When Beypore hosted a quarantine camp for Hajj pilgrims

Even before the arrival of Islam in Kerala, there was a regular movement of people and goods between southwest India and the Arab world. One of the key ports for this trade route was Beypore, which is most famous for its Uru, a large handcrafted wooden trading dhow that is still being made.

When Islam spread in the Malabar region, devout Malayali Muslims did all they could go on the Hajj pilgrimage, an act that was far more challenging several centuries ago than it is in the age of air travel. Beypore remained a major port of embarkation for pilgrims for several centuries, even after the arrival of the Portuguese and other European colonisers.

The cholera and bubonic plague outbreaks in the 19th century completely changed the equation for the Malabar port, which the British governed as a part of the Madras Presidency. In 1865, when cholera spread to the Hejaz, the region that contains the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the area, blamed Indian pilgrims for spreading the disease there.

Pressure continued to mount on the British rulers to ensure that diseases did not spread to Islam’s holiest sites, which hosted pilgrims from many different parts of Asia and Africa. By the 1880s, the Empire imposed strict rules and conditions for those who wanted to undertake the journey to the Hejaz from India. These included mandatory passports, quarantines, and restricted departures for the pilgrimage from Bombay and Porbandar.

People from the region that was the first to embrace Islam in India could no longer travel directly from Beypore, a major link between the subcontinent and Arabia. They had to travel by steamer north first, before undertaking the 30-day voyage instead.

The outbreak of the bubonic plague in Bombay in 1896 deeply alarmed both the Ottoman authorities in Hejaz and the British rulers in India. Under the 1897 Epidemic Diseases Act, which provided the government special powers to prevent and control the spread of dangerous diseases, Islam’s most holy pilgrimage was suspended in India.

It would take four years before the pilgrimage was allowed again, but the quarantine restrictions led to many hardships. Muslims who made it to Bombay from other parts of India were stuck for weeks in quarantine camps and some ended up arriving in the pilgrimage towns after Eid ul-Adha or Bakri Eid.

In order to tackle growing resentment among the Muslims of Malabar, the British opened a quarantine camp for pilgrims heading to the Hejaz. The aim was to ensure that healthy pilgrims would arrive in Bombay and immediately board the steamer for Arabia. The period of the quarantine was 10 days.

“I have the honour to report that an observation camp was opened at Beypore (Chaliyam) for the segregation of the Hedjaz pilgrims on the 14th ultimo,” A . Pinhey, district magistrate of Malabar, wrote in a letter to the chief secretary to the Indian government on February 16, 1902.

He added, “Two batches of pilgrims consisting of 119 Moplahs of this district, who had completed their observation were sent on the 1st and 3rd instant, in British India Steam Navigation steamers ‘Rajputana’ and ‘Vadala’ to Bombay, due intimation has been given to the Collector of Customs, Bombay, to make arrangements for their transhipment.”

Pinhey mentioned that a group of 37 pilgrims arrived in Bombay late and missed the onward passage.

There was a degree of hesitation from Muslims in Kerala to undertake the pilgrimage, as those who had gone in previous years brought back stories of packed ships and a rough ride as well as harassment from the Ottoman authorities, who many a time refused to recognise British vaccination certificates.

“No pilgrim from outside Malabar availed himself of the opportunity afforded for embarkation for the Hedjaz and even in Malabar the number that actually went fell far short of the expectation, probably owing to the inconvenience and harassment the pilgrims are likely to be subjected to on arriving in Arabia having been clearly explained to them in a Malayalam circular which was very largely circulated,” Pinhey wrote.

Since the journey to and back from Bombay and Porbandar posed an additional expense, a group of Muslims from Ernad approached the Collector of Malabar to allow them to go on the Hajj directly from Kerala.

“Since some years they (the Mussalmans) were forbidden in going to Mecca,” the group wrote in a petition signed by Poothankurunhi Moidin Kutty and 356 others dated June 30, 1902. “Then in the last year a circular order was published on 21st September 1901, allowing the Mussulmans for pilgrimage to Mecca, in which it was stated that it would be beneficial for postponing their journey for as far as possible for any future months- years. In accordance with that order, the undersigned have postponed their journey for future years.”

The petitioners found the Rs 60 they had to pay for the return journey to Bombay to be prohibitively expensive and requested permission to arrange the voyage themselves.

“Besides this, the petitioners further beg to bring to your honour’s notice to have the orders for fixing either in October or November, so that the pilgrims may conveniently reach Mecca before Ramazan holiday, which is more boon (sic) to them,” the Ernad residents wrote.

This petition was forwarded to different bureaucrats, who agreed that the pilgrims would not be allowed to make their own travel arrangements, but there were no objections to the pilgrims travelling during Ramzan. Home Secretary H H Risley wrote in a September 1902 letter to the Madras government that at some point local governments would need “to arrange for the passage of their pilgrims to Jeddah,” but the arrangements for the time being would still be handled by the Government of India.

In effect, Malabari pilgrims still had to travel to Arabia via Bombay and the camp in Beypore remained functional until quarantine restrictions were gradually phased out.