The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Khilafat movement (1919–24)

The short-lived Khilafat movement (from the term khilāfat—caliphate) was an agitation by Indian Muslims, allied with the Indian nationalist movement, during the years following World War I. Its purpose was to pressure the British government to preserve the authority of the Ottoman sultan as caliph of Islam. Integral to this was the Muslims’ desire to influence the treaty-making process following the war in such a way as to restore the 1914 boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. The British government treated the Indian Khilafat delegation of 1920 as quixotic Pan-Islamists and did not change its policy toward Turkey. The Indian Muslims’ attempt to influence the treaty provisions failed, and the European powers went ahead with territorial adjustments, including the institution of mandates over formerly Ottoman Arab territories.

The significance of the Khilafat movement, however, lies less in its supposed Pan-Islamism than in its impact on the Indian nationalist movement. The leaders of the Khilafat movement forged the first political alliance among Western-educated Indian Muslims and ‘ulama’ (Muslim clerics) over the religious symbol of the caliphate. This leadership included the ‘Ali brothers, Muhammad ‘Ali (1878–1931) and Shaukat ‘Ali (1872–1936), two newspaper editors from Delhi; their spiritual guide Mawlana ‘Abd al-Bari (1878–1926) of Firangi Mahal, Lucknow; the Calcutta journalist and Islamic scholar Abu al-Kalam Azad (1888–1958); and Mawlana Mahmud Hasan (1851–1920), head of the madrasa at Deoband, in northern India. These publicist-politicians and ‘ulama’ viewed European attacks on the authority of the caliph as an attack on Islam and thus as a threat to the religious freedom of Muslims under British rule.

The Khilafat movement crystallized anti-British sentiments among Indian Muslims that had been increasing since the British declaration of war against the Ottomans in 1914. The Khilafat leaders, most of whom had been imprisoned during the war, were already active in the nationalist movement. Upon the release of these leaders in 1919, the Khilafat issue provided a means to achieve pan-Indian Muslim political solidarity in the anti-British cause. The Khilafat movement also benefited from Hindu-Muslim cooperation in the nationalist cause that had grown during the war, beginning with the Lucknow Pact of 1916 between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League and culminating in the protest against the Rowlatt antisedition bills in 1919. The congress, then led by Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948), called for nonviolent noncooperation against the British. Gandhi espoused the Khilafat cause, as he saw in it the opportunity to rally Muslim support for the congress. The ‘Ali brothers and their allies, in turn, provided the noncooperation movement with some of its most enthusiastic followers. For a time, these Khilafatists supplanted the politics of the Muslim League and its leader, Muhammad ‘Ali Jinnah (1876–1948), who opposed the movement.

The combined Khilafat–Noncooperation movement was the first all-India agitation against British rule. It saw an unprecedented degree of Hindu-Muslim cooperation, and it established Gandhi and his technique of nonviolent protest (satyagraha) at the center of the Indian nationalist movement. Mass mobilization using religious symbols was remarkably successful, and the British Indian government was shaken. In late 1921, the government moved to suppress the movement and arrested, tried, and imprisoned its leaders. Gandhi suspended the Noncooperation movement in early 1922. The Turks dealt the final blow to the movement by abolishing the Ottoman sultanate in 1922 and the caliphate in 1924.