to go to work on plantations on condition that they return in good time for the rice cultivation and hand over a considerable portion of their earnings.
The Cherumar even yet have not realised what public opinion in England would probably have forced down their throats fifty years ago, and there is reason to think that they are still, even now, with their full consent, bought and sold and hired out, although, of course, the transaction must be kept secret for fear of the penalties of sections 370, 371, etc., of the Indian Penal Code, which came into force on 1st January 1802 and which was the real final blow at slavery in India.
He further in his reply expressed surprise at his not being “allowed to follow and be guided by our ancient customs” in the slaughter of erring Mappillas.
He, after having food from a nearby Mappila house, grabbed a knife from a Teerman, cut down a Nair youth whom he had never seen before and took refuge in a mosque.
The Tehsildar being a Muslim proceeded towards the mosque in the hope of inducing the murderer to surrender. He rushed outside with a knife. The peon who was in the Company of Tehsildar encountered him and put to death'.
But Mr. Strange went beyond this and proposed that the force should be exclusively composed of Hindus, a measure which it is needless to say was not approved by the Government. The Government also, on similar grounds, refused to entertain his proposals for putting restrictions on the erection of mosques as being a departure from the policy of a wise and just neutrality in all matters of religion.
In 1851, after a period in which Collector H. V. Conolly had deliberately tried to increase the number of muslims in the public services,
.as Hitchcock observed, the Ernad Moplah would brook no control from hindus or north Malabar Moplahs.
In the 1830s, for example, it was reported that in one part of north Malabar a Poolyan’ (Pulayan or Cherumar) might not approach within ten paces of a Vettuvan, a ‘Parian’ (Parayan) was obliged to remain the same distance from a ‘Poolyan’ and a ‘Nyadee’ (Nayadi) twelve paces from a ‘Poolyan’.
Some years later, H. V. Conolly reported that the abhorrence of the Ernad Cherumar to the vicinity of the Nayadi was so great (being “equal... to what is felt by the highest Cast Brahmin”) that nothing could induce the former to work near to the latter.
The students at the college are supported by the Ponnani towns people, the custom being to quarter two students in each house. The students study in the public or Jammat or (as it is sometimes called) Friday Mosque, and in their undergraduate stage they are called Mullas. There is apparently very little system in their course of study up to the taking of the degree of Mutaliyar, i.e elder or priest. The word is sometimes pronounced Musaliyar, and very often by ignorant people as Moyaliyar.
Genuine Arabs, of whom many families of pure blood are settled on the coast, despise the learning thus imparted and are themselves highly educated in the Arab sense.
The Mahomiedan traveller Alberuni speaking of the Indian Vedas of his time (10th century) said;—
“Veda means knowledge of that which was before unknown. It is a religious system which, according to the Hindus, comes from God, and was promulgated by the mouth of Brahman.
The Brahmins recite the Veda without understanding its meaning, and in the same way they learn it by heart, the one receiving it from the other.
Only few of them learn its explanation, and still less is the number of those who master the contents of the Veda and their interpretation to such a degree as to be able to hold a theological disputation.
The Brahmins teach the Veda to the Kshatriyas. The latter learn it, but are not allowed to teach it, not even to a Brahmin. The Vaisya and Sudra are not allowed to hear it, much less to pronounce and recite it.”
This description of the Veda is as true to-day as when Alberuni saw India thirty generations ago.
This led to ...... the rapid decline out of traditional and ancient Indian education and vocational systems and sciences.
But at Ponnani there exists a Muhammadan college, founded, it is said, some six hundred years ago by an Arab named Zoyn-ud-din. He took or received the title of Mukhaddam, an Arabic word meaning the first or foremost in an assembly, etc. He married a Mappilla (indigenous Muhammadan) woman, and his descendants in the female line have retained the title. The present Mukhaddam at Ponnani is the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth in the line of succession.
The students at the college are supported by the Ponnani towns people, the custom being to quarter two students in each house. The students study in the public or Jammat or (as it is sometimes called) Friday Mosque, and in their undergraduate stage they are called Mullas. There is apparently very little system in their course of study up to the taking of the degree of Mutaliyar, i.e elder or priest. The word is sometimes pronounced Musaliyar, and very often by ignorant people as Moyaliyar.
There is no examination, but the most diligent and most able of the Mullas are sought out by the Mukhaddam and are invited by him to join in the public reading with him at the “big lamp” in the Jammat Mosque. This invitation is considered as a sign of their fitness for the degree, which they assume without further preliminaries.
Genuine Arabs, of whom many families of pure blood are settled on the coast, despise the learning thus imparted and are themselves highly educated in the Arab sense. ---------------- They have a great regard for the truth, and in their finer feelings they approach nearer to the standard of English gentlemen than any other class of persons in Malabar.