The Kadakkal Rebellion of 1938 or Kadakkal Revolt was the spontaneous participation of the people of Kadakkal in the course of India's struggle for freedom and their contribution to the great saga of Indian nationalism, is a unique event in the history of the princely state of Travancore.
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During pre-independence period, Kadakkal, the small hamlet witnessed a great farmers' movement led by local leaders, which eventually culminated in the formation of an administration, perhaps the smallest in the world lasting for a short span of nine days only, though.
The small hamlet of Kadakkal came down to the mainstream of India's struggle against the imperial and colonial forces through its voluntary involvement in the civil disobedience from 26 September 1938 to 5 October 1938 (1114 Kanni 10 to Kanni 18).
When the civil disobedience movement gathered momentum in the rest of the country the people of Kadakkal commenced the agitation by obstructing collection of marketing tolls, exhorting the people not to pay taxes, closing down the schools, looting the police station, threatening to demolish Government officials and offices, preventing the entry of Military, by cutting down trees demolishing culverts, etc.
There had for some time been complaints regarding collection of tolls in the market. It was reported that the toll contractor, one Abdul Razak was receiving several time the amount actually due from who resort to the market for the sale of articles. The authorities took no steps to redress their grievances.
A few enthusiastic young people apparently public spirited took up on themselves to the duty of redressing grievances of the resorting to the market of Kadakkal. They are said to have effectively prevented the collection of tolls by the Contractor there on 26 September 1938.
Thrikkannapuram incidents
On the morning of 29 September 1938 at about 7 a.m., a police party with two Sub-Inspectors and the magistrate reached Kadakkal "When they reached Kadakkal they learnt that a tumultuous crowd was from the east at some distance and so they decided to meet the crowd on their way itself and prevent them from coming to the locality of the out post. When the police reached Thrikkannapuram, at the place called Pangalkadu, they saw the crowd about 1,000 strong coming from the east shouting Ki-Jais to the state congress leaders most of them clad in Khadar and wearing Gandhi caps and stones and sticks in their possession. When the police bus approached they began to pelt stones at the bus. The Magistrate asked the inspector to disperse the crowd by using force. The inspector ordered his men to charge the crowd with lathis which they did. But the crowd, not in mood to disperse, moved on the sides of the road and continued to pelt.
The head constable and the daffadar got serious injuries. Finding it unsafe to remain there anymore, the Magistrate and his party returned to Kottarakkara (Judgement, Para:9).
Looting of police outpost
After the Thrikkannapuram clash the crowd reached Kadakkal at about 10 a.m. on 29 September. "There the members of the crowd pelted stones at the out post building breaking most of the tiles. Some got upon the roof and removed also reapers from the roof. The masonry pillars of the building were dismantled and the shutters of the doors and windows removed and damaged."
The lockup room was broken open. The personal belongings such as coats, money, documents and boxes with their contents which belonged to the constables attached to the outpost and which were kept in the lock up room, and what belonged to the Government such as swords, hand cuffs and guns were carried away. Tables chairs and notice boards and also the records were thrown in to the well in the compound. A kitchen shed standing in the same compound was set to fire and destroyed (Judgement Para:13).
The agitators also set up a camp at Kariath Mission School consisting of 1,000 gun carriers in order to prevent the coming of military forces. The attack on the police station as per the Government view, is tantamount to an attack against the Government. The judgement says "Police is the visible symbol of the Government, the conspicuous machinery through which law and order, which is the primary duty of the Government is maintained and that an attack directed against the police and their office is tantamount to an attack against the Government."
And so the Government declared and waged war against the people of Kadakkal and re-captured the liberated Kummil Pakuty.
The rebels virtually took over the control of the entire village Kummil Pakuty for nine days till the arrival of military forces.
A declaration of the Government emphasis the claiming of the rebels, paragraph 10 of the judgement remarks, "an announcement was made that Kummil Pakuthy had been catptured, people's Government established there was no need for Government officials and Government rule and that everything could be achieved by the co-operation and concerted action of the people."
The struggle was not destined to last long; soon the military rushed from different directions and the Government control was restored. The agitators were arrested in large numbers, and underwent prolonged judicial proceedings and became the victims of torture.
Five of the arrested victims had become martyrs. They are Beedi Velu, Thottumbhagom Sadanandan, Chandavila Gangadharan, Pangalkadu Narayanan and Parayattu Vasu.
The accused were 70 in number. Most of them were punished with lifelong imprisonment and forfeited all their properties.
The accused were prosecuted under section 112 of the Travancore penal code. Section 112 says "who ever wages war against the sovereign of this kingdom or her Majesty the Queen Empress of India or attempts to wage such war shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and shall forfeit all his property."
Mr. Changanassery K. Parameswaran Pillai, the veteran freedom fighter, as per the direction of Mahatma Gandhi, visited Kadakkal on 11 October 1938 and released a very detailed press statement about the occurrences of Kadakkal.
The Indian Express published the statement on 14 October 1938. In the statement he describes the toils and moils of the people.
Mr. Changanassery remarked about the poverty and sufferings of the folks of the locality. He said "The condition of the place after the occupation of military is heart rending. In many houses women and children were starving as the earning member of the family have deserted them. People and vehicles are not allowed to enter or leave the place freely. The result is that even common salt is not available for the people and such of those who are fortunate enough to get some food in the shape of boiled tapioca, can eat without salt."
He concluded his statement thus: "I do not think that any of the acts allayed above can be justified under any law even under military law." In the whole of Pakuthy more than 80 houses were burnt down.
Kadakkal rebellion was compared with the Fascist Spanish Civil War of 1937. General Franco, a military general of Morocco brutally overthrew the democratic Republican Government of Spain in 1937.
Travancore Government alleged that, Kummil Pakuthy covering an area of 41 square miles, had been emancipated from the rest of Travancore by Puthiya Veettil Raghavan Pillai and his followers.
The media and the spokesmen of the government alleged that both the deeds of General Franco and Raghavan Pillai were equal. So, they called Raghavan Pillai "Franco" Raghavan Pillai.