CONVICTED,PALAKKAD RAJA DIES IN JAIL

Alexander Walker Compiled a Book on Malabar Plants

The kingdom of Palakkad,I have felt,doesn't offer much in intrigues,except Kombi Achan inviting Hyder Ali to attack the Zamorin.But now I find there was a murder committed by the king,Itti Kombi Achan,for which he was imprisoned by the British and he died in jail.

The Sreerangapattanam treaty,ending the rule of Tipu was signed on 22 February 1792.Following this,a number of treaties were signed by the British with Indian kings.On 18 August 1792,by a treaty with the Zamorin of Calicut,he was given the right to collect revenue and administer justice for one year.On 21 June 1793,an agreement was signed at the Palakkad Fort between Palakkad Raja Itti Kombi Achan and the Malabar Commissioners of the East India Company,William Gamul Farmer and Major Alexander Walker to restore the land to the Raja to rule.W G Farmer from Bombay presidency had been sworn in as Malabar Supervisor on 18 March 1792.Prior to that,Alexander Dow, W G farmer,William Page and Charles Boddam were sent as commissioners to Malabar,to study and give a report.Dow was the Military Commander at Tellicherry.In British records,the Raja's name is Coomby Acheen.However,the rule of the Raja didn't last long.

The British government was not happy with the arrangement,and the powers of the Raja were gradually usurped by the Britishers.His power to preside over criminal cases in the Cherplassery and Calicut courts was taken over by them.In October 1796,the British brought an end to the Raja's authority to collect taxes.The Raja was prohibited from collecting any other cash by Supervisor  James Stevens.The tax collectors appointed by the Raja were asked to pay the collected amounts directly to the British government.

Two criminal charges were filed in July 1798 against the Raja.According to Logan's Malabar Manual ( Vol 1,Chapter 3),in April the Raja killed Ullattil Kandan Nair;he gouged out Parameswaran Kutty's eyes.Parameswaran was a brahmin.The Raja left his home in Kalpathi on 7 July 1798 and absconded.The Britishers got information same day.A proclamation offering Rs 5000 was issued for his capture.Raja surrendered on 6 September 1798,before Commandant of Palghat Fort, Major James Romney.He was jailed in Tellicherry Fort,where he died on 2 March,1799.Probably,he was executed.The same fort had been used as a prison to confine Hyder Ali's army.

The East India Company brought the entire area and administration of Palakkad under their control on 10 Ocober 1799.According to the recommendation contained in the report submitted by Thomas Warden,the Palakkad raja family was granted a pension.This ended the rule of the Tarur Swaroopam or the Palakkad dynasty.Under the terms of the take over,the Raja was allowed to keep all his royal possessions,landed properties,and status of Raja.The British introduced a yearly Malikhan to the senior Raja and the four Sthanis,the royals next to him in seniority.The trustees of the raj's family retained their hold on the administration of the Kalpathy temple.

Palakkad Fort

The period from 1732 to 1757 was a time of turbulence for the Raja,who faced intermittent attacks from the Zamorin of Calicut.The conflict between the two culminated in the invasion of Hyder Ali.The Zamorin attacked Palakkad in 1732,1745 and 1757 and in 1757 defeated the Raja,and captured the then capital Chokkanathapuram.The Raja sought the help of Hyder Ali to contain the Zamorin.Hyder Ali sent his brother in law,Makhdum Ali in 1757 and the Zamorin retreated.Hyder Ali,after establishing his rule in Mysore in 1761,came to Palakkad,with the intention of fighting the Zamorin,who in the meantime had withdrawn from Palakkad.Palakkad became a kingdom under the domain of Hyder Ali.

Hyder Ali began constructing the Fort,and was completed by his son Tipu Sultan.Kallekulangara Raghava Pisharody, a friend of Ittikombi Achan, was asked to identify land to build a fort.Pisharody was an architect as well as an astrolger,who wrote Ravanodbhavam Kathakali play.Distinct from the mud forts of the time,a decision was taken to build a fort out of solid rock.The foundation stone was laid by Makhdum Ali.While the main gate faced North,the armoury was on the western side.Hyder found it an ideal place for improving the communication links between Coimbatore and Malabar,for launching his Malabar jihad.The work was over by 1766.It was designed by a French engineer.

