387 ‘Moplah martyrs’ to be removed from dictionary

Source: The Hindu

What is the News?

A three-member panel has recommended the removal of Malabar Rebellion leaders Variamkunnath Kunhamed Haji, Ali Musaliar and 387 other ‘Moplah martyrs’ from the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle.

Click Here to Read about Malabar Rebellion

What is the issue?

1. The Government of India had set up a three-member panel to review the entries in the fifth volume of the dictionary brought out by the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR).
2. The panel has recommended the deletion of the 1921 Malabar Rebellion leaders like Haji, Ali Musaliar and 387 others from the dictionary list.

Why has the panel recommended this? The panel has recommended this because:

1. Firstly, it felt that the 1921 Malabar rebellion was never part of the Independence struggle, and was a fundamentalist movement focused on religious conversion. None of the slogans raised by the rioters were in favour of nationalism and anti-British.
2. Secondly, Malabar rebellion leader Haji was a rioter who established a Sharia court and beheaded many Hindus.
3. Thirdly, many ‘Moplah martyrs’ facing trial died from disease or natural causes, and could not be treated as martyrs. Only a handful of them were executed by the government.