Nannambra - Pepper in centuries old wounds. A complex view of the Mappila legacy.

The history of the Mappila community in Kerala is long and controversial. This description of the early European interaction with them could easily be transported into 2014 with minor changes

"....Early modern Europeans had a complicated relationship with Muslims. On the one hand, they saw Muslims as dangerous threats to Christendom, from both political and religious points of view. Ottoman janissaries battled their way into the heart of Europe, almost reaching Vienna. Algerian and Tunisian corsairs patrolled and pillaged the Mediterranean and the north Atlantic. Islam attracted droves of Christian  renegades seeking wealth and power. Yet, western nations vied for trade advantages in Islamic lands".

A Mappila Family

The Mappilas are India’s first and oldest Islamic community, founded by Arab missionaries either during the Prophet Mohammed’s lifetime or shortly after his death in 632 AD. Before Vasco da Gama’s arrival in India in 1498, the Mappilas were principal players in a flourishing enterprise that involved the trade in spices, particularly black pepper, with a network of merchants from the Middle East and the eastern coasts of Africa. When western Christians followed Vasco da Gama’s footsteps to Malabar, they immediately placed
the Mappilas in the same category as their traditional Islamic antagonists — “Moors” and “Turks” — and began a campaign of oppression against the Mappilas. Europeans committed a commercial coup when they violently sabotaged and highjacked the Mappilas’ monopoly of the pepper trade in the Indian Ocean/Arabian Sea and when they forced many Mappilas to convert to Christianity. Since Mappilas did not own a great deal of land, they invested in the Indian Ocean/Arabian Sea trade networks and reaped significant profit.

This trade was the source of conflict with the European powers. Black pepper is indigenous to Malabar, and Malabari karimunda pepper was considered the best. Pepper was desired for its many uses: in cooking, for food preservation, as medicine, and even as money. In fifteenth-century Europe, prior to the pouring in of pepper from the East, pepper was so precious that it cost $50+  per pound. In addition it was a light cargo that would keep during long sea journeys. When Vasco Da Gama tried to buy pepper, he found he was unable to afford it with his decrepit goods from Portugal as barter. Eventually this trading tension led to their subjugation by the Portuguese and eventually the East India company.

The first Mappila Arakkal dynasty was matrilineal even though its founder was a hindu king who had traveled to Mecca - Cheruman Perumal. As the first king Adiraja transfigured into an Islamic AliRaja. Subsequently there were at least five Queens of Malabar (Bibis). These Bibis could be and often were Plyandrouns with multiple partners.

Today, while there is relative harmony between the Hindus, Mappila, Jews and Christians on the Malabar coast the historical simmering has never fully subsided. Nannambra is a small non descript village right on the prime meridian. In 1922 there was an alleged rape and conversion of a hindu leader's 18yo daughter by a group of Mappilas (Muslims) led by the watchman of the house.This atrocity is still discussed, argued about and used as the basis for fresh vendettas in the area.

Niramaruthur, the birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner - how the Indian rockets led to the bombardment of Baltimore

Off the Mangad bus stop in Niramaruthur, grab a cup of tea, maybe a dosa and take a long walk up a rural road. Over the course of my research into Tippu Sultan, I chanced upon an article related to the Congreve rocket.

The British army used this rocket to devastating effect against Boulogne, Copenhagen, Danzig and even Baltimore depicted vividly in the American national anthem as the "rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air." While William Congreve is accredited with the invention of the rocket, according to rocket historians including Willy Ley and F H Winter, the Congreve rocket was derived from the solid propelled rocket weapons of Hyder Ali, Tippu's father and ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, India. This war rocket was known as the Indian war rocket or Mysore rocket and was deployed against the British to devastating ends. One can still see a real version in the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich, England.

This is the accompanying verbiage: The motor casing of this rocket is made of steel with multi nozzle holes with the sword blade as the warhead. The propellant used was packed gunpowder. Weight of the rocket is about 2 kg. With about 1 kg of propellant, 50 mm in diameter about 250 mm length, the range performance is reported 900 metres to 1.5 km. Our designers analyzed and confirmed their performance. What a simple and elegant design effectively used in war!

Tippu held off the British over multiple wars but finally succumbed in Srirangapatnam.

Tipu Sultan, the appetizer before the beef Wellington

Take the Tippu Sultan road and jog inland a little bit when parallel to Tirur after Paravanna and you get to Niramaruthur. Tipu has quite a vampirish reputation here in Kerala.

WHAT IS THE CONNECTION?

There is an improbable connection her. Tipu Sultan was defeated in his last battle by none other than Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington at Srirangapatnam. The practice against Tipu must have come in useful in the milder climes of Waterloo 16 years later.

The Sultan was named after a saint Tipu Mastan Aulia and is rumored to be descended from the Arab Quraysh clan, the tribe of Mohammed himself. This seems to me to be an outright attempt to bask in reflected glory and reputation for Tipu was no saint nor prophet. Focusing just on his exploits or outrages in Kerala, opinion is divided as to whether he was a benevolent king or a religious fundamentalist tyrant. The neutral observers such as William Logan definitely assert that cruel military operations and Islamic atrocities of Tipu Sultan in Malabar were legion - forcible mass circumcision and conversion, large-scale killings, looting and destruction of hundreds of Hindu temples, and other barbarities. Nevertheless, he did build this road during the latter half of the 18th century and it has recently been rebuilt and once finished could rival the road to Hana as a tourist destination.