Hyder soon took Ittikombi Achan prisoner at Srirangapattanam,as he tried to move away from him.Hyder handed over the task of collecting taxes to Ittipangi Achan,his favourite.The fort was a major scene of action in 1782,during the second Anglo-Mysore war,when forces of Sardar Khan and Major abbington faced each other.It was from this fort that Tipu and his French commnder M Lally began their march against the British.

On 15 November 1784,the Fort was captured by the British under Colonel William Fullarton,after a 11 day siege,with the help of the Zamorin,but was recaptured by Tipu.The war between Tipu and the British ended in 1784.Malabar was ruled by the muslims during 1784-1791.Tipu constructed the road from Palakkad to Dindigul via Thathamangalam,Pollachi and palani;from Feroke to Coimbatore via Palakkad,and from Kottakal to Coimbatore,via Angadipuram,Mannarkad and Palakkad.

Fullarton was the soldier who had led the British force against Kattabomman.

On 21 September 1791,Malabar Brigade Major Lt Colonel Alexander Stuart captured the Fort and Palakkad came under British rule.The Palakkad Raja gave the British secret help.This was extended with the clear understanding that after the capture of the Fort,the land would be returned to the Raja to rule.In the same year,Raja Itti Pangi Achan died and Itti Kombi Achan took over.The British set up a prison inside the Fort.It housed local chieftains who refused to yield.The Fort could house 10,000 soldiers at a time.

The Fort was used by the Mysore army to mint coins.The plan was to replace the existing Veerarayan Panam with another coin called Hydari.Later,a new coin Suktan Panam was minted at the Fort.

Kochi King Ramavarma Sakthan Thampuran met Tipu at the Fort,in 1788.Tipu revealed his plan to attack Travancore.When Tipu asked for Kochi's help,sakthan evaded the question.From the Fort,Tipu wrote to the Travancore King karthika Thirunal Ramavarma ( Dharmaraja ) demanding suzerainty.

Machat Ilayath prepared the horoscope of Tipu at the Fort.Tipu had brought a parrot tied with a golden chain and asked Ilayath to predict its death first.When Ilayath prophecied that the parrot would live for sme more time,Tipu took a swipe at the parrot with his sword.The sword missed its mark and instead hit the chain,freeing the bird.Ilayath wrote Tipu's horoscope and warned Tipu against remaining in the fort for long.

Slave trade was carried out in the fort-The price for one slave was 200-250 panam,during Hyder Ali.Two or three child slaves could be bought for 100 panam.

Ravivarma of the Zamorin family,who was the Commander of the Calicut force was captured by the British in 1793 and died in captivity at Cherpulassery.His nephew, also named Ravi Varma, was also arrested by the British and died in prison the same year.Ravi Varma has the distinction of being the first Malabar prince to rise up in 1788 against the forced conversions and deportation of Nairs to Seringapatam conducted by Tipu. He was a key figure in the anti-Mysore uprising in southern Malabar. After 1792, he broke his longstanding alliance with the British, and waged war against them.

We saw that Major Alexander signed an agreement with Itti Kombi achan.Alexander was a multi faceted personality.Brigadier-general Alexander Walker (1764-1831) made a collection of Persian, Sanskrit and Arabic manuscripts, presumably while Governor of Baroda.While he was Major in Malabar,he alongwith his clerk,Callinguel Cunhy Coroo,compiled four volumes,which were discovered by Lisa Rosner in 2018,at Edinburgh.

Walker was born in 1764 in Collessie, Scotland, the eldest of five children. His father William, a Church of Scotland minister, died when the boy was seven. Although he was able to study at the grammar school and university at St Andrews, he later recalled that 'poverty was vouchsafed... as a Counter balance to Family Pride [and its] younger Branches had to seek their fortunes in distant lands'.

His transition to adulthood would occur in India.A cadet in the East India Company from 1780, Walker sailed to Bombay in 1781.

