Khilafat Movement: The untold story of India’s tragic protest
The Ottoman-Hindustan Link
From the 14th and early 20th centuries, the Ottoman Empire ruled a large portion of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa.
The Ottomans were the conquerors of Constantinople after defeating the Byzantine Empire. The Ottomans at their peak was the world’s biggest power and significant contributors to the fields of science, mathematics, technology, literature, and culture. They would take over and become Islam’s greatest empire by declaring themselves as the caliphate.
However, at the beginning of the 20th century, the empire saw a great decline.
This was partly due to conflicts with other powers, an Arab nationalist revolution that wanted the elimination of monarchies, genocides that raised communal tensions, and the First World War, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history.
During this decline, the Ottomans received support from one of the most unlikely places in the world. Over 5000 km away millions of Indians would rise in support. This movement would be known as the khilafat movement.
Fall of Ottoman Caliphate
To defend the Ottoman Empire against Western aggression and eliminate the democratic opposition, Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire (1842–1918) developed his pan-Islamist programme.
He sent Jamaluddin Afghani to India in the late 19th century, igniting Muslim Indians’ religious fervour and affection. Many Muslim religious leaders started promoting the caliphate and encouraging Muslim involvement. There, Maulana Mehmud Hasan tried to plan a national war of independence with assistance from the Ottoman Empire.
Nonetheless, the movement was viewed as a danger to the continuation of Turkish domination of Arab regions by nationalist Arabs.
After supporting the Central Powers in World War I, the Ottoman Empire suffered a significant military loss. At the Treaty of Versailles. The victorious European countries pledged to safeguard the Ottoman sultan’s position as caliph, despite reducing its territorial reach and political significance. However, later the Treaty of Sèvres separated the empire from regions like Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.
The Turkish national movement, a progressive, secular nationalist movement, emerged within Turkey. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, destroyed the Treaty of Sèvres during the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923). The Republic of Turkey destroyed the caliphate in 1924 as a result of Atatürk’s Reforms.
Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi was given the caliphate by Atatürk, but only if he agreed to live outside of Turkey. Senussi turned down the offer and vowed his allegiance to Abdulmejid, the last caliph of the Ottomans. The leader of the Arab Revolt and Sharif of Mecca and the Hejaz, Hussein bin Ali, later claimed the title, but in 1925 Ibn Saud fought him and conquered his kingdom.
The Khilafat Movement
Beginning of the movement
The majority of the important political and public protests in favor of the caliphate occurred in India, despite their emergence across the Muslim world. Maulana Muhammad Ali Johar, a well-known Muslim journalist with an education from Oxford, served four years in prison for supporting the caliphate and encouraging opposition to the colonial administration.
Muslim religious leaders were concerned for the caliphate at the start of the Turkish War of Independence because the European nations were reluctant to defend it. The idea of being drafted to fight against other Muslims in Turkey was abhorrent to some Indian Muslims.
The Khilafat was not a religious organization to its founders or adherents; rather, it was an expression of support for their Muslim brothers and sisters in Turkey.
Mohammad Ali and his brother Maulana Shaukat Ali joined with other Muslim leaders to form the All-India Khilafat Committee.
They sought to foster Muslim political unification and use their power to uphold the caliphate.
They released the Khilafat Manifesto , which urged Indian Muslims to band together and hold the British government accountable for safeguarding the caliphate.
Alliance with Congress
Khilafat leaders and the Indian National Congress, India’s main political party and leader of the nationalist struggle, formed an alliance.
Khilafat leaders and Congress leader Mahatma Gandhi vowed to cooperate and fight for the causes of Khilafat and Swaraj.
The Khilafat supporters played a significant role in the non-cooperation movement, which was an organized nationwide campaign of peaceful civil disobedience, in an effort to put more pressure on the colonial administration.
At this time also, Afghanistan’s new leader Amanullah Khan led some people from the North-West Frontier Province to immigrate to Afghanistan as a form of protest.
Leaders of the Khilafat including Dr. Ansari, Maulana Azad, and Hakim Ajmal Khan also developed a personal bond with Gandhi.
