A recent report published in many Indian dailies says that the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), sought the removal of the names of Mappila leaders from the Dictionary of Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle 1857-1947 claiming that the 1921 uprising against the British was never part of the independence struggle but a fundamentalist movement focused on religious conversion. This comes close on the heels of former BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav’s statement last week in which he said that the Moplah rebellion of 1921 was one of the first manifestations of the Taliban mindset in India.

In the following interview with Shaikh Zakeer Hussain of The Cognate, I have attempted to explain that the Mappila Uprising of 1921 was indeed anti-British and not anti-Hindu.