Historian M.G.S. Narayanan has said that the proposed removal of Malabar Rebellion protagonists Variamkunnath Kunhamed Haji and Ali Musaliar from the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle could be due to the changed political circumstances in the country. The recommendation to delete these names according to the changing interests of people was ‘not right and not good,’ he said.
However, he said that Kunhamed Haji could not be considered a freedom fighter. “ He was interested in freedom. But there is no need to place him in a position of stature,” the former ICHR chairman said.
Meanwhile, toeing the stance of Sangh Parivar organisations, BJP national vice president A.P Abdullakutty described Kunhamed Haji as ‘Kerala’s first Taliban leader.’
He told journalists in Kozhikode on Monday that erecting a memorial for Kunhamed Haji and glorying him as a freedom fighter was tantamount to distorting history. “Malabar Rebellion was neither a peasant revolt nor a freedom struggle. It was Hindu genocide,” Mr. Abdullakutty said.
