Talk:Malabar Special Police

Not a common view

A quote from the main article: As they were run by the British government and often used to quell native disturbances, the MSP were seen as a symbol of colonial oppression, a view that continues to hold sway today.

This is only a textbook view and not a view by any section of the local society who do know anything about the antiquity of the Malabar Special Police.

It has been mentioned that the MSP was formed to quell the local revolt, which is generally called the Mappilla lahala {Malabar Rebellion}.

I quote from the Wikipedia page on this rioting:

At the time, the activities of the rebels were heavily criticised by leaders of the Indian national movement, including K.P. Kesava Menon, Annie Besant and C. Sankaran Nair. In one of her books, Annie Besant stated: "They Moplahs murdered and plundered abundantly, and killed or drove away all Hindus who would not apostatise. Somewhere about a lakh (100,000) of people were driven from their homes with nothing but their clothes they had on, stripped of everything. Malabar has taught us what Islamic rule still means, and we do not want to see another specimen of the Khilafat Raj in India."[21]

Citing narratives available to him regarding the actions of the Mappilas during the rebellion, C. Sankaran Nair wrote a strongly worded criticism of Gandhi and his support for the Khilafat Movement, accusing him of being an anarchist. He was highly critical of the "sheer brutality" of the atrocities committed on women during the rebellion, finding them "horrible and unmentionable". In particular, he referred to a resolution under the Zamorin Raja of the time and an appeal by the Rani of Nilambur. He further wrote:

"The horrid tragedy continued for months. Thousands of Mahomedans killed, and wounded by troops, thousands of Hindus butchered, women subjected to shameful indignities, thousands forcibly converted, persons flayed alive, entire families burnt alive, women it is said hundreds throwing themselves into wells to avoid dishonour, violence and terrorism threatening death standing in the way of reversion to their own religion. This is what Malabar in particular owes to the Khilafat agitation, to Gandhi and his Hindu friends."[22]

Second Dorsets to deplo[[File:y from Bangalore to Malabar in 1921 A conference held at Calicut presided over by the Zamorin of Calicut, the Ruler of Malabar issued a resolution:[23]

"That the conference views with indignation and sorrow the attempts made at various quarters by interested parties to ignore or minimise the crimes committed by the rebels such as: brutally dishonouring women, flaying people alive, wholesale slaughter of men, women and children, burning alive entire families, forcibly converting people in thousands and slaying those who refused to get converted, throwing half dead people into wells and leaving the victims to struggle for escape till finally released from their suffering by death, burning a great many and looting practically all Hindu and Christian houses in the disturbed areas in which even Moplah women and children took part and robbed women of even the garments on their bodies, in short reducing the whole non-Muslim population to abject destitution, cruelly insulting the religious sentiments of the Hindus by desecrating and destroying numerous temples in the disturbed areas, killing cows within the temple precincts putting their entrails on the holy image and hanging skulls on the walls and the roofs.]]

It may be mentioned that there would have been equal atrocities on the other side also. MSP was there to bring in law and order and save the lives of the common people. It has nothing to do with 'colonial suppression' and such shallow suggestions. --Ved from Victoria Institutions (talk) 08:26, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Low quality article editing

QUOTE: n the 1921 Moplah Revolt, Malabar (the present districts of Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad and parts of Thrissur) witnessed a wave of popular unrest and other law and order problems. END of QUOTE

The above statement can be utter nonsense. Mappilla lahala did not take place in the area known as North Malabar, north of Korapuzha. It was basically caused by the widespread conversion to Islam of Makkathaya Thiyyas of South Malabar, who after conversion refused to 'respect' their former caste superiors, and must have been disrespectful in the local vernacular.

Mappilla Lahala took place in South Malabar. Cannanore district (Kannur Jilla) and Wynad district (Wayanaad Jilla) had no connection to this incident other than that these places were geographically connected and northern parts of the Malabar district. The northern parts of Calicut district (Kozhikode Jilla)were also not part of the rioting and killing spree. Beyond all this, it was not a 'rebellion' in the manner this word is understood in English. It was just a communal clash between erstwhile Makkathaya Thiyyas (who had converted into Islam) and their former caste superiors, the Nairs and the Brahmincal classes. The converted-to-Islam Thiyyas were quite brutal to their former superior castes who they identified as their suppressors.

In Travancore area, also something similar had taken place when the Ehava-Shanar-Paraya-Pulaya castes tried to assert their social freedom. However, the Christian religion to which many had converted were controlled by Missionaries from the London Missionary society, who did not provoke the new Christians to violence. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.244.9 (talk) 10:12, 16 July 2014 (UTC)