While in his mid-teens, in 1780, Alexander Walker (born 12 May 1764) was appointed as a cadet in the service of the East India Company. In 1782 he became an ensign and in the same year took part in campaigns against the forts of Hyder Ali on the Malabar Coast. Walker was also present at Mangalore during the siege by Tipu and its subsequent surrender in January 1784. In 1788, after a period in enemy hands, and after taking part in an expedition to the north-west coast of America undertaken by the Bombay government, he was made a lieutenant and was sent with the expedition to relieve the Rajah of Travancore in 1790. In 1791, he was an adjutant.

On the conclusion of this stage of the war against Tipu, a commission was nominated to regulate the affairs of Malabar, and Walker was appointed as an assistant. On the arrival in Malabar of General James Stuart (d. 1793), commander-in-chief of the army in Bombay, he became his military secretary. In 1797, Walker was made captain, and the same year he became quartermaster-general of the Bombay army with the rank of Major. In 1799, he took part in the last war against Tipu and was present at the fighting at Seedaseer and at the siege of Srirangapatnam during which Tipu was killed.

British Forces crossing a river,c.1790/William Daniell 

In 1800, Walker was sent to the Mahratta states with the intention of pacifying and reforming the region and the Mahratta confederacy. Discontent in Baroda culminated in the insurrection of Mulhar Rao in 1801, though this was put down by 1802. In June 1803, Walker was appointed political Resident at Baroda and he succeeded in establishing an orderly administration there. His career continued in India, and he attained the rank of lieutenant-general in 1808. In 1810 he returned to Britain, to his estate of Bowland in Edinburgh and Selkirk, and he retired from service in 1812. In 1810, he obtained leave to quit India in pursuit of a more settled life at his newly purchased Bowland estate near Galashiels and Edinburgh. He married Barbara Montgomery on 12 July 1811.

Ten years later in 1822 he was called back from his retirement to the government of St. Helena which was under the administration of the East India Company. There he had the rank of brigadier-general. While in St. Helena, he improved the island's agriculture and horticulture. Brigadier-General Alexander Walker died in Edinburgh on 5 March 1831.The National Library of Scotland holds a vast archive of Walker's correspondence and papers, running to almost 600 large volumes, many of which he had prepared for publication. Among these is a hefty journal titled Voyage to America, 1785, which was finally published nearly 200 years after the event.

Alexander Walker

Bowland House, with its many Indian curiosities, 'notably of representatives of the Hindoo pantheon',was an ideal setting for Walker to work on his various Indian histories, and his accounts of Indian customs and beliefs. He also revisited his concerns about Britain's role in India, adding to the thoughts he had penned in 1811 during his passage home. Noting then that the East India Company, with its 200,000 men, was £30 million in debt, he reflected that British power in India was 'maintained at the expense of the parent state... guaranteed not only by the blood but the treasure of England'. In a private correspondence from 1817 to 1819 he built a compelling case for 'an unusual and unpopular expedient. A proposal to contract the bounds of our territories, and to relinquish the fruits of conquest...' Although opening the argument with fiscal concerns, Walker's proposal for radical reform broadened as he acknowledged a deep-rooted hostility and degrading dependence among the subjugated Indian populace: 'We have left wounds in every quarter, and produced everywhere discontent: the confidence which was once reposed in our moderation and justice is gone. We have made use of treaties, contracted solely for protection, as the means of making violent demands... Every individual almost above the common artizan and labourer suffers by our system of government.'

Alexander had a close working relationship with Kallingal Kunji Koru ( Indian spelling) in the EIC revenue office in Calicut.They together compiled four manuscript volumes on plants of Malabar. Two of these consist of illustrations and are held by the Centre for Research Collections at the University of Edinburgh. The other two consist of descriptions of each illustration, and are held, together with the rest of the Walker of Bowland archive, in Special Collections at the National Library of Scotland. Both sets are clearly attributed to Walker and contain his bookplate. They are numbered, and the descriptions in the NLS volumes match the illustrations with the corresponding number in the CRC volumes. Internal evidence suggests that the illustrations and descriptions were compiled while Walker was stationed in Malabar from 1799-1801, and that he wrote the introduction and back matter some years later, perhaps during his retirement in the 1820s. It's not clear why these volumes, so obviously connected to each other, ended up in separate collections.

