Malabar rebellion
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The Moplah rebellion (also known as the Mopla riots) was a British-Muslim and Hindu-Muslim conflict in Kerala that occurred in 1921. During the early months of 1921, multiple events including the Khilafat movement and the Karachi resolution fueled the fires of rebellion. A rumour spread amongst the Moplahs that the British rule had ended and the Islamic Caliphate had been re-established at Delhi.
According to one view, the reasons for the Moplah rebellion was religious revivalism among the Muslim Moplahs, and dissatisfaction of the land-owning Hindu Nair community and the British administration that inevitably supported the latter.
Rebellion and response
On Aug 20, the first incident of the rebellion occurred at Tirurangadi when the District Magistrate of Calicut with the help of troops attempted to arrest a few Moplah leaders who were in the possession of arms, resulting in clashes.
Arsonists took to the street, burning and destroying government property. The initial focus was on the British, but when the limited presence of the British was eliminated, Moplahs turned their full attention on the Hindus. One Mohommed Haji was proclaimed the Caliph of the Moplah Khilafat and flags of Islamic Caliphate were flown. Ernad and Walluvanad were declared Khilafat kingdoms.
By the end of 1921 the situation was brought back under control. The British administration raised a special quasi-military (or Armed Police) battalion, the Malabar Special Police (MSP). These police recruits were trained by the British Indian Army, and during its initial days the recruits were non-Muslims. The MSP attacked the rioters with an iron-hand, and the rioters were subdued.
Arrested Muslim rioters were to be transferred to the Central Prison in Pothanur (near Coimbatore). They were bundled into a Goods/Freight wagon, and the train started its journey. At Pothanur it was found out that the jail was full to its maximum capacity, and the prisoner's were ordered to be taken back. During this time, 66 of the 100 or so rioters had suffocated to death in the closed iron wagon.
According to official records, the government lost 43 troops with 126 wounded while the Moplahs lost 3,000 (with Moplah accounts putting the number at over 10,000). Though this was an act of courage against British rule, it was also an act of savagery against the Hindus. Due to this, it is also considered as a jihad against all non-Muslims (Hindu and British) to impose Islamic rule in the area.
Interpretation
It is important to note that the Moplah riots came just after the all-India Khilafat agitation supported by Muslim leaders and Mahatama Gandhi to avoid the elimination of the Islamic Caliphate. The Islamic caliphate was eventually abolished in 1924 by Mustafa Kemal Attaturk the dictator, strongman and father of Modern Turkey. When Attaturk did that he "pulled out the rug" from the whole Khilifat movement. This offers a strong indication that a large section of the Moplahs also saw the affair as a jihad or holy war against the British.
The reduction of the Moplah rebellion to only a farmers vs. landlords issue is a leftist/communist interpretation of history that gives every human conflict the colour of a class struggle -- oppressed peasants and workers revolting against the parasitic landlords and industrialists -- while refusing to recognize any other motive like religion, ethnicity or racialism.