It would be in the fitness of things to name the Coimbatore - Mangalore Central inter-city express (22609/10) as Malabar Kranti Express.
The Inter-city express (daily) 22609/10 being operated between Palghat Junction and Mangalore Central is being extended to Coimbatore Junction as per the proposals of the railway budget presented this year.
It would improve the connectivity between Coimbatore and Malabar region which have long years of traditional linkage as both were part of the Madras Presidency of the British Raj, much before the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu were carved out.
As a matter of coincidence, this train (like many other trains too) would halt
both at Tirur and Podanur Junction, which were both witness to the gruesome incident in which 64 out of the 100 odd prisoners, who revolted against brutalities
of British police in Malabar region, were transported
in a closed freight wagon
and suffocated to death in 1921.
Made to board the closed wagon at Tirur, these prisoners were destined to reach prisons located in Coimbatore and Bellary but many of them had reached their heavenly abode, asphyxiated to death inside the wagon.
Downplayed by merely describing it as a 'wagon tragedy' in 1921, this horrendous incident is beyond any realms of imaginations at a time when we crib about bad air-conditioned coaches, stained bed rolls, stinking toilets, jammed windows during train journeys.
Though a small wagon replica model is placed at Tirur in Malappuram
district in memory of this event, there has been no effort to honour these
souls who were denied even the right of dignity in
death.
Southern Railway can consider naming this train as Malabar Kranti Express (reminding people of the struggle in Malabar region against British rule) to honour those unfortunate souls and also place paintings narrating this event prominently in the coaches of this train.
Ravi S,
Coimbatore.
6 years ago
