RAS question
The Mappila (Moplah) Rebellion of 1921 occurred in:
Correct answer: (A) Malabar, Kerala.
The Mappila, or Moplah, Rebellion of 1921 occurred in the Malabar region of Kerala.
Explanation
The 1921 Mappila Rebellion is correctly located in Malabar, Kerala. The uprising occurred in the Malabar region and dated to August-December 1921, while the Ministry of Culture's Digital District Repository refers to the same event as the Malabar rebellion, or Mappila riots, beginning in August 1921. Its immediate background was not a generic provincial revolt elsewhere in India: it grew from agrarian grievances among Mappila Muslim tenants against Hindu jenmi landlords and was also shaped by the Khilafat-Non-Cooperation atmosphere. The Wagon Tragedy, in which 67 prisoners died, is remembered as one of the grim episodes linked to the repression that followed.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Punjab is wrong because the event was in Malabar, not north-western India.
- (C) Bengal is wrong because the rebellion described here was the Malabar rebellion involving Mappilas, not a movement located in eastern India.
- (D) Hyderabad is wrong because the question concerns the Mappila uprising in Malabar, not Hyderabad.
Concept
This tests the regional location of a major mass movement in modern Indian history. RAS often asks such questions because localised agrarian, religious and nationalist currents have to be mapped to the correct province or region.