Islam in Kerala

Islam arrived in Kerala through Arab traders during the time of prophet Muhammad(AD 609 - AD 632). Kerala has a very ancient relation with the middle east even during the Pre-Islamic period. Muslim merchants (Malik Deenar) settled in Kerala by the 8th century AD and introduced Islam. The Cheraman Juma Masjid said to be the very first mosque in india situated in Kodungallur Taluk, in state of Kerala. According to a tradition, Cheraman Perumal, the last of the Chera kings, became Muslim and traveled to visit prophet Muhammad and this event helped the spread of Islam.

Kerala Muslims are generally referred to as Mappilas in Kerala. They share a common language (Malayalam) with the rest of the population and have a culture commonly regarded as the Malayalam culture of Kerala with an Arabian blend.[1] Muslim population is the fastest growing sect in Kerala.[2] They form 26.56% of the population of Kerala.[3]

Cheraman Juma Masjid at Kodungallur

Help from Kings


Convocation at the Chemmad Madrassah

The Zamorin of Kozhikode encouraging Muslim traders to settle down in his kingdom to flourish maritime trade perhaps accounts for the relatively high proportion of Muslims in Malabar. The Muslims also manned the Zamorin's navy and were so intensely pro-Zamorin that one of them issued an order to bring up one male member in every fishermen family in his kingdom as a Muslim so as to get sufficient numbers in his navy.[4] There is also a significant Muslim population living in the coastal regions of central and southern Kerala. Historians believe that Tipu Sultan also help to convert many people to Islam, during his invasion of North Kerala.


European Era

The monopoly of overseas trade in Malabar was safe with the Arab-Mappila alliance until the arrival of Portuguese in Kerala.[5] At the time, a good number of Mappilas were enlisted in the naval force of Zamorin, the ruler of Calicut. The naval chiefs of the Zamorin were usually from the Mappila community; they were given the title of Marakkar. Initially, Portuguese traders were successful in reaching in an agreement with the Zamorin and hence got support from Mappilas. However, fearful of losing their monopoly in the trade-routes to Europe via the Indian ocean, the Mappila merchants persuaded the Zamorin to attack the Portuguese, killing the traders left behind by Vasco da Gama. This led to war between Calicut and the returning Portuguese fleets, who allied with their Hindu rival in Cochin.[6] During this period, Portuguese forces tried to establish monopoly in spice trade using violent methods against the Arabs and other Muslim merchants from the Middle East.[7] The possibility that a few Muslim traders from Basra, Damascus, Tunis and Egypt joined the Mappila community during this period can not be ruled out.

Portuguese-Zamorin relation deteriorated and the military of Zamorin, including Mappilas, engaged the Portuguese colonial forces in 1524 CE.[7] The Portuguese attacked and looted the town of Calicut. They set the town to fire and, in the arson, many buildings including the Jami' Mosque of Mappilas were destroyed.[5][8] Ships containing trading goods were drowned, along with thousands of merchants and their families; anyone who was an Arab was killed. All this resulted in the Mappila losing control of the spice trade they had dominated for more than a thousand years as well as losing more than half of their population at the hands of their enemy.

In the Mysorean invasion of Kerala, Mappilas gave support to the invading military of Hyder Ali in 1765.[9] In the following Mysorean rule of Malabar, Mappilas were favoured against the Hindu landlords of the region and the most notable advantage for the community during this time is the grant of customary rights for the Mappila tenants over their land. However, such measures of the Muslim rulers widened the communal imbalance of Malabar and the British colonial forces taking advantage of the situation allied with the Hindu upper-caste communities to fight against the Mysore regime. The British won the Anglo-Mysore War against Tippu Sultan and, consequently, Malabar was organised as a district under Madras Presidency. The British repaid landlord communities with a slew of measures: The first one being the abolishing of tenant rights over land.[10] The partisan rule of British authorities brought the Mappila peasants of Malabar into a condition of destitution which led to a series of uprisings against the landlords and British in 1921; it took in the form of a communal war known as Mappila Rebellion that lasted for six months and cost the lives of about 10,000 people.[10][11] Mohommed Haji was proclaimed the caliph of the Moplah Khilafat (Caliphate) and flags of "Islamic Caliphate" were flown. Eranad and Valluvanad were declared Khalifat kingdoms. The riot was controlled by the British military and many Mappilas lost their lives in the military action and many were taken as prisoners, mostly to Port Blair.


