Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

It is not surprising that the repressive measures of the British, in particular the arrest of
Yakub Hassan evoked considerable resentment in the area. Khilafat movement had
spread to all the areas, and Tirurangadi was a strong centre of the Khilafatis, with Ali
Musaliar endorsing the Khilafat cause as well as supporting Congress. The simmering
resentment broke out as rebellion with the incident at Pukkottur on August 1, 1920, when
Kalathinkal Mohammed, the secretary of the Khilafat Committee at Pukkottur was
booked for theft on the complaint of Nilambur Raja In the spontaneous uprising that
followed people of Tirurangadi also participated. Although the people who participated in
the Pookottur incident came from all over South Malabar, the British decided that the
nerve centre of the operation was Tirurangadi. The actual reason for this conclusion is
unclear. There were no reports that the activities of the Khilafat committees were planned
or supervised from Tirurangadi. Instead, they came to this conclusion on the basis of the
prestige that Ali Musaliar enjoyed, and probably under the impression that Mappilas
could not be mobilized on such a large scale without the explicit sanction or leadership of
spiritual leaders like him. We have seen the British forming the same conclusion in the
case of Tharamal Thangals. Thus the British decided to arrest Ali Mealier and a party of
about 200 soldiers and policemen, surrounded Tirurangadi mosque, the Khilafat Office
and some Muslim houses during the early hours of 20 th August1920.Ali Musaliar was
taken unawares by this move of the police and military and later he testified that he saw
policemen entering the mosque in their uniforms and with their boots on. They could not
get Ali Musaliar but three others were arrested from the Khilafat office. The news of the
policemen desecrating the mosque and attempting to arrest Ali Musaliar spread far and
wide, by the devotees assembled for namaz in the mosque, and also by the crowds that
had assembled in the Tirurangadi chantha nearby (as it was a chantha day).Crowds
assembled from different parts, in front of the mosque during day time, and another mob
led by Kunhikader started from Tanur. The British police stopped them on the way, and