Walker makes it clear that the volumes were based on native informants, and that makes them very interesting to modern historians.As Walker made clear, he made no claims to being a scholar. Indeed, he wrote, "As a science I knew little or nothing of Botany." But he knew how to develop cordial relations with local elites -- as he put it, "men of rank, of property, of education" -- because that was, in fact, an important part of his position with the Malabar Commission, charged with governing the region after the Mysore Wars. For that reason, when he "wished to obtain some knowledge of the natural productions of this beautiful Country," he requested "the assistance of some intelligent natives" in obtaining "drawings and descriptions of many plants. One native made the drawings, and the account of the plants was translated from the writing of another. Specimens of plants that I was not acquainted with were brought from a distance for my observation and instruction. The drawings were made in my presence."

This was not undertaken as part of his formal responsibilities as administrator. Instead, he framed it as a pleasant way for him to interact with local allies. As Walker explained in the front matter to the volumes, "In the remote regions of India I was frequently in situations where the Natives were my only Society. I found their conversation amusing and interesting. I was instructed in their manners and habits. In the process of communication they threw off that reserve which they commonly shew in their intercourse with Europeans...It was no difficult matter to acquire their confidence. It was only necessary to convince them that I had their good at heart. They were good humoured and easy to please. It was this disposition under these circumstances doubtless, that made them do many things that were agreeable to me, and which they perceived I was desirous of."

Walker here presents himself as a compiler of vernacular knowledge, in a style we can find elsewhere in his archive. But the image conjured from the back matter is quite different. The text states that the compiler took descriptions of "different trees, herbs, and vinegars" from native Malabar translations of Sanskrit texts. It also includes the comment, "The height and thickness of trees are...guessed; but a little experience in looking at objects with a view to their measurement enables a person to form a judgement tolerably accurate of this circumstance. The trees are measured from the ground to the highest leafy branch; the thickness is taken by a line through the center of the trunk at its greatest diameter."

In the description of the "Konna" tree -- Kanikonna, or Golden Shower Tree, the state flower of Kerala -- it certainly seems to be Walker who explains to us that it is "a tree of middling size...with yellow flowers and seed in pods. The flowers are used in celebrating the feast of Vishu. It is necessary that the flower should be the first object presented to the sight of a Malabar on the morning of the day dedicated to that God." But then the second voice chimes in to provide more detail: "The flower is put in a basin, where a little rice is deposited, with it a bit of gold, usually a gold fanam [coin] and a coconut, the whole covered over with a clean cloth. On the morning of the feast of Vishu each person of a family as they rise lifts the cloth that conceals the flower with circumspection and takes a reverential view of the flower. The observance of this ceremony ensures comfort and prosperity for the remainder of the year. The neglect of it will surely be attended with disgrace and distress."

Barbara,Alexander's wife

After making a thorough search through his archives, Lisa Rosner found that,the other voice in Alexander's writings belong to Kallingal Kunji Koru.The clearest evidence comes from the similarities between Walker's plant materials and another four-volume set in the Walker of Bowland archives, on Malabar castes. Like the plant volumes, this consists of two volumes of illustrations and two volumes of descriptions, with corresponding numbers linking the two sets. Unlike the plant volumes, Walker tells us exactly where he got his information. "I am indebted," he wrote,

...for the account of the distinction and establishment of Castes in Malabar to Callinguel Cunhy Coroo who was a Tien and consequently of the fourth class. Cunhy Coroo was my Menon or Clerk; and was a man full of information and intelligence. He had a superior and a manly understanding. His notions were liberal and in general of great practical soundness. I had many reasons to think well of his probity and principles, as well as of his understanding. He was a friend for whom I entertained a sincere esteem, and who from his attachment and integrity deserved my confidence. Cunhy Coroo tho' of a low Caste was conversant with the Sanskrit writings and literature of his Country, and had an extensive knowledge of the resources, the Institutions, and peculiar usages of Malabar.

Tien means,he was from the Thiyya caste. The archives contain a series of letters from Cunhy Coroo to Walker that make it clear the esteem went both ways. "My Honored Sir," Cunhy Coroo wrote to Walker,

It is a long time since I had the happiness of receiving a line from you but this I hope is merely on account of your being occupied in the more serious affairs of the Company...

