Khilafat Movement Essay

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World War 1 had ended with the defeat of Germany. Turkey was also defeated as it sided with Germany. The British had put hard conditions on Germany and were now planning to put even harsher conditions on Turkey. Turkey was deprived of all her outside possessions. Now the allies (British and France) planned to dismember the Turkish state and to abolish the seat of caliphate. This was a great disgrace to the Muslims and so they were enraged about this. They, the Muslims were greatly perturbed over the idea of disgrace of Caliphate and the dismemberment of Turkey, a Muslim state. Muslims had a great sentimental attachment with Caliphate which was a sign of unity among the Muslim Ummah. The Muslims of India approached the Viceroy of India and later delegation was also sent to Prime Minister, but of no avail. Therefore after such struggle, Khilafat committee was formed in November, 1919 and the Muslims of India demanded that: • Turkey should not be divided into parts • Caliphate should not be abolished • Muslim Sacred places should not be harmed. As the Khilafat Movement was against the British, Hindus also cooperated and started non-cooperation movement. The Khilafat movement was started by Maulana Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, both brothers, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Hasrat Mohani and Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari. It was started in 1919 to support the Ottoman Caliphate and was short lived, ending in 1924 by the overthrow of the Caliph by Kemal Ataturk in Turkey. It was briefly supported by Gandhi as an alliance of sorts was formed to gain Indian independence which was then Part of the British Raj. The movement saw its beginning through the arrival in India at the end of the 19th century of Jamaluddin Afghani an envoy of Abdul Hamid II the then Ottoman emperor. The aim was to ensure that the promises made at Versailles by the victorious British of not

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