Variyankunnath Kunjahammad Haji: Military Leader of the Malabar Rebellion

Variyankunnath Kunjahammad Haji was the military commander of the Malabar Rebellion of 1921–1922. Where Ali Musliyar provided the religious authority, Haji provided the military leadership — organising forces, establishing a parallel government with its own administration, taxation, and currency, fighting a series of engagements against British troops, and maintaining control over portions of the Ernad and Valluvanad taluks for approximately six months before his capture and execution.

He is the subject of the same historiographical controversy that surrounds Ali Musliyar. The Indian Council of Historical Research listed him in its Dictionary of Martyrs of India's Freedom Struggle and subsequently considered removing him from it (2022). The academic scholarship treats the rebellion as a complex event with anti-colonial, agrarian, and communal dimensions. This article follows that approach and does not reduce Haji to a single characterisation.

Early Life

Family and Background

Haji was born at Nellikkuth, near Manjeri, in the Malabar district of the Madras Presidency. The birth year is given variously as 1875, 1876, or 1877 in different sources. He was born into a Muslim Mappila family. His father, Variamkunnath Moideenkutty Haji, was a merchant, farmer, and local leader who had been imprisoned and deported to the Andaman Islands for participation in the 1894 Mannarkkad Rebellion — an earlier episode in the long sequence of Mappila disturbances against British authority and the landlord (janmi) system.

The Indian Express reports that "he was born into an affluent Muslim family sometime in the 1870s, and grew up hearing stories of the torture and injustice meted out by the British to the locals and to his own family." The deportation of his father and the seizure of family lands by the colonial authorities are recorded as formative experiences.

Education and Travels

Haji received basic Islamic education at a local madrasa and also learned Malayalam and basic English. He travelled to Mecca — spending approximately five years there around 1899–1905, and making subsequent trips, the last in 1914. The title "Haji" reflects his performance of the pilgrimage. He also spent time in Bombay, where he reportedly learned Urdu, Hindi, and English and conducted business.

Earlier Involvement in Resistance

At approximately twenty years of age, Haji participated in an armed confrontation at Manjeri in 1896, connected to the eviction of tenants from land controlled by the Manjeri royal family (kovilakam). R.H. Hitchcock's official colonial account records this incident and notes Haji's involvement. To avoid subsequent arrest, Haji left for Mecca.

On his return from his last trip to Mecca in 1914, Hitchcock records that he "was carefully looked after and appeared grateful; anyway for six years he lived an irreproachable life" — that is, from 1914 until the eruption of the rebellion in August 1921.

The Malabar Rebellion and Haji's Leadership

Assumption of Military Command

The rebellion began on 20 August 1921 after British forces fired on a crowd at Tirurangadi during an attempt to arrest Khilafat committee members. Ali Musliyar sent word to Haji of the events. Haji assumed military leadership of the rebellion, which Hitchcock's account characterises as a sudden reactivation after years of inactivity.

The Parallel Government

Around 25 August 1921, Haji declared an independent state at Manjeri — an event reported in the contemporary press. The Times of India (January 2022) cites The New York Times report of 29 August 1921: "Mappila rebels declared self-rule in Malabar."

The parallel government had a defined structure: Haji divided the territory into divisions, each under a subordinate leader, with military heads responsible for recruitment, training, and procurement of weapons. The state reportedly introduced its own passport, currency, and system of taxation, and abolished the janmi (landlord) system.

Communication with External Parties

On 7 December 1921, the Detroit Free Press and The Baltimore Sun both reported a cablegram from Haji addressed to the "Friends of Freedom for India." In it he stated: "We are at war with England. We are fighting for the independence of India, and we are doing exactly what the Americans did to free America from British domination." He also denied reports of forced conversions of Hindus, attributing reported cases to British agents and spies who had infiltrated his forces.

This cablegram is significant as a primary source for how Haji characterised his own actions to an international audience at the time.

Military Engagement

Haji's forces fought a series of engagements against British troops, including at Pandikkad, Pookkottur, and Areekode. His military included Khilafat movement supporters and reportedly a number of former soldiers who had served in the First World War. The engagement at Pookkottur on 26 August 1921 is separately documented.

Hitchcock's Observations

R.H. Hitchcock, who took part in suppressing the rebellion, provides the most detailed colonial-era account. His observations are a primary source but must be treated as a perspective from within the suppressing force. He records that:

• "Khilafat to him was a Turkish matter, not Indian" — suggesting Haji's motivation was primarily local and anti-colonial rather than pan-Islamic.
• Haji was "only against the Hindus who supported the Government" rather than against Hindus as a community.
• Haji did not loot the Namboothiri bank at Manjeri, and indeed is recorded as having taken measures to protect it.

The Controversy Over Violence Against Hindus

The question of whether the rebellion involved systematic violence against the Hindu population is the core of the historiographical dispute. The sources present conflicting accounts:

• A Congress investigation at the time claimed that reported forced conversions were "not even more than three in number."
• The colonial District Magistrate reported approximately 180 cases of conversion about which "reliable information" had been received.
• An Arya Samaj source cited in later historiography claimed approximately 600 Hindus killed and 2,500 forcibly converted.

Haji's own cablegram denied the conversions, attributed reported cases to British provocateurs, and stated that those responsible had been "put to death."