The Malabar rebellion (also known as the "മാപ്പിള ലഹള" Māppila Lahaḷa in Malayalam) was an armed uprising in 1921 against British authority and Hindu landlords[12] in the Malabar region of Southern India by Mappila Muslims and the culmination of a series of Mappila revolts that recurred throughout the 19th century and early 20th century.[1] The 1921 rebellion began as a reaction against a heavy-handed crackdown on the Khilafat Movement[13] by the British authorities in the Eranad and Valluvanad taluks of Malabar. In the initial stages, a number of minor clashes took place between Khilafat volunteers and the police, but the violence soon spread across the region.[14] The Mappilas attacked and took control of police stations, British government offices, courts and government treasuries. The largely kudiyaan (tenant) Mappilas also attacked and killed jenmi (landlords). The Muslim community of Kerala was also influenced by "the wind of change" in the 20th century. Social and religious leaders worked hard for social uplift and moral regeneration in society, exhorting Muslims to give up all un-Islamic practices and to take to Islamic education. They also promoted education of women.[15]

Tirurangadi Muslim Orphanage

Communities and denominations

The modern theological orientations amongst the Muslims of Kerala are primarily divided into three; Sunnis, Mujahids (Salafis) and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, though all these belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. The Sunnis referred here are identified by their conventional beliefs and practices and adherence to the Shafi'i madh'hab, while the other two theological orientations, the Mujahids and the Jama'ats, are seen as movements within the Sunni Islam. A minor group of followers may be found with Tablighi Jama'at. Both Sunnis and Salafis again have been split to sub-groups.

The Ahmadi community is severely persecuted in Pakistan. However Indian law regards Ahmadis as Muslims. A landmark ruling by the Kerala High Court on 8 December 1970 in the case of Shihabuddin Imbichi Koya Thangal vs K.P. Ahammed Koya, citation A.I.R. 1971 Ker 206 upheld their legal status as Muslims.[16][17] Ahmadis were not allowed to sit on the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, which is regarded in India as representative of Muslims in the country.[18][19]

Culture

Oppana

Main article: Oppana

It is a popular form of social entertainment among the Mappila community of Kerala, south India, prevalent all over Kerala. It is generally presented by females numbering about fifteen including musicians, as a part of wedding ceremonies a day before the wedding day. The bride, dressed in all finery, covered with gold ornaments, is the chief spectator; she sits on a peetam, around which the singing and dancing take place. While they sing, they clap their hands rhythmically and move around the bride using simple steps. Two or three girls begin the songs and the rest join the chorus.

Mappila Paattukal

Main article: Mappila songs

Mappila Paattu or Mappila Song is a folklore Muslim devotional song genre rendered to lyrics in Arabic-laced Malayalam, by Muslims or Mappilas of the Malabar belt of Kerala in south India.[20] Mappila songs have a distinct cultural identity, as they sound a mix of the ethos and culture of Kerala as well as West Asia. They deal with themes such as religion, love, satire and heroism. Most of the mapillapatu are mixed with Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Tamil etc. it keeps many 'ishals' (tunes), prasams (rhyming parts) and things like that. Moyinkutty Vaidyar is one of the oldest poets in mapilapattu.

Kolkali

Main article: Kolkali

Kolkkali is a popular dance form among the Mappila Muslims in Malabar. It is played in group of 12 people with two sticks, similar to the Dandiya dance of Gujarat.

Duff Muttu

Main article: Duff Muttu

Duff Muttu[21] (also called Dubh Muttu) is an art form prevalent among Mappilas, using the traditional duff, or daf, also called Thappitta. Participants dance to the rhythm as they beat the duff.


