On June 27, news emerged that the censor committee of Kerala had denied a certificate to the upcoming Malayalam film ‘Puzha Muthal Puzha Vare’ by filmmaker Ali Akbar aka Ramasimhan Aboobakker. The film revolves around the 1921 Malabar genocide of Hindus by Moplah Muslims. Speaking to OpIndia, Ali Akbar aka Ramasimhan slammed the censor board for trying to distort the facts in his movie by demanding cuts that would essentially whitewash the genocide of Hindus by Moplah Muslims.
Speaking to OpIndia, Ramasimhan said that among the many cuts that would change the character of the movie, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) during its Revising Committee meeting also was forcing him to use his Muslim name, Ali Akbar, as the Director of the movie.
In January 2022, Ali Akbar decided to reconvert to Hinduism, taking on the name Ramasimhan. While leaving Islam in December 2021 itself, Akbar had said that he would be known as Ramasimhan.
Ali Akbar had said, “Ramasimhan is a person who was killed while sticking to the culture of Kerala. Tomorrow Ali Akbar will be called Ram Singh. That’s the best name”. Ramasimhan and his family were butchered by Islamists for converting to Hinduism from Islam in 1947. Ramasimhan, his brother Dayasimhan, Dayasimhan’s wife Kamala, their cook Raju Iyer and other members of the family were brutally butchered by Islamist Jihadists in Malaparamba, Malappuram district on 2nd August 1947, just two weeks before the independence.
During the Revising Committee meeting, Ramasimhan was questioned as to why he had used that name as the Director of the movie and apart from the many cuts, the Censor Board had insisted that he use his Islamic name, Ali Akbar, as the Director of the movie. Pertinently, Ramasimhan had decided to use his Hindu name as the Director of the movie and his Islamic name as the producer, however, the board insisted that his name must be “Ali Akbar” as the Director as well.
“I think they have a problem that a Muslim man converted to Hinduism and is making a movie on the Malabar genocide of Hindus”, he told OpIndia. “They don’t want this message going out”, he added.
Pertinently, after the Kerala Censor Board had denied certification to the movie, they referred the movie to CBFC for a Revising Committee review. According to the Director, the cuts that alter the character of the movie were suggested over 2 sittings of the Revising Committee. Akbar suspects that the local Censor Board has influenced the decision of the Central Board and there is pressure from the PFI to stop the release of the movie.
On being asked why the central board is behaving in this fashion, the Director said, “Please remember the famous dialogue of Kashmir Files by Vivek Agnihotri – The government might be ours, but the system is theirs”, referring to Islamists and Leftists.
The Malabar Genocide of Hindus
The Malabar genocide of 1921 was a systematic campaign of jihad against Hindus. The genocide, orchestrated by the likes of Variankunnath Kunhamad Haji, Ali Musaliar and others, led to an estimated death of 10,000 Hindus in Kerala. It is believed that as many as 100,000 Hindus were forced to leave Kerala in the wake of the massacre. The number of Hindu Temples that were destroyed in the genocide is speculated to be a hundred. Forcible conversion of Hindus was rampant and unspeakable atrocities were poured upon Hindus.
The Moplah pogrom was described by the likes of Annie Besant and Babasaheb Ambedkar in their respective published books. Annie Besant described the events in her book ‘The Future of Indian Politics’ as, “They murdered and plundered abundantly, and killed or drove away all Hindus who would not apostatize. Somewhere about a lakh, people were driven from their homes with nothing but the clothes they had on, stripped of everything. Malabar has taught us what Islamic rule still means, and we do not want to see another specimen of the Khilafat Raj in India.”
Babasaheb Ambedkar, in his book, Pakistan or the Partition of India, wrote, “The blood-curdling atrocities committed by the Moplas in Malabar against the Hindus were indescribable. All over Southern India, a wave of horrified feeling had spread among the Hindus of every shade of opinion, which was intensified when certain Khilafat leaders were so misguided as to pass resolutions of “congratulations to the Moplas on the brave fight they were conducting for the sake of religion”. Even after 100 years of the event, the wounds of the genocide remain afresh in the Hindu conscience.
