Ali Musliyar

Malabar rebellion The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I had a significant impact in heavily-Muslim Malabar, which had been prone to anti-colonial unrest since the early 19th century. Ali Musliyar formed an association of landless farmers and labourers in 1920, known as the Kudiyan Sangham. This group primarily protested against upper-caste Hindu landlords, who had secured agreements with the British on land ownership and evictions.

By June 1921, the Khilafat Movement had become integrated with the non-cooperation movement; the Khilafat leaders, Ali Musliyar among them, were increasingly active in anti-British protests, and Khilafat Movement activists were increasingly militant, regularly appearing as counter-protesters at demonstrations against the non-cooperation movement. That year, Malabar Muslims declared independence from British India, forming an independent state known as the Malayalam Kingdom. Led by Variyankunnath Kunjahammad Haji, the state adopted its own passport, currency and taxation system. This marked the beginning of the Malabar rebellion.

Following the beginning of the rebellion, rumours soon spread among Mappilas that British soldiers had destroyed the Mamparam mosque. As a result, widespread violence against the British, as well as wealthy Hindus, broke out. Though colonial troops soon gained the upper hand, the rebellion continued as a guerilla war. This led to additional deployments of British troops, and what historian Spencer C. Tucker refers to as "aggressive" patrolling. The revolt eventually came to an end in February 1922, after more than 1,000 Opponents of the Malabar rebels' inclusion have argued that their association with the Khilafat Movement makes them Islamic, rather than Indian martyrs; CI Isaac, a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Indian Council of Historical Research, said in 2021 that "The leadership was not for the cause of the country but for the religion. There were sharia courts, conversions and killings of Hindus. This cannot be considered for the dictionary of martyrs." Following the controversy, a three-member committee of ICHR members, including Isaac, publicly considered removing the Malabar rebels from the book.

Efforts to remove the Malabar rebels themselves became a source of backlash; member of parliament E. T. Mohammed Basheer described efforts to remove their names as "threatening and reprehensible", while multiple scholars who had worked with the ICHR resisted allegations that the rebellion had been anti-Hindu in nature, as well as claims that rebels had engaged in forced conversions of Hindus.