Thursday 26 November 2015

24th NOV 1919 GANDHIJI LEADS ALL INDIA KHILAFAT MOVEMENT

Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation

Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation
Edited By : Pranab Mukharjee
Editorial Board : Aditya Mukharjee, Mridula Mukharjee, Sucheta Mahajan, Rizwan Qaiser, Bhashyam Kasturi
Published By : Academic Foundation, New Delhi
  This untold repression by the British government served to brought Hindus and Muslims close even more than before. With the Lucknow Pact, Hindus and Muslims were brought together for political work and the post-war repression united them against the British rule.  Symbolizing this unity, Swami Shraddhanand, an Arya Samaj leader, was asked to preach in the Jama Masjid at Delhi, and Dr. Kitchlew was given the keys to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. 
Further, after the war, Muslims in India had been concerned about the fate of the Khalifa, the religious head of Muslims in Turkey. Turkey had been dismembered in contravention of earlier promises by England and the predominantly Turkish area of Thrace was taken away from it. Muslims felt that the religious power of the Turkish Caliphate should not be undermined in this manner. In November 1919, the All-India Khilafat Conference was held in Delhi where it was decided that a non-cooperation movement against the government would be started unless the demands of the Muslims are met. 
The Muslim League under nationalist leadership supported this cause, as did the Congress. Tilak and Gandhiji saw this as the best opportunity to strengthen Hindu-Muslim relations and unite them against colonial rule. Gandhiji declared that he would start a non-cooperation movement if the Khilafat demands were ignored by the government.

Page 1

 Dr. M.A. Ansari headed a deputation to the Viceroy in January 1920, which proved futile. This was followed by a Khilafat Conference at Bombay, as a result of which a deputation was sent to England in March 1920. The British Prime Minister Lloyd George’s response to the representation made by the deputation struck at the very root of the Khilafat sentiment in India, as he turned down the demand for restoring to Turkey the lands taken away from it. Following this, 19 March 1920 was observed as a day of national mourning, marked by hartal, fasting and prayers. 
In April 1920, Gandhiji took over the presidentship of the All India Home Rule League and, in a manifesto issued on the occasion, took the view that constitutional reforms should be given secondary place in any scheme of national reorganization. If national energy was devoted to activities like Swadeshi movement, Hindu-Muslim unity, acceptance of Hindustani as the lingua franca and the linguistic reorganisation of the provinces, it would bring about reforms and accelerate the achievement of self-government. 
The publication of the Hunter Committee Report on the Punjab incidents in May 1920 increased the unrest in the country. The Report was viewed with disappointment and disgust by the Congress. General Dyer and other officers responsible for these actions were let off with mere censure.

Page 2

 Dissatisfaction with the Montagu–Chelmsford reforms, the government’s refusal to repeal Rowlatt Act and the Khilafat issue cumulatively increased the widespread national discontent. Thus, in June 1920, an all-parties meeting was held in Allahabad and a programme for non-cooperation was drawn up which included boycott of British courts, schools and colleges. 
On 1 August 1920 Gandhiji formally launched the non-cooperation movement. Khilafat Committee also organized All India Hartal the same day. The Congress met in September at Calcutta in a special session presided over by Lala Lajpat Rai and accepted Gandhiji’s plan for non-cooperating with the government till the Punjab grievances were redressed, Khilafat demands fulfilled and Swaraj achieved. 
The programme of non-cooperation adopted by the Congress called upon people to surrender their titles and honorary offices, resign from nominated seats in local bodies and refuse to attend government functions. It also asked them to boycott all foreign goods, withdraw their children from government schools and colleges, boycott British courts and establish private arbitration courts for settlement of private disputes.

Page 3

 The people were also asked to refuse to offer themselves as recruits for service in Mesopotamia, withdraw their candidature for election to the reformed Councils and refuse to vote for any candidate who may, despite the Congress advice, offer himself or herself for election. People were encouraged to spin and weave khadi. Later, the programme included mass civil disobedience and refusal to pay taxes. 
This peaceful defiance was endorsed by the Congress session at Nagpur held in December 1920. This session was also important for the organizational changes introduced in the Congress. Provincial Congress Committees were now restructured according to linguistic areas which expanded the reach of the Congress into villages and small towns. Membership fee was reduced to a nominal 4 annas so that the poor masses could become members of the party. 
These changes led to a shift in the nature of the Congress—it now became a mass party in which people from different backgrounds were united in their opposition to colonial rule and for the pursuit of Swaraj. Hindus and Muslims were acting as one in this struggle against British rule. However, not everyone was happy with this mass phase of the Congress. Many leaders, like Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, Bipin Chandra Pal and G.S. Khaparde, still believed in constitutional methods of agitation against colonial rule and it was during this time that they left the Congress.

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 During 1921 and 1922, India witnessed a great mass upsurge led and directed by the Congress. An unprecedented number of people participated in this mass movement—students left schools and colleges in thousands and joined nationalist educational institutions like Kashi Vidyapith, Bihar Vidyapith and Jamia Millia Islamia. Eminent lawyers like Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Chittaranjan Das, Motilal Nehru, Asaf Ali, C. Rajagopalachari gave up their legal practice and joined Gandhiji in this movement. 
Funds for the movement were collected through voluntary donations given by people. Foreign cloth was burnt in huge bonfires and simple acts like spinning or weaving khadi became symbols of protest against the British rule. In July 1921, the All India Khilafat Committee gave a call to Muslims asking them not to serve in the British-Indian army. The government soon arrested the Ali brothers in September 1921 and charged them with sedition. The Congress decided to take the movement to the next level by launching civil disobedience of laws in provinces which included non-payment of taxes. 
The government responded with repression. Congress and Khilafat grassroot workers had been working successfully to unite Hindus and Muslims and now their activities were declared illegal. The press was gagged. By the end of 1921, most leaders were in prison as were some 3,000 non-cooperators.

