The historic shudhi of Ramasimhan and his martyrdom for the cause of Vedic Religion will be remembered in annals of Kerala history, serving as a hope and inspiration to all oppressed Hindus.
Thekke Palliyayali Moidu of Chemmun Kadavu village in Malappuram district had two sons namd Uneen and Alippu. Uneen was a Rubber Estate owner near Maalaparambu near Perinthalmanna. The British government conferred the title of ‘Khan Sahib’ on Uneen Sahib as the he was a land lord loyal to them. Uneen Sahib married the daughter of a prominent businessman Mr. Kalladi UnniKammu of Mannarkadu in Palakkad district. Uneen Sahib was very much attached to western culture and was following their lifestyles. His attitude towards the fellow Hindus were very bad. Being a rich land lord, he used to insult Hindus and their places of worships. He used the ruins of a nearby temple for building a latrine in his house! But all of a sudden he became sick and affected some severe stomach disease. No treatment found cured his illness. On seeing his pathetic condition some elders of nearby locality advised him to consult an astrologer and some Hindu Sanyasins for his recovery as they feared that it as a curse of God. They advised him to refrain from insulting Hindu deities and holy vedic literatures. He realised his mistakes and became repentant about his past actions. His painful stomach disease also surprisingly relieved shortly. He changed his living style and eating habits. He took special interest in yoga, mediation and charitable works for the well being of Hindus.
But the sudden change in Uneen Sahib infuriated the orthodox muslims. The muslim clergy tried their level best to change the mind of Uneen Sahib but were unsuccessful. He became more attached to hindu religious texts and beliefs. He went to the Arya Samaj at Calicut along with his brother, sons and many other family members and got re-converted into Vedic religion under the ritualistic shuddhi sanskar conducted by Arya Missionary Sri. Buddha Singh in 1946. On becoming a follower of vedic religion, Uneen Sahib got the arya name of Ramasimhan. One of his brothers got the name of Dayasimhan. Dayasimhan later became Narasimhan on his becoming a Namboothiri Brahmin.
Ramasimhan’s two sons changed their names to Fateh Singh and Jorwar Singh, the names of Guru Gobind Singh’s two valiant sons who were murdered on the orders of Aurangazeb during Mughal Rule for refusing to accept Islam. Former R.S.S Malabar prachaarak Swargeeya Sri Shankar Shastri ji (who died recently), made all the necessary arrangements for the Hindu Homecoming of Uneen Sahib and family.
Accepting the request of Ramasimhan, the learned Namboothiri Brahmins agreed to convert Dayasimhan (brother of Rama Simhan) to a Namboodiri Brahmin and his name was changed to Narasimhan Namboodiri. They even arranged the marriage of him with a Namboodiri girl named Kamala. This bold action of Namboothiris of Kerala to be written in golden lines of Hindu history as similar actions of then orthodox Kashmiri Brahmins (during the muslim rule) would have changed the demographic picture of present day turbulent Kashmir.
When a Maulavi criticised the re-conversion as a great mistakes on the part of Ramasimhan, he retorted: ‘I have not committed any mistake. It was my grandmother who, on being captured by Muslims, committed the fault of converting to Islam. I am re-converting to Hinduism to rectify for the fault and atone for the sin of my grandmother.’
But the shudhi of a wealthy and prominent Muslim family of Uneen Sahib made tremor in muslim dominated Malabar region. They feard that it may create an exodus from Islam to vedic religion. On coming back to Hinduism Ramasimhan, became a peace loving person. He returned his guns and licensed revolvers to the government which he was using earlier for hunting purpose. This act of Ramasimhan was counter productive and encouraged the Islamic fundamentalists to brutally assassinate him and his family. The muslim fundamentalists attacked the house of Ramasimhan on the midnight of 2nd Aug 1947 armed with deadly weapons and slaughtered the sleeping Ramasimhan, his brother Narasimhan Namboothiri, his wife Kamala Antarjanam and their cook Raju Iyer, in cold-blood. They desecrated the nearby temple and killed the holy cows and thrown the meat there.
The authorities arrested the assailants of Ramasimhan and his family. The weapons used for the murder were retrieved from the nearby pond in which they were dumped. Four of the murderers were sentenced to death by the District and Sessions Court at Palghat. The fundamentalists of Muslim community rallied behind the marauders and raised a huge sum of money for their legal assistance on appeal in the High Court of Madras. It was ironic that the Honourable Justice Horwill J of the Madras High Court, in a judgement he delivered on 19 January, 1949, acquitted all the accused for want of credible evidence. He also observed like this “It is unfortunate that such a grave crime organised by the Moplah Muslims against the Hindus of the area has not been detected; if the police were unable to obtain more evidence it was because the Moplah community largely succeeded in maintaining secrecy.”
The pseudo secular politicians of then Madras Government were bribed by the influential muslim businessmen for supporting the convicts in fighting the case in Madras High Court. The evidences were destroyed and prosecution witnesses were threatened and coerced into silence. As a result of such actions, the case was dismissed on the grounds of lack of evidence. Thus the murderous of this heinous crime set scot free. Many confidents of Rama Simhan like his Manager were bribed and compelled them to hand over the guardianship of his sons to his father-in-law Unni Kammu who forcibly reconverted them to Islam later.
Even though the rule of the land could not punish the assailants and their supporters, many of them had a tragic life in their later part of life. Few of them became insane and destitute.
Let us pay homage to Late Rama Simhan and his family members on the occasion of their tragic martyrdom day.
