104 years later, the tears of Tirur have not dried: Remembering Malabar’s Wagon Tragedy

Malappuram: One of the most tragic incidents in the history of the Malabar Rebellion was the Wagon Tragedy that took place on November 19, 1921. The uprising had spread across more than 220 villages in Malabar. In the name of the rebellion, thousands of people were arrested from these areas.

When the local jails became full with those arrested since November 10, many detainees were sent to prisons in Tamil Nadu. The British police decided to transport 100 prisoners at a time to the Bellary jail.

To prevent others from seeing the rebels, Sergeant Andrews decided to lock them inside freight wagons for transport. At Tirur, a wagon was attached to Train No. 77, which was travelling from Kozhikode to Coimbatore. Among the 100 prisoners were four Hindus and 96 Muslims.

The train departed from