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 The Prince of Wales’ visit to India in 1921 was met with large-scale demonstrations in India and in Bombay, 53 people were killed and 400 wounded when the police tried to repress demonstrators. The December 1921 session of the Congress at Ahmedabad stated that the Congress was determined to continue this movement. All followers were asked to offer themselves for arrest, refrain from violence and promote Hindu-Muslim unity. 
On 1 February 1922, Gandhiji declared that if the government did not release political prisoners and lift press controls within seven days, he would call for mass civil disobedience with non-payment of taxes. However, this did not come about because on 5 February, in Chauri Chaura village of United Provinces, a procession of 3,000 peasants was fired upon by the police. 
In retaliation, the peasants set the police station on fire which led to the death of 22 policemen. Gandhiji realized that the country was not ready to practice non-violence yet and that such incidents could spread to other areas as well. Thus, in a Congress resolution passed at Bardoli on 12 February, he suspended the non-cooperation movement and asked all Congressmen to dedicate themselves to constructive work like popularization of khadi and spinning, national schools, removal of untouchability and promotion of Hindu-Muslim unity.

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 The Bardoli resolution shocked the nation. Some leaders believed that this retreat was also a part of Gandhian struggle while others, especially the younger members of Congress like Subhas Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, were at that time resentful about this suspension. The government arrested Gandhiji on 10 March 1922 and sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment for spreading disaffection against the government. 
Gandhiji made a historic statement during his trial. He pleaded guilty to the charges and said that the court should give him the highest punishment for “what in law is a deliberate crime, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen.” Soon after this, the Khilafat question became irrelevant. In 1922, Turkey underwent a national revolution led by Mustafa Kamal Pasha which overthrew the rule of the Sultan.
Kamal Pasha stepped up the modernization of Turkey and as part of that, he abolished the institution of the Khalifa and separated the state from religion. He nationalized education and law on European lines and also modernized agriculture and industry. All this made the Khilafat agitation eventually redundant.

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 Impact of Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements
The Khilafat agitation brought urban Muslims into the nationalist movement and contributed to a sense of national unity. Even though apparently the Khilafat and Non-cooperation movements ended without achieving their immediate objectives, they furthered the long-term objective of building the national consciousness in India. 
Various sections of society had been mobilized for mass action—peasants, students, women, urban and rural poor, and artisans. This aspect of politicization of masses on an unprecedented scale made the Indian national movement revolutionary.
Through pamphlets, speeches, dramas, prabhat pheries, songs and newspapers, the adverse effect of colonial rule on India was popularized among people. The superiority and invincibility associated with the British was successfully challenged by the Indian masses, who now gained confidence and lost their fear of the colonial masters in this process.

Khilafat Movement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series on
Islam
"Allah" in Arabic calligraphy
The Khilafat movement (1919–26) was a pan-Islamic, political protest campaign launched by Muslims in British India to influence the British government. The movement became the reason for separation from mainland India of an Islamic Pakistan, in the process unleashing tremendous separation-trauma, mainly upon ethnic Punjabis. The subsequent murder of Gandhi in India was also the indirect fallout of the Khilafat Movement. The movement was a topic in Conference of London (February 1920); however, Arabs saw it as threat of continuation of Turkish dominance of Arab lands.[1]
The position of Caliph after the Armistice of Mudros of October 1918 with the military occupation of Istanbul and Treaty of Versailles (1919) fell into a disambiguation along with the Ottoman Empire's existence. The movement gained force after the Treaty of Sèvres (August 1920) which imposed the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and gave Greece a powerful position in Anatolia, to the distress of the Turks.
The movement collapsed by late 1922 when Turkey gained a more favourable diplomatic position and moved toward secularism. By 1924 Turkey simply abolished the roles of Sultan and Caliph.[2]

History[edit]

Main article: Ottoman Caliphate
The Caliphate is an Islamic system of governance in which the state rules under Islamic law.
Ottoman emperor Abdul Hamid II (1876–1909) launched his Pan-Islamic program in a bid to protect the Ottoman empire from Western attack and dismemberment, and to crush the Westernizing democratic opposition at home. He sent an emissary, Jamaluddin Afghani, to India in the late 19th century. The cause of the Ottoman monarch evoked religious passion and sympathy amongst Indian Muslims. Being a Caliph, the Ottoman emperor was nominally the supreme religious and political leader of all 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 organise a national war of independence against the British with support from the Ottoman Empire.
Abdul Hamid II was forced to restore the constitutional monarchy marking the start of the Second Constitutional Era by the Young Turk Revolution. He was succeeded by his brother Mehmed VI (1844–1918) but following the revolution, the real power in the Ottoman Empire lay with the nationalists.

Partitioning[edit]

Further information: Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire
See also: Occupation of Istanbul and Turkish War of Independence
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 European powers promised to protect the Ottoman emperor's status as the Caliph. However, under the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), territories such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt were severed from the empire.
Within Turkey, a pro-Western, secular nationalist movement arose, Turkish national movement. During the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1924) led by one of the Turkish revolutionaries, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, abolished the Treaty of Sèvres with the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). Pursuant to Atatürk's Reforms, the Republic of Turkey abolished the position of Caliphate in 1924 and transferred its powers within Turkey to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Khilafat in South Asia[edit]

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 British 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 by the British to fight against fellow Muslims in Turkey was anathema.[3] To its founders and followers, the Khilafat was not a religious movement but rather a show of solidarity with their fellow Muslims in Turkey.[4]
Mohammad Ali and his brother Maulana Shaukat Ali joined with other Muslim leