Recently, Ram Madhav of the RSS said that the Moplah Rebellion in Kerala in 1929 was a “manifestation of a Taliban mindset”. This was yet another attempt to rewrite history in a communal, polarising way.
Historian and author Manu Pillai, who has written books on the history of South India, says it is a “disappointing statement” and a political one. But in Kerala, he says, religion does not work in politics. In an interview on a podcast with Sidharth Bhatia, he says that since the Taliban is in the news, this statement is designed to appeal to ‘certain kinds of people.’