The Arabi Bhasha Samaram also known as Bhasha Samaram (Malayalam: അറബി ഭാഷാ സമരം, English: Arabic Language Struggle) was a historic struggle led by Indian Union Muslim League and its wings (Muslim Youth League and Muslim Students Federation) against the enactment for eliminating language education in languages like Arabic, Urdu and& Sanskrit from the general education department of Kerala by the E. K. Nayanar–led Communist government in 1980.
Contents
Background
It was observed that the aim of the enactments such as, Accommodation, Qualification and Declaration, was the abolition of Arabic language from the general education department. So, Initially the Muslim Student Federation was first started the struggle against this enactment. Because it was directly affected the students who have been studying the Arabic as language and also affected employment of the thousands of Arabic teachers. Also for the Muslims, the learning of Arabic Language is a top priority in their belief.
Main Struggle
The Communist government neglected initial movement against this enactment. So the Muslim Youth League state committee decided to picket all the district collectorates in Kerala. At that time P.K.K. Bava was the President of Muslim Youth League and KPA Majeed was the Secretary. C.H. Muhammed Koya declared that “Teachers go back to school. The community has wholeheartedly accepted this struggle”.
It was on the morning of Wednesday 30 July 1980 (17th day of Ramadan – Battle of Badr Day), 8.30 AM mass protest march started from Kottappadi ground (in Malappuram) to the Malappuram district collectorate(in Munduparambu). There were PK Kunhalikutty, N.Soopy MLA, P. Abdul Hameed, MPM Ishaque Kurickal, M.I. Thangal, Kolathur T Muahammed Moulavi and other leaders led the mass march on the front row. On 9.30 AM KPA Majeed MLA inaugurated the mass protest .On 10.30 AM Panakkadu Syed Muhammed Ali Shihab thangal also greeted the mass protest. The police began to arrest the protestors, due to a large mass protest it was very difficult to arrest all the protestors.
On 11.25 AM there was one police jeep coming from malappuram side like lost the control on driving and it was trying to ram in to the mass protest. It was Perinthalmanna DySP Vasudeva Menon, he was trying to drive through the protestors, but they defended his action. Then DySP Vasudeva Menon was manhandled the protestors, it was just like a pre-planned action to provoke the protestors. Within five minutes police troops are reached the spot and started the lathi charge (baton charge) and teargas against the protestors. After some moments the police started to firing toward the crowd. Hundreds of activists are injured due to the police’s brutal action.
Three activists KALLIDUMBIL CHIRAKKAL ABDURAHMAN(Age: 21) , CHENNAM KULANGARA ABDULLA KUNHIPPA(Age: 21) and KOTHENGAL ABDUL MAJEED(Age: 24) lost their lives in this protest.
Aftermath
Even after the march, EK Nayanar government did not ready to withdraw the oppressive enactment on the Arabic language. So the Muslim Youth League decided a ‘Great March’ to Raj Bhavan. Before the march, Government congregates an all-party meeting and decided to lift all the oppressive laws against Arabic language.