I beg leave also to say that I on my part have been very neglectful since the receipt of your letter to me dates in May last...but this was entirely owing to my not having any thing particular to communicate, [and not from] want of respect or attachment to you...

By the Blessing of God and Secondly by your favour, I still remain in the same situation in the Principal Collectors Office. This together with a small extent of merchandize I carry on now does provide me and my family sufficiently for the present. I beg leave also to inform you that I have lately built a Pattamar boat valued about 15000 Rupees, and with which I traffic to Bombay.

As I have the greatest desire to see you...and then only would be happy I will thank you to let me know of your arrival at Bombay...or I shall be prepared to see you on the coast...

From other letters we know that Cunhy Coroo oversaw translations of traditional Malabar manuscripts for Walker, packed and shipped plants for him, sent him gifts on his own account, and kept Walker informed on East India Company affairs in the district. We also can learn that Cunhy Coroo was well-regarded by other EIC administrators, who frequently consulted with him, as Walker had, on Malabar customs, laws, and traditions. It is very probable that he was the "intelligent native officer of the revenue" mentioned by Francis Buchanan in his published survey of Malabar, who took Buchanan into the field to explain local agricultural practices (Buchanan 2:477).

The archives indicate that the relationship between the two men was rooted in mutual self-interest as well as esteem.Alexander was at that point only an acting, not a commissioned major, and his appointment rested on the continuation of the Malabar Commission. But the East India Company was riven by factions, and the Malabar Commission's supporters were not in the ascendant. It was very much to his advantage to have allies among the Native employees of the company, whose expertise was essential for smooth collection of both revenue and local intelligence.

Cunhy Coroo, for his part, had every reason to appreciate Walker's support. Under the less sympathetic administrator who succeeded Walker, several Brahmins were appointed to the revenue office, and they "take every opportunity of showing themselves as fac totum," Cunhy Coroo wrote. If he, or any of the other employees who had served under Walker "chanced to have the least occasion," to speak to the administrator, "it is envied by them." They might have been frozen out of the revenue office permanently, had not another shift in the political climate replaced the unsympathetic administrator with one who had a better appreciation of Native expertise. The archives suggest that Cunhy Coroo's correspondence, and Walker's support, were significant factors at the local level in that political shift.

Plants of Malabar/Illustration from Alexander archives

Their correspondence began with a formal request from Walker, while still part of the Malabar Commission:

To Cunhy Coroo:

No proper account has yet been obtained of the nature of the landed tenures in Malabar. The accompanying papers contain four several accounts differing from each other. I wish to reconcile them so that the names may agree together and the errors of each particularly pointed out -- I want besides an exact account and history of all the kinds of landed tenure in Malabar. This is requisite to be finished as soon as possible...

Cunhy Coroo's response was enormously detailed and touched on many aspects of legal and agricultural practice.We learn that when it is time for the cultivator to pay the landholder what he owes, the calculation was based in part on the stages of growth of the chief agricultural products, like the jack tree and the coconut. In fact, in the sections on the coconut and jack trees there are detailed charts on how much landholder and cultivator are owed, based on the size and growth of the plants.

That, then, is the explanation of the anomalous drawings of jack trees and coconuts,depicting stages of growth.

I am reminded of Hortus Malabaricus,a comprehensive treatise that deals with the properties of the flora of the Western Ghats region principally covering the areas now in the Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka and Goa.Written in Latin, it was compiled over a period of nearly 30 years and published in Amsterdam during 1678–1693.The book was conceived by Hendrik van Rheede, who was the Governor of Dutch Malabar at the time.The Hortus Malabaricus comprises 12 volumes of about 500 pages each, with 794 copper plate engravings. The first of the 12 volumes of the book was published in 1678, and the last in 1693. It is believed to be the earliest comprehensive printed work on the flora of Asia and the tropics.

Mentioned in these volumes are plants of the Malabar region which in his time referred to the stretch along the Western Ghats from Goa to Kanyakumari. The book gives a detailed account of the flora of Kerala, along with sketches and detailed descriptions. Over 742 different plants and their indigenous science are considered in the book. The book also employs a system of classification based on the traditions adopted by the practitioners of that region. Apart from Latin, the plant names have been recorded in other languages including Malayalam, Konkani, Arabic, English.

