New Delhi: The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) has approved a recommendation to exclude about 200 martyrs of Malabar's Moplah Rebellion, including Variyamkunnath Kunjahammedu Haji and Thirurangadi Ali Musaliyar, from the official list of the martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle.
The decision of the General Council meeting of the ICHR, held on Sunday, will be intimated to the Union Cultural Affairs Ministry.
With this, it has become clear that the new edition of the fifth volume of the lexicon, Indian Independence Struggle (1857-1947), will not have the names of the Malabar Rebellion heroes.
The General Council meeting of the ICHR approved the recommendation given to this effect by a panel comprising ICHR Director (Research and Administration) Omji Upadhyaya, ICHR member and retired Professor of Kottayam CMS College CI Issac, and ICHR member Himanshu Chathurvedi.
The fifth volume of the book contained among other things the names of martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle from the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
The ICHR appointed a three-member panel for submitting a report after a clamour of protests broke out over the government officially considering the heroes of the Malabar Rebellion as martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle.
The three-member panel had given the report in August last year. But no follow-up step was taken for a long time since the meeting of the General Council of the ICHR did not take place thereafter due to the COVID-related suspension of activities.
