Hi, Everyone! The Moplahs of the Malabar area rose
in revolt, on August 20, 1921, and not only indiscriminately raped, killed, and
converted the Hindus but also killed Europeans and damaged Government property.
Their very worst act was ripping open
the womb of pregnant Hindu women and pulling the unborn baby out, then killing
both.
·
Gandhi remained
unmoved by these horrors . . . !
Here are some of his comments on the riots
themselves as well as the Moplahs:
Gandhi-quote
from his magazine, Young India,
September 8, 1921: “The Moplahs
are among the bravest in the land. They are god-fearing. Their bravery must be
transformed into purest gold.”
Another
Gandhi-quote: “Forcible conversions
are horrible things but Moplah bravery must commend admiration.” Mahatma
Gandhi: Political Saint and Unarmed Prophet, Dhananjay Keer; page 401.
“Gandhi did not feel much for the rapes and murders
and forcible conversions. He had declared that he would sacrifice a million men
for his principles! Three months earlier he had said: ‘I think that only
god-fearing people can become true noncooperators.’ And now he hailed the
murderous Moplahs as god-fearing men!” ibid;
page 403.
Gandhi’s calm
acceptance of the violent Moplah riots:
“Hindus must find the causes of Moplah fanaticism. They will find that they are
not without blame. They have hitherto not cared for the Moplah. It is no use
now becoming angry with the Moplahs or Mussalmans in general.” The collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol.
22, page 269; Navjivan Trust, Ahmedabad, 1966.
Gandhi-quote in his Young India of September 29, 1921: “The ending of the Moplah revolt is a matter not only of urgency, but of
simple humanity. The Hindus must have the courage and the faith to feel that
they can protect their religion in spite of such fanatical eruptions. … Be the
Moplahs be ever so bad, they deserve to be treated as human beings.”
Here is how Keer records it in his biography of
Gandhi:
“It
was not only the Muslims in the Khilafat Conference and the Muslim League who
ignored the criminality of the barbaric Moplah action in Malabar, but the
Congress under the truth-seeker did so by declaring there were only three cases
of forcible-conversions! It showed to what level the Gandhi-dominated Congress
had fallen in placating the Muslims, Shraddhanand observes in his Liberator of August 26, 1926, that ‘that the original
resolution condemned the Moplah’s wholesale for killing of Hindus and burning
of Hindu homes and the forcible conversions to Islam.’ But in passing such a
resolution the Gandhian Hindu leaders trained in the art of surrendering and
placating the Muslims had done their job to the satisfaction of their master
[Gandhi].”[1]
There was some attempt made by the Congress to deny
the Khilafat roots of the Moplah riots. Among the 450 plus pages of the
Government communications of The Mapilla
Rebellion,[2]
I found the banner of the Moplah riots, which clearly gives this the lie!
Khilafat. Allah is Great.
Old and weak, young and strong,
Those who walk, who are rich, poor,
Armed and unarmed, hale and hearty, halt [3] and infirm,
Let everyone, in godlike
guise set forthwith to battle.
There were a spate of riots, especially in Mumbai
and Bengal, during the visit of the Prince of Wales. Police were killed then
too.
“When
the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) visited Bombay in November 1921, protests
degenerated into mob violence with looting. Some policemen were beaten to
death; in three days of riots 58 Bombay citizens were killed, and four hundred
were injured.” World Peace Efforts since
Gandhi, Sanderson Beck; World Peace Communications.
Any one of these (and more) should have shocked the
nonviolent soul of the Mahatma, and moved him into putting an end to his
Noncooperation Movement.
·
Why
then did Gandhi wait until the end of the year of Noncooperation to call off
the Movement using Chauri Chaura incident as an excuse . . . ?
Anurupa
Mahatma Gandhi Facts: Gandhi Revealed
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