Hendrik van Rheede is said to have taken a keen personal interest in the compilation of the Hortus Malabaricus. The work was edited by a team of nearly a hundred including:
The physician Itti Achuden and the Brahmins Ranga Bhat, Vinayaka bhat and Appu Bhat.
Amateur botanists, such as Arnold Seyn, Theodore Jansson of Almeloveen, Paul Hermann, Johannes Munnicks, Joannes Commelinus, Abraham a Poot.
Technicians, illustrators and engravers, together with the collaboration of Dutch East India Company officials, and clergymen including D. John Caesarius and the Discalced Carmelite Mathaeus of St. Joseph’s Monastery at Varapuzha.

Van Rheede was also assisted by the King of Cochin and the ruling Zamorin of Calicut. 

Prominent among the Indian contributors was the  physician Itti Achuden, a Thiyya Vaidyan of the Mouton Coast of Malabar whose contribution was examined by three Brahmins named Ranga Bhat, Vinayaka Pandit and Appu Bhat.The ethnomedical original information in the work was provided by Itti Achuden and the three Brahmins, working on it for two continuous years morning and evening. Their certificate to this effect is given in the first volume of the book. A grand memorial to them is erected in Kochi.
_________________________________________________

Reference:

1.K N Laksminarayanan/From Cauvery to Neela:A History of Tamil Agraharams of Palakkad
2.Dr Lisa Rosner/Making Sense of Malabar:The Major,The Menon and the Meaning of Plants

3.Walker, Alexander/Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh. Drawings of Trees and Plants on the Malabar Coast, 2 volumes

4.Regikumar, J., ed. Graeme's Report of the Revenue Administration of Malabar 1822. Reprint edition. Kerala State Archives: Government of Kerala, 2010

5.Buddle, Anne. The Tiger and the Thistle: Tipu Sultan and the Scots in India 1760-1800. Edinburgh : Trustees of National Gallery of Scotland, 1999.

6.Buchanan, Francis. A Journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar

© Ramachandran 

THE CHRONICLES OF CHAOS

Foreword

The Chronicles of Chaos

Ramachandran

Islam ,meaning "submission [to God]", is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad  fundamentally teaching that there is only one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is the last and final messenger of God.It is the world's second-largest religion with over 1.8 billion followers or 24.1% of the world's population, known as Muslims.They make up a majority of the population in 49 countries. Islam teaches that God has guided mankind through prophets, revealed scriptures, and natural signs.The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, believed to be the verbatim word of God, as well as the teachings and normative examples,called the sunnah, composed of accounts called hadith of Muhammad (c. 570 – 632 AD ).

Muslims consider the Quran in Arabic to be the unaltered and final revelation of God.Like other Abrahamic religions, Islam also teaches a final judgment with the righteous rewarded in paradise and the unrighteous punished in hell.Religious concepts and practices include the Five Pillars of Islam, which are obligatory acts of worship, as well as following Islamic law (sharia), which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, from banking and welfare to women and the environment.The cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem are the three holiest sites in Islam.

Islam originated in the early 7th century  Arabian Peninsula, in Mecca, and by the 8th century, the Umayyad Caliphate extended from Iberia in the west to the Indus River in the east. The Islamic Golden Age refers to the period traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century, during the Abbasid Caliphate, when much of the historically Muslim world was expamding.The expansion involved various caliphates and states such as the Ottoman Empire, trade, and conversion to Islam by missionary activities (dawah).

Most Muslims are of one of two denominations: Sunni (75–90%) or Shia (10–20%). Sunni and Shia differences arose from a disagreement over the succession to Muhammad and acquired broader political significance, as well as theological and juridical dimensions.About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country; 31% live in South Asia,the largest population of Muslims in the world; 20% in the Middle East–North Africa, where it is the dominant religion; and 15% in sub-Saharan Africa.Sizable Muslim communities can also be found in the Americas, China, Europe, and North Asia. 

