MP. Narayana Menon: Malabar Leader of the Congress and the Khilafat

Abstract

Malabar had witnessed the longest period in India, in the anti colonial struggles. Starting from 1498 when Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut with the intention of establishing Portuguese hegemony over the land, till the dawn of freedom in 1947 the struggle continued. Since 1498 the kings and the people of Malabar waged war in the land and the sea and the struggle continued. With the establishment of the British rule after defeating Tipu Sultan who had been ruling over the region, the anti colonial struggles took the shape of a holy war by the Mappila Muslims of Malabar against the British and landlord conspiracy. The landlords with the help of the British began to inflict harsh measures upon the tenants and used to evict them from the land without reasons. Since the low caste tenants, who as per the Hindu law couldn’t resist the landlords, the Mappila Muslims who were mostly converts from among the lower castes took arms under the leadership of religious leaders- Ulama and Sayyids. With landing of the Arab saint  Sayyid Alavi Thangal and his son Sayyid Fazl, in Malabar the whole affairs took the shape of a holy war and fighting took place at different parts of Malabar in which many Mappilas laid their lives as martyrs. With the establishment of Indian National Congress in 1885, the freedom struggle had taken the shape of a national movement based on Indian nationalism. Now the religious leaders, instead of a holy war wedded religion with nationalism and the whole affair of struggles became a part of a national struggle on an all India basis under the Congress leadership. The leadership of early days of the Congress was a platform of landlords and industrialists who often didn’t believe in struggles; instead, satisfied with submitting petitions to the Government asking for more representation in the ruling councils. The party stood for the demands of the upper castes and the Muslim representation was scanty. The whole programme of the Congress changed when Mahatma Gandhi stepped into the Congress politics as its president. He, in order to unite all the communities under the banner of the Congress and transform the party into a vibrant movement met the Muslim leaders like Maulana Muhammad Ali and his brother Shoukat Ali. To him a joint platform for the national movement was inevitable. This time the Muslims were in the warpath against the British for imposing harsh measures on the Khalifa of Turkey, who was regarded as the leader of the Muslim world.  Gandhi took the lead in establishing the Khilafat movement and the Congress gave full support for a combined movement against  the British.  In Malabar the Congress was not in a political mood, since many of its leaders were lawyers who always argued the cases in favour of the landlords in the courts. They were mostly easy chair politicians not believing in strikes and struggles.