A video with shocking visuals from Kerala has surfaced on social media where the Popular Front of India (PFI) has taken out a march in Malappuram showing individuals in uniforms similar to one worn by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members, being paraded in chains and handcuffs. Some Islamic slogans can also be heard in the video. 

The video has gone viral on social media.

It is being claimed that the men seen in the PFI rally wearing 'white shirt and khaki shorts' were depicting RSS members. While sharing the viral video a user wrote, "Its procession done by Popular Front 'celebrating' centenary of 1921 Hindu genocide. They depicted RSS volunteers chained in riot. In 1921 RSS was not even formed. They trying to 'normalise' genocide by bringing in RSS. If Hindu unites under RSS, then he can be k!lled is the msg."

According to a report published by OpIndia the rally was held in Tenhipalam town in Malappuram district of Kerala, and the video shows the procession passing through Chelari, the main commercial center of the town.

A PFI member stated that the parade represents a fight that happened between the Britishers and the people of Malabar in 1921. Times Now quoted  PFI's Anees Ahmed saying, "The video that is going viral actually belongs to the depiction by the people of Malabar during a program of PFI. The people of the region respect their heritage and the particular drama represents a fight that happened between the Britishers and the people of Malabar in 1921."

"Every year people celebrate the occasion here and the idea that was being depicted in this particular video was that the people of Malabar played an essential role in fighting against the external threat of British imperialism in 1921 and now when RSS is posing the internal threat of fascism, people of Malabar will also confront them and protect our country," he further added.

The video also shows individuals dressed as British officers, chained and tied with ropes, with the other end of the rope held by people in skullcaps and lungis. The chained and hand-cuffed individuals were followed by a large group of people holding lathis, dressed in skullcaps and lungis.

1921 Malabar Hindu Genocide or Moplah massacre

 The Moplah Rebellion is a contentious episode of India’s colonial history. A part of the Khilafat Movement, which demanded that the British preserve the Ottoman sultan as the Caliph of Islam, the revolt took place in Kerala’s Malabar and involved the Moplah or Mappila Muslims of the region. 

 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar has provided a detailed account on the rebellion in Pakistan or The Parition of India’ (Dr. Babasaheb  Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches,  Volume 8, P.163)

He wrote, “The Hindus were visited by a dire fate at the hands of the Moplas. Massacres, forcible conversions, desecration of temples, foul outrages upon women, such as ripping open pregnant women, pillage, arson, and destruction— in short, all the accompaniments of brutal and unrestrained barbarism, were perpetrated freely by the Moplas upon the Hindus until such time as troops could be hurried to the task of restoring order through a difficult and extensive tract of the country."

“This was not a Hindu-Moslem riot. This was just a Bartholomew. The number of Hindus who were killed, wounded or converted, is not known. But the number must have been enormous.” 

It took more than four months for the British to control the rebellion. The official records show 2,266 killed, 1,615 wounded, 5,688 captured, while 38,256 surrendered during military engagements. 

A report submitted to the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) in 2016 had recommended the de-listing of Wagon Tragedy victims and Malabar Rebellion leaders Ali Musliyar, Variamkunnath Ahmad Haji, and the latter’s two brothers from the book 'Dictionary of Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle 1857-1947' on martyrs of India’s freedom struggle.

According to a report published by The Hindu, C.I. Issac, an ICHR member, had submitted the 2016 report to the council when the fifth volume covering martyrs of freedom struggle from south India came up for review. The report describes Haji as the “notorious Moplah Riot leader” and a “hardcore criminal,” who “killed innumerable innocent Hindu men, women, and children during the 1921 Moplah Riot, and deposited their bodies in a well.”

The review report noted that “almost all the Moplah outrages were communal. They were against the Hindu society and done out of sheer intolerance. Thus the following names should be deleted from the yet-to-be-published project.”