End of the Movement
The campaign of non-cooperation initially succeeded. The programme began with a boycott of legislative bodies, public universities, and imported commodities. Muslims and Hindus joined forces in the conflict, which started out amicably. India had widespread strikes, protests, and acts of civil disobedience. However, even though they continued their activities and held talks with the colonial authority, the Khilafat movement suffered because Muslims were split between supporting the Muslim League, the Congress, and the Khilafat movement.
The colonial authority quickly arrested Gandhi, the Ali brothers, and others. With the arrests the movement was severely hurt and with news coming out of Turkey it came to an end.
In Turkey, The Ottoman Empire was finally overthrown by Mustafa Kemal Pasha’s armies, who also established a progressive, secular republic in independent Turkey. He did not ask the Indians for assistance, and he abolished the caliphate.
The Khilafat leadership broke out along various political axes. Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam was founded by Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari with the assistance of Chaudhry Afzal Haq. Many influential figures, like Dr. Ansari, Maulana Azad, and Hakim Ajmal Khan, continued to back Gandhi and Congress.
Brothers Ali enlisted with Muslim League. This would have a significant impact on the expansion of the League’s popularity and the ensuing Pakistan movement.
Malabar Rebellion of 1921
The Malabar Rebellion of 1921, also known as the Moplah and Mappila rebellions,
began as an uprising against British colonial control in Kerala’s Malabar area.
Due to the Khilafat movement, the British had placed strict rules over most parts of India.
The populist uprising was also directed against the Hindu elites, who many believed were aligned with the British. Due to the feudal system, most landowners were higher caste Hindus, and they had reduced land shares of most of their subjects at that time.
In order to win their support, the British had put upper-caste Hindus in positions of power; as a result, the protests turned against the Hindus.
According to estimates, there were 10,000 civilian fatalities, and 50,000 prisoners, of whom 20,000 were deported (mainly to the penal colony in the Andaman Islands considered to have some of the harshest conditions at the time)
The situation was under control by the end of 1921. Malabar Special Police, a special Armed Police battalion created by the colonial administration, was made up of non-Muslims and was trained by the colonial army. The Special Police then started fighting with the rioters, which eventually brought an end to it.
Support and Criticism
The movement is criticized for having a pan-Islamist, fundamentalist platform and for being primarily uninterested in the cause of Indian independence. The Khilafat’s relationship with the Congress is viewed as a marriage of convenience by its critics
While supporters of Pakistan and Muslim separatism see it as a significant step toward the establishment of a separate Muslim state.
Supporters of the Khilafat see it as the spark that ignited the non-cooperation movement in India and a significant turning point in improving Hindu-Muslim relations.
One of Pakistan’s founding fathers is considered to be the Ali brothers, while Azad, Dr. Ansari, and Hakim Ajmal Khan are generally hailed as national heroes in India.
Legacy
The great tragedy of the khilafat movement is that the Ottomans it aimed to support no longer existed. Replaced by a strong and very popular Ataturk in Turkey. It hampered the relations with the Turkish people it was meant to support, as Attaturk distanced himself politically from Indian Muslims and chose a secular path.
In many ways, The Khilfat movement laid the groundwork work the partition of India and Pakistan. A partition that would see the migration of millions.
It would unfortunately also lead to great violence and a large death toll when the Pakistan movement took force. The mortality during the period of the partition is usually estimated to be around one million. Also, later the separation and Independence war of Bangladesh and it casualties that were a result of the partition.
The Khilafat movement greatly worried the British, and the British response was their usual evil ways. Britain’s response to the khilafat movement was to increase their oppressive ways and make stricter rules and increase suppression. This led to much greater communal tension, which.
Sources
A. C. Niemeijer (1972). The Khilafat movement in India, 1919–1924. Nijhoff. p. 84. ISBN 9789024713349.
Özoğlu, H. (2011). From Caliphate to Secular State: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic. United Kingdom: Praeger.
Farruḵẖābādī, R. (2005). Muḥammad ʻAlī Jauhar aur muqaddamah-yi bag̲h̲āvat. Pakistan: Oxford University Press.
Ghose, S. (1991). Mahatma Gandhi. India: Allied Publishers Limited.
Minault, G. (1982). The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India. India: Columbia University Press.
Aziz, K. K. (1972). The Indian Khilafat Movement, 1915-1933: A Documentary Record. Pakistan: Pak Publishers.
