explain the khilafat movement. why did gandhiji consider it important to support the khilafat movement?
Answers
The Khilafat movement was an agitation by Indian Muslims, allied with Indian nationalists, to pressure the British government to preserve the authority of the Ottoman Sultan as Caliph of Islam after World War I. While seemingly pan-Islamic, the movement was primarily a means of achieving pan-Indian Muslim political mobilization.
The Khilafat movement (1919-1924) was an agitation by Indian Muslims allied with Indian nationalism in 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 following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the war. Integral to this was the Indian 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, even though the Turks, allies of the Central Powers, had been defeated in the war. Indian supporters of the Khilafat cause sent a delegation to London in 1920 to plead their case, but the British government treated the delegates as quixotic pan-Islamists, and did not change its policy toward Turkey. The Indian Muslims’ attempt to influence the provisions of the Treaty of Sevres thus failed, and the European powers, most notably Great Britain and France, went ahead with territorial adjustments, including the institution of mandates over formerly Ottoman Arab territories.
The First world war ends with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey. And there was rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman Empire - the Spiritual head of Islamic world (the Khalifa). To defend the Khalifa's temporal powers, a khilafat committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919. Young generation of Muslim leaders like the brothers Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali began discussing with Mahatma Gandhi about the possibility of a United mass action on the issue.
Gandhiji considered it important to support Khilafat movement as he saw this as an opportunity to bring the muslims under the umbrella of a unified national movement.