Since it is a monotheistic religion,it has created only dictators from its very inception.Several characteristics of miltancy in the world,kidnapping,taking hostges,asking for ransom and jihad,were contributed by Islam.Out of the four Caliphs after Muhammad,three were murdered,proving it is not a peace loving religion.The founder himself ruled by subjugating the masses with terror and religion;adherence to the faith was mandatory.Death or Islam was the slogan.Iconoclasm,established in the final battle for Mecca was followed the world over,and was witnessed by Malabar in 1921,by islamists breaking the idols in temples,garlanding the idols with the entrails of cattle and even destroying the temples.Malabar had witnessed it much before,during the conquests of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.The Zamorin had to commit self immolation,setting fire to his palace.

India had witnessed it during the Islamic conquest of the Sindh in the 8th century,attacks of Muhammad Ghori,Mahmudd Ghazni and finally during the Mughal empire.Bakhtiyar Khalji destroyed the Nalanda University;Qutb Din Aibak constructed the vicory pillar of Qutb Minar,destroying 27 temples.Raja Dahir,Jayapala,the Hindu Karkota empire of Laltaditya,Suhaldev and Prithviraj resisted the Islamic conquest.

For Islam,conquest of India and Hindus was,jihad.

Jihad means 'to strive or struggle [in the way of God]'. In its broadest sense, it is "exerting one's utmost power, efforts, endeavors, or ability in contending with an object of disapprobation." Depending on the object being a visible enemy, the Devil, and aspects of one's own self ,such as sinful desires, different categories of jihad are defined. Jihad also refers to one's striving to attain religious and moral perfection.When used without any qualifier, jihad is understood in its military form. Some Muslim authorities, especially among the Shi'a and Sufis, distinguish between the "greater jihad," which pertains to spiritual self-perfection, and the "lesser jihad", defined as warfare.

Within Islamic jurisprudence, jihad is usually taken to mean military exertion against non-Muslim combatants. Jihad is the only form of warfare permissible in Islamic law and may be declared against illegal works, terrorists, criminal groups, rebels, apostates, and leaders or states who oppress Muslims. Jihad only becomes an individual duty for those vested with authority. 

Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages. Early criticism came from Jewish and Christian authors, many of whom viewed Islam as a Christian heresy or a form of idolatry, often explaining it in apocalyptic terms.Later, there appeared criticism from the Muslim world itself, as well as from Jewish writers and from ecclesiastical Christians.Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, are also discussed by critics.

World Muslim Population

Islamic salvation optimism and its carnality were criticized by Christian writers. Islam's sensual descriptions of paradise led many Christians to conclude that Islam was not a spiritual religion. Although sensual pleasure was also present in early Christianity, as seen in the writings of Irenaeus, the doctrines of the former Manichaean Augustine of Hippo led to the broad repudiation of bodily pleasure in both life and the afterlife. Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari defended the Quranic description of paradise by asserting that the Bible also implies such ideas, such as drinking wine in Gospel of Matthew.

Defamatory images of Muhammad, derived from early 7th century depictions of Byzantine Church,appear in the 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Here, Muhammad appears in the eighth circle of hell, along with Ali. Dante does not blame Islam as a whole but accuses Muhammad of schism, by establishing another religion after Christianity.

Since the events of 11 September 2001, Islam has faced criticism over its scriptures and teachings being claimed to be a significant source of terrorism and terrorist ideology.India had known it for several centuries,as a politico-religious phenomenon,rooted in militancy.

Other criticisms focus on the question of human rights in modern Muslim-majority countries, and the treatment of women in Islamic law and practice.In the wake of the recent multiculturalism trend, Islam's influence on the ability of Muslim immigrants in the West to assimilate has been criticized. Both in his public and personal life, others objected the morality of Muhammad, therefore also the sunnah as a role model.

Muhammad being the last prophet,leaves little room for updation in the religion he has found.Its priest hood interprets the Quranic verses according to their whims and fancies,most of the time,in an archaic manner.The resultant reality is often chaos and anarchy.It is a religion marred by homicides and fratricides.This book chronicles the militancy Islam has given birth to and groomed over centuries of strife and conquests.

© Ramachandran