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.[12] It ended in 1922 after the end of the non-cooperation movement.[13][14][15][16][17]
Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II (1842–1918) launched his pan-Islamist program in a bid to protect the Ottoman Empire from Western attack and dismemberment and to crush the democratic opposition at home. He sent an emissary, Jamaluddin Afghani, to India in the late 19th century.[18] The cause of the Ottoman monarch evoked religious passion and sympathy amongst Indian Muslims. Being the caliph, the Ottoman sultan was nominally the supreme religious and political leader of all Sunni Muslims across the world. However, this authority was never actually used.
A large number of Muslim religious leaders began working to spread awareness and develop Muslim participation on behalf of the caliphate. Muslim religious leader Maulana Mehmud Hasan attempted to organize a national war of independence with support from the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire, having sided with the Central Powers during World War I, suffered a major military defeat. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) reduced its territorial extent and diminished its political influence but the victorious Europe powers promised to protect the Ottoman sultan's status as the caliph. However, under the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), territories such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq were severed from the empire.
Although political activities and popular outcry on behalf of the caliphate emerged across the Muslim world, the most prominent activities took place in India. A prominent Oxford educated Muslim journalist, Maulana Muhammad Ali Johar had spent four years in prison for advocating resistance to the colonial government and support for the caliphate. At the onset of the Turkish War of Independence, Muslim religious leaders feared for the caliphate, which the European powers were reluctant to protect. To some of the Muslims of India, the prospect of being conscripted to fight against fellow Muslims in Turkey was anathema.[21] To its founders and followers, the Khilafat was not a religious movement but rather a show of solidarity with their fellow Muslims in Turkey.[22]
The movement also saw donations by Indians to help in this movement.[27][28] A committee was also started for sending funds to help Ankara government of Mustafa Kemal.[29]
The non-cooperation campaign was at first successful. The programme started with boycott of legislative councils, government schools, colleges and foreign goods. Government functions and surrender of titles and distinctions.[citation needed] Massive protests, strikes and acts of civil disobedience spread across India. Hindus and Muslims joined forces in the campaign, which was initially peaceful. Gandhi, the Ali brothers and others were swiftly arrested by the colonial government. Under the flag of Tehrik-e-Khilafat, a Punjab Khilafat deputation comprising Moulana Manzoor Ahmed and Moulana Lutfullah Khan Dankauri took a leading role throughout India, with a particular concentration in the Punjab (Sirsa, Lahore, Haryana etc.). People from villages such as Aujla Khurd were the main contributors to the cause. [citation needed]
Although holding talks with the colonial government and continuing their activities, the Khilafat movement weakened as Muslims were divided between working for the Congress, the Khilafat cause and the Muslim League.[30]
Up to the turn of the 20th century, the British system of political control was effective in Sindh. During the Khilafat movement, however, the British dealt with another major challenge to their rule.[32]
The Khilafat movement represented the first occasion on which a major number of Sindhi pirs came together on a common platform to oppose British policy, and their involvement showed the way in which they were being gradually involved in the issues of the broader Indian Muslim community. Similar to their co-religionists elsewhere, many of these pirs were affected due to the rise in pan-Islamic sentiment and also by the changing awareness of the position of Muslims in South Asia. Their participation in the agitation severely threatened to undermine the position of the British colonial rule in Sindh. Yet, regardless of the significant influence of the pirs and the considerable support which they attracted for the Khilafat cause, the system of control proved its credibility by reducing the threat posed to British rule to one of manageable proportions.[32]
The British system of control was seriously threatened by the involvement of Sindhi pirs in the Khilafat movement. The concerns of the movement appealed strongly to a major section of the province's religious leadership as a result of the rise in interest in pan-Islamic issues during the years leading up to 1919. Support for broader Islamic concerns during this period was directly associated with the gradual erosion of the barriers which had isolated the Sindh region from developments taking place.[32]
Legacy
The movement is noted to have played a role in boosting unity among Hindus and Muslims. The Congress supported the movement in response to the divide and rule strategy by the British.[33] The period of 1919-1922 is widely seen as the heyday of Hindu-Muslim unity.[12]Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had thanked the Congress for its sympathy, and hoped that that it would soon gain Swaraj.[34]
The movement is described as a milestone in the growth of the Muslim nationalism and the history of civil disobedience in India. Critics, however, argue that the movement was not nationalist or anti-imperialist but its religious rhetoric concealed a weak and uncertain religious agenda.[35]
Omair Anas, writing for the Turkish outlet Daily Sabah, noted that "It is impossible to recall Turkey's anti-colonial struggle without mentioning Gandhi's support for the unity and integrity of the then-crumbling Ottoman Empire."[36]
^Hutchinson, J.; Smith, A.D. (2000). Nationalism: Critical Concepts in Political Science. Nationalism: Critical Concepts in Political Science. Routledge. p. 926. ISBN978-0-415-20112-4. Retrieved 9 February 2023. Khilafat movement which was primarily designed to prevent the allied dismemberment of Turkey after World War One.
^Ahmad Hasan Dani (1979). World Scholars on Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Volume 1. Quaid-i-Azam University. p. 85. the Khilafat agitation ended in 1922
^Gail Minault, The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India (1982).
^Burton Stein (2010). A History of India. John Wiley & Sons. p. 300.
^Sankar Ghose (1991). Mahatma Gandhi. Allied Publishers. pp. 124–26. ISBN9788170232056. Archived from the original on 18 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
^However, at the same time, note must also be made that in the North Punjab and part of the NWFP, a huge number of Muslims did actively volunteer to serve in the British Indian Army in World War I
^Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival, Norton, (2006), p. 106
^ abc"Challenge to the system: the Khilafat movement, 1919–1924". Sufi Saints and State Power. Cambridge University Press. 31 January 1992. pp. 77–100. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511563201.007.
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