The Moplah peasant movement was engineered in August 1921 among the peasants of Malabar district in Kerala. The Moplah tenants were Muslims and they agitated against the Hindu landlords and the British government. Their grievances related to lack of any security of tenure, renewal fees, high rents and other oppressive landlord exactions. In the 19 th century as well, there had been cases of Moplah resistance to landlord oppression but what erupted in 1921 was on a different scale altogether.