See also

References

  1. 1 2 Pg 461, Roland Miller, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol VI , Brill 1988
  2. ↑ see Note-19, pg.40
  3. ↑ Panikkar, K. N., Against Lord and State: Religion and Peasant Uprisings in Malabar 1836–1921
  4. ↑ Pg 112, A short survey of Kerala History, A. Sreedhara Menon, Vishwanathan Publishers 2006
  5. 1 2 Mehrdad Shokoohy (29 July 2003). Muslim Architecture of South India: The Sultanate of Ma'bar and the Traditions of the Maritime Settlers on the Malabar and Coromandel Coasts (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa). Psychology Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-415-30207-4. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  6. ↑ Henry Morse Stephens (1897). "Chapter 1". Albuquerque. Rulers of India series. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 978-81-206-1524-3.
  7. 1 2 Sanjay Subrahmanyam (29 October 1998). The Career and Legend of Vasco Da Gama. Cambridge University Press. pp. 293–294. ISBN 978-0-521-64629-1. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  8. ↑ The Edinburgh review: or critical journal – Sydney Smith, Lord Francis Jeffrey Jeffrey, Macvey Napier, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, William Empson, Harold Cox, Henry Reeve, Arthur Ralph Douglas Elliot (Hon.). Books.google.com. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  9. ↑ Robert Elgood (15 November 1995). Firearms of the Islamic World: in the Tared Rajab Museum, Kuwait. I.B.Tauris. pp. 164–. ISBN 978-1-85043-963-9. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  10. 1 2 Prema A. Kurien (7 August 2002). Kaleidoscopic Ethnicity: International Migration and the Reconstruction of Community Identities in India. Rutgers University Press. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-0-8135-3089-5. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  11. ↑ "MOPLAHS A MENACE FOR SEVERAL YEARS; Malabar Fanatics Said to Have Been Emboldened by Shifting of British Troops". The New York Times. 4 September 1921.
  12. ↑ Pg 179–183, Kerala district gazetteers: Volume 4 Kerala (India), A. Sreedhara Menon, Superintendent of Govt. Presses https://books.google.com/books?id=ZF0bAAAAIAAJ
  13. ↑ The Khilafat movement (1919–1924) was a pan-Islamic, political campaign launched by Muslims in British India to influence the British government and to protect the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. The position of Caliph after the Armistice of Mudros in October 1918 with the military occupation of Istanbul and Treaty of Versailles (1919) fell into hiatus along with the Ottoman Empire's existence. The movement gained force after the Treaty of Sèvres (August 1920) which solidified the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. In India, although mainly a Muslim religious phenonena, the movement became a part of the wider Indian independence movement and a discussion topic at the Conference of London in February 1920.
  14. ↑ Pg 447, Pan-Islam in British Indian politics: a study of the Khilafat Movement, 1918–1924 M. Naeem Qureshi BRILL, 1999
  15. ↑ Cultural heritage of Kerala - A Sreedhara Menon - Google Books. Books.google.co.in. Retrieved 2012-11-16.
  16. ↑ Hoque, Ridwanul (21 March 2004). "On right to freedom of religion and the plight of Ahmadiyas". The Daily Star.
  17. ↑ "Shihabuddin Imbichi Koya Thangal vs K.P. Ahammed Koya on 8 December, 1970 Kerala High Court".
  18. ↑ Naqvi, Jawed (1 September 2008). "Religious violence hastens India’s leap into deeper obscurantism". Dawn. Retrieved 2014-12-29.
  19. ↑ "IS THE AHMADI COMMUNITY JUST AS PERSECUTED IN OTHER MUSLIM-MAJORITY COUNTRIES?". Herald.Dawn. October 13, 2013. Retrieved 2014-12-29.
  20. ↑ "Preserve identity of Mappila songs". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 7 May 2006. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
  21. ↑ "MADIKERI, COORG, "GADDIGE MOHIYADEEN RATIB" islamic relegious "dikr" is held once in a year.". YouTube. Retrieved 17 February 2012.

Further reading

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