The rebellion began on 29 April 1915 when a police officer was killed while attempting to arrest Tok Janggut at a gathering against a newly-imposed property tax.

Abdul Latif, the governor of Pasir Puteh District, fled with his family along with all the money in the local treasury.

The Adviser soon dispatched a regiment of Sikh and Malay police officers to Juaran, a hamlet located between Pasir Puteh and Kota Bharu.

In response, Tok Janggut demanded a full royal pardon in exchange for ending the uprising, which was turned down by the Sultan.

The rebels managed to conquer Pasir Puteh town, ransacking government buildings and burnt several shophouses.

The British authorities deployed additional military forces, including the Malay States Guides (A Sikh Regiment) to Pasir Puteh.

His body was paraded around Kota Bharu on a bullock cart, then hung upside down in a town square before being taken down and buried about an hour later.

This arrangement continued until 1909 when Kelantan formally became a British protectorate, taking over from Siam upon signing of the Anglo-Siamese treaty that year.

Among these changes was that Britain would oversee Kelantan's foreign relations and defence, and the Sultan would appoint a British Adviser and to follow and give effect to the advice of the Adviser….in all matters of administration other than those touching the Mohammedan religion and Malay customs.

This was meant improve collection of property taxes, and to encourage the peasants to cultivate rice and cash crops on the land.

: cheah  The new Sultan was rendered as a figurehead, as his relatives were allowed to veto his orders and amassed large tracts of land.

Graham, who mentioned that “Seven of the most powerful of his uncles and other relatives formed a league by the strength of which combination, they extracted from him privileges to which, without such cohesion, they could never have aspired”.

: cheah : 7 The Kelantan Rebellion had been portrayed in a wide array because many scholars have disagreed as to what really caused the outbreak of the uprising.

Much of the interpretation stems from folk tales which depict him as a freedom fighter who would resist even the Sultan for fighting for what he believed was a just cause and that he was considered to be “a man of some learning and consequent repute in an unlettered community”.

Nevertheless, this mutiny was a signal to rebel leaders in Kelantan that the tide of the war was turning against the British, and that they would not be able to deploy reinforcements in time to quell their uprising.

Despite the lack of evidence that the rebellion was carried out as a Jihad, many generations of historians have tried fitting him into this image as a righteous Islamic warrior.

Similarly, in Rubaidin Siwar's Pemberontakan Pantai Timor (1980), Tok Janggut was again portrayed with a turban, a long beard and a newly added long robe which makes him appear to look like an Islamic radical, consistent with the context of the time whereby there was a rise in international radical Islamic movements.

The sustainability of this romanticised portrayal of Tok Janggut had much to do with much of the information and pictures not being made publicly known, which places an aura of mystery and intrigue over the entire rebellion.

As anthropologist James Boon analysed the term “romance”, he points out that; “Romance portrays vulnerable, disguised protagonists, partial social misfits who sense surpassing ideals and must prove the ultimate feasibility of actualising those ideals often against magical odds…..Romance properly concerns champions rather than heroes…..they are surrounded by signs and tokens of semi-miraculous birth, prone to mythical insights, and are acquainted with the natural and rustic orders more intimately than their privileged aristocratic counterparts.”[2] Despite the lack of evidence suggesting a political Islamic awakening behind the rebellion, some scholars have engaged in inserting present-day concerns into historical interpretations, thus portraying a romanticised image of Tok Janggut which would cause “prejudices and preconceptions to slip in unnoticed and skew our reading of the evidence”.

Failure to pay their taxes on time would result in further penalties, usually a fine and are forbidden from using the plot of land for their cultivation for the next year.

[4]: 116  This policy was greeted with unhappiness amongst the large landowners especially members of the royal family who felt that such taxation laws would hinder their desire to gain more land under their own control.

Sergeant Che Wan would eventually be stabbed to death after a heated argument with Tok Janggut and this would then officially start the Kelantan Rebellion in 1915.

This execution occurred just before Mat Hassan returned from Mecca where he had left to seek religious knowledge and to perform his pilgrimage, which was one of the five obligations of Islam.

This would then prompt the Sultan to declare the rebels as penderhaka (treasonable behaviour) and to seek British assistance to quell the rebellion.

[1]: 26  The actions of the Sultan would corroborate J. de V. Allen's study which states that several members of the royal family, especially the uncles were collaborating with Ungku Besar, the Pasir Putih chief in a bid to oust him.

The Sultan is traditionally viewed as a willing partner in adapting to the changes in administration in Kelantan who would administer the state on the advice of the British Adviser.

The Sultan had sent a series of petitions, showing his displeasure at Abdul Latif's temperament and treatment of the local population.

[8]: 23  Overall, compromise, accommodation and opposition had been the changing strategies of the Sultan in his political game with Langham-Carter and other British officials.