Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja – The Day of Supreme Sacrifice (Veerahuthi)
The story of Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja is a magnificent saga of bravery that puts the very history of the freedom struggle in the dock. Pazhassi Raja is a victim of history’s treachery. His life is the heroic epic of a freedom fighter who was completely obscured and maliciously misinterpreted. He was a commander and ruler who had to simultaneously battle Tipu Sultan, the British, and power-hungry rivals within his own family. When fighting until death for the land, its people, and the glorious heritage of his motherland, there was only one thing that fueled Pazhassi Raja’s spirit – an intense devotion to his land and its traditions.
In a letter written to Ayillath Nambiar on October 10, 1797, to organize the local forces, he demanded – “You must be aware that the Europeans have become strong in this holy land where Perumal and Bhagavathi reside. Shootouts have occurred several times at the posts they established in Kannoth and Manathana. Since this has been done solely against Bhagavathi and Perumal, I have decided to act against the Company.” (Page 80, Pazhassi Samara Rekhakal, Dr. K.K.N. Kurup).
Veera Pazhassi was a revolutionary who led armed struggles of workers and farmers to drive out imperialist, capitalist, and colonial forces 175 years before Che Guevara was born. He was a ruler who gave concrete form to anti-capitalist ideas – clearer than the Communist Manifesto – and implemented them 65 years before Karl Marx was born. He was the guerrilla war hero who successfully deployed guerrilla tactics in the forests of Wayanad a quarter-century before such strategies were formulated in Europe. He was a military strategist who utilized the Westerner’s gunpowder and guns alongside the tribals’ poison-tipped arrows. British military commanders who led armies across the globe to build the “Empire on which the sun never sets” were forced to kneel before Pazhassi Raja.
General Stuart, Walter Ewer, William Page, Wilkinson, and Duncan have all recorded a single truth – “If the four native armies of Chirakkal, Kottayam, Kadathanad, and Kurumbranad stand united, even the entire British army in Bharat cannot conquer them”. It was these British military officers who recorded that the modern, well-armed British army was rendered ineffective before Pazhassi’s army armed with bows and arrows. Records show that in three battles fought in the vicinity of Kozhikode, around one thousand white British soldiers and three thousand Indian sepoys were killed (Letter from Lt. Col. Dow to the Bombay Government). Not only were Major Cameron and Lieutenant Nugent killed, but weapons, military equipment, and the Royal Flag of England had to be surrendered before Pazhassi. It was the world’s greatest early victory in guerrilla warfare. It is in a land that has deliberately forgotten this magnificent victory, which took place on the soil of Malabar on March 18, 1797, that Che Guevara is celebrated today.
Pazhassi Raja’s dominion included the hilly regions and forests of modern-day Kerala, stretching from Kozhikode to Kasaragod. However, he did not have the circumstances to rule with a capital, a palace, or defined borders. Pazhassi wrote a history of struggle spanning a twelve-year cycle (Vyazhavattam), alternating between hiding, constant movement, attacks, counter-attacks, and strategic retreats. He was a king who did not enjoy royal comforts for even a single day. If it was the European powers that came through the seashores of Kerala, it was Tipu Sultan of Mysore on the other side of the Wayanad hills. The goal of both was the same: to loot the soil and soul of Malabar. Pazhassi possessed no military power to withstand this double attack from both sides. He fought without modern weapons, thousands of soldiers, necessary wealth, or even enough food to fill half a stomach. It is said that the mothers of Wayanad, anxious that Pazhassi and his soldiers should not starve during their secret journeys through the forests, would wrap rice, salt, and green chilies in areca nut sheaths and hang them on the bent tips of bamboo clusters. Pazhassi Raja was a short man who wore a cloth reaching only down to his knees, with long hair and a thick, well-groomed beard.
Pazhassi was convinced that politics should be based on Swadharma (one’s own righteous duty). This is evident in the letters he sent to local rulers – “If the gods of this land, Perumal and Bhagavathi, influence your mind, and if you have any regard for me, now is the time to show friendship. I inform you that we all stand on the side of our Dharma, that I stand with firmness, and that I have decided to act against the East India Company because their war is conducted solely against Bhagavathi, Perumal, and our land.” (Pazhassi Samara Rekhakal, Page 122).
If the modern historical consciousness that writes off such brave declarations of war as merely “forest rebellions” is not a continuation of the British mindset, then what is it? All foreign political ideologies viewed Bharat as the enemy. The territories ruled by everyone from the Mughals to Tipu Sultan, the Dutch, the French, the Portuguese, and the British shared a common character. They destroyed the land’s agriculture and industry. They looted the forests. They directly and indirectly attacked temples and temple beliefs. They feared nationalism. The rule conducted on Indian soil at various times by Europeans who came as traders, Islamic rulers who came as plunderers, and Communists who came to power in the name of the working class was all the same. Pazhassi Raja was the first lion’s roar to rise from the Indian forests against the extermination mentality of such foreign powers.
Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja was the foremost leader among the brave patriots of the world who sacrificed themselves to ensure that their own religion, culture, rituals, and beliefs were not ground into dust under the feet of foreign conquests.