This article does not adjudicate between these claims. The variance between them is too large to resolve from the available sources, and the question remains politically active in contemporary India.

Capture and Execution

Haji was captured by British forces in January 1922, after approximately six months of resistance. He was executed by shooting on 20 January 1922 at Kottakkunnu, Malappuram. His body was cremated by the British, and the location of his remains is unknown.

Legacy and Historiographical Status

The ICHR Listing and Delisting

Haji's name was included in the fifth volume of the Dictionary of Martyrs: India's Freedom Struggle (1857–1947), published by the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) under the Ministry of Culture. In 2022 the ICHR considered removing his name and those of 386 others associated with the Malabar Rebellion from the dictionary, on the grounds that the rebellion was "a fundamentalist movement bent on religious conversion and not a part of the freedom struggle." The Onmanorama report (March 2022) confirmed the ICHR's approval of the recommendation to exclude approximately 200 Malabar Rebellion figures.

A group of historians subsequently wrote an open letter opposing the delisting (Times of India, April 2022). The matter remains politically contested.

Scholarly Assessment

The academic literature, principally Hardgrave's 1977 Modern Asian Studies article and Stephen Frederic Dale's Islamic Society on the South Asian Frontier (Clarendon Press, 1980), treats the rebellion as a complex phenomenon with roots in agrarian grievance, Khilafat sentiment, and communal tension — not reducible to any single narrative.

Commemoration

A memorial town hall in Malappuram is named after Haji. A proposed Malayalam film (Variyankunnan) attracted controversy, reflecting the continuing political sensitivity of the subject.

Historiographical Note

The sources for Haji's life are: R.H. Hitchcock's colonial account (a primary source with an obvious perspective); the contemporary American newspaper reports of his cablegram (primary sources); the Indian Express explainer (reputable journalism); and the academic literature on the Malabar Rebellion (Hardgrave, Dale). The ICHR Dictionary of Martyrs is an institutional source whose status is itself now contested.

Haji's birth year, details of his education, and the specifics of his family life before the rebellion derive from secondary compilations whose ultimate sources are not independently verifiable from the material available to this article.

The characterisation of the rebellion — including the numbers of Hindus killed or forcibly converted, and whether Haji's government constituted a legitimate political entity or an armed insurrection — is presented as contested because that is what it is. The Indian state's own position has shifted within the period 2020–2022. Academic scholarship treats it as complex. This article follows the scholarship.

References and Further Reading

Primary Islamic Sources

• Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah (2:190) — "Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress." (Principles of warfare invoked in Khilafat discourse)
• Quran, Surah An-Nisa (4:75) — "And what is [the matter] with you that you fight not in the cause of Allah and [for] the oppressed among men, women, and children." (On fighting for the oppressed — invoked in agrarian resistance)
• Quran, Surah Al-Anfal (8:60) — "And prepare against them whatever you are able of power." (Military preparedness)
• Quran, Surah Ash-Shura (42:39) — "And those who, when tyranny strikes them, they defend themselves." (Self-defence against oppression)

Classical Islamic Sources

• Al-Mawardi, Abu al-Hasan. Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah. [Original 11th century CE — on political authority and the caliphate; the theological framework of the Khilafat movement]
• Al-Sarakhsi, Shams al-Din. Sharh al-Siyar al-Kabir. [Original 11th century CE — Islamic law of war and rebellion]
• Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. Hujjat Allah al-Balighah. [Original 18th century CE — Indian Islamic reform tradition]
• Ibn Khaldun, Abd al-Rahman. Al-Muqaddimah. [Original 14th century CE — on political communities, solidarity, and rebellion]

Academic and Scholarly Sources

• Hardgrave, Robert L. Jr. "The Mappilla Rebellion, 1921: Peasant Revolt in Malabar." Modern Asian Studies 11, no. 1 (1977): 57–99. Cambridge University Press. [Standard academic article on the rebellion]
• Dale, Stephen Frederic. Islamic Society on the South Asian Frontier: The Mappilas of Malabar, 1498–1922. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980. [The standard monograph on the Mappila community]
• Hitchcock, R.H. A History of the Malabar Rebellion, 1921. Madras: Government Press, 1925. [The official colonial account; primary source for the British military perspective]
• Panikkar, K.N. Against Lord and State: Religion and Peasant Uprisings in Malabar, 1836–1921. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989. [On the tradition of Mappila resistance]
• Wood, Conrad. "The First Moplah Rebellion against British Rule in Malabar." Modern Asian Studies. Cambridge University Press. [On earlier Mappila disturbances]

Further Reading

• Indian Express. "Who was Variyamkunnath Kunjahammed Haji?" June 2020. [Reputable journalism providing biographical overview]
• Times of India. "Variamkunnath's Hindu comrades." January 2022. [On Hindu participation alongside the rebellion]
• Onmanorama. "ICHR removes Variyamkunnath Haji, other Malabar Rebellion heroes from martyrs' list." March 2022. [On the 2022 delisting]
• Detroit Free Press and The Baltimore Sun. Report of cablegram from Variyankunnath Kunjahammad Haji. 7 December 1921. [Primary source: contemporary American newspaper reports of Haji's communication]