Khilafat Movement

The Khilafat Movement (1919-1924) was a movement amongst the Muslims of British India (the largest single Muslim community in one geo-political entity at the time) to ensure that the British, victors of World War I , kept a promise made at the Versailles . The promise was that the Caliphate , then claimed by the Ottoman emperor, would not be abolished. Ottoman emperor Abdul Hamid II (1876-1909) had launched his Pan-Islamic program in a bid to protect the Ottoman empire from Western attack and dismemberment, and to crush the Westernizing democratic opposition in Turkey. He sent an emissary, Jamaluddin Afghani , to India in the late nineteenth century. One Muslim journalist, Maulana Muhammad Ali , spent four years in prison (1911-1915) for preaching resistance to the British and support for the Ottoman caliph. Ansari, and Hasrat Mohani, started a new organization, the Khilafat Movement. Their avowed aim was to use whatever leverage they had with the British, as residents of a British colony, to protect the Caliphate. They organized Khilafat Conferences in several northern Indian cities. In 1920 they published the Khilafat Manifesto. The Ali brothers then made a strategic alliance. They convinced Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to join a Hindu-Muslim alliance for self-rule (Indian independence, or swaraj). Gandhi's followers would support the Khilafat Movement if the Muslims would support Gandhi's efforts for swaraj. Gandhi became a member of the Central Khilafat Committee and at the Nagpur session (1920) of the Indian National Congress Gandhi proposed a non-cooperation campaign, of non-violent satyagraha , in support of swaraj and khilafat. The non-cooperation campaign was at first successful. However, the Hindu-Muslim alliance soon dissolved in communal violence. In 1920, some 18,000 Muslim peasants, mostly from Sind and the North Western Provinces, voluntarily emigrated to Afghanistan . They believed that India was Dar-el-Harb, a non-Islamic land, and wished to live in Dar-el-Islam, an Islamic polity. Afghanistan could not support this vast influx of poor refugees and there was great suffering. In August 1921, the poor Muslim peasants of Malabar (now part of Kerala state) erupted in the Moplah rebellion . After a pitched battle with British troops -- which the rebels lost with thousands killed and wounded -- the peasants attacked their predominantly Hindu, upper-caste landlords. Some three thousand Hindus are said to have been killed. There were numerous rapes and attempts to forcibly convert Hindus to Islam. The Moplah rebellion is still a subject of historical dispute. Hindutva writers stress the religious aims of the rebels, and see the bloody rebellion as proof that Muslims are a threat to Hindus. Marxist writers view the rebellion as class-based: peasants rose against their oppressive landlords. While deploring the excesses of the rebels, the Marxists see the rebellion as justified. In February 1922, a violent mob in Chauri-Chaura set fire to a police station, killing twenty-two policemen. Gandhi's attempt at mass non-violence had ended in massacre. Soon after the Chauri-Chaura incident, Gandhi called off the non-cooperation movement. The Ali brothers had been arrested; Gandhi had withdrawn from the movement. The final blow to the movement was Kemal Ataturk 's overthrow of the Ottoman Sultan. In 1924, the new, secular, Turkish state relinquished any claims to a universal caliphate. There was now no caliph to support. The Khilafat movement died.

Khilafat activists leading a procession. The Khilafat movement (1919-1924) was a political campaign launched mainly by Muslims in British India to influence the British government and to protect the Ottoman Empire during the aftermath of World War I . The position of Caliph after the Armistice of Mudros of October 1918 with the military occupation of Istanbul and Treaty of Versailles (1919) fell into a disambiguation along with the Ottoman Empire 's existence. The movement gained force after the Treaty of Sèvres (August 1920) which solidified the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire . In India, although mainly a Muslim religious movement, the movement became a part of the wider Indian independence movement . The movement was a topic in Conference of London (February 1920) .

The Khilafat movement (1919-1924) was a pan-Islamic , political protest campaign launched by Muslims in British India to influence the British government. The movement became the reason for separation from mainland India of an Islamic Pakistan, in the process unleashing tremendous separation-trauma, mainly upon ethnic Punjabis. The subsequent murder of Gandhi in India and Jinnah in the newly-formed Pakistan were also the indirect fallouts of the Khilafat Movement. The movement was a topic in Conference of London (February 1920) ; however, Arabs saw it as threat of continuation of Turkish dominance of Arab lands. The position of Caliph after the Armistice of Mudros of October 1918 with the military occupation of Istanbul and Treaty of Versailles (1919) fell into a disambiguation along with the Ottoman Empire 's existence. The movement gained force after the Treaty of Sèvres (August 1920) which imposed the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and gave Greece a powerful position in Anatolia, to the distress of the Turks. The movement collapsed by late 1922 when Turkey gained a more favorable diplomatic position and moved toward secularism. By 1924 Turkey simply abolished the roles of Sultan and Caliph.

Movement in India (1919–1922) The Khilafat movement (1919–22) was a political campaign launched by Indian Muslims in British India over British policy against Turkey and the planned dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after World War I by Allied forces. Leaders participating in the movement included Shaukat Ali , Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar , Hakim Ajmal Khan , and Abul Kalam Azad who organised the movement to redress the grievances of Turkey. Mahatma Gandhi had supported the movement as part of his opposition to the British Empire , and he also advocated for a wider non-cooperation movement at the same time. Vallabhbhai Patel , Bal Gangadhar Tilak and other Hindu and Congress figures also supported the movement. Generally described as a protest against the sanctions placed on the Ottoman Empire after the First World War by the Treaty of Sèvres , the movement is also noted for promoting Hindu-Muslim unity. It ended in 1922 after the end of non-cooperation movement. Nationalism: Critical Concepts in Political Science . Khilafat movement which was primarily designed to prevent the allied dismemberment of Turkey after World War One. The Cambridge History of India, Volume 6 . The main object of the Khilafat movement was to redress the grievances of Turkey and get for her justice. The Many Colors of Hinduism: A Thematic-historical Introduction . Political Thought and Leadership of Lokmanya Tilak . Carnegie Endowment for International Peace . A History of India .

Movement in India (1919–1922) The Khilafat movement (1919–22) was a political campaign launched by Indian Muslims in British India over British policy against Turkey and the planned dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after World War I by Allied forces. Leaders participating in the movement included Ahmad Sagheer Haji Variyami , Maulana Shaukat Ali , Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar , Hakim Ajmal Khan , and Abul Kalam Azad who organised the movement to redress the grievances of Turkey. Mahatma Gandhi had supported the movement as part of his opposition to the British Empire , and he also advocated for a wider non-cooperation movement at the same time. Vallabhbhai Patel , Bal Gangadhar Tilak and other Hindu and Congress figures also supported the movement. Generally described as a protest against the sanctions placed on the Ottoman Empire after the First World War by the Treaty of Sèvres , the movement is also noted for promoting Hindu-Muslim unity. It ended in 1922 after the end of the non-cooperation movement. Nationalism: Critical Concepts in Political Science . Khilafat movement which was primarily designed to prevent the allied dismemberment of Turkey after World War One. The Cambridge History of India, Volume 6 . The main object of the Khilafat movement was to redress the grievances of Turkey and get for her justice. The Many Colors of Hinduism: A Thematic-historical Introduction . Political Thought and Leadership of Lokmanya Tilak . Carnegie Endowment for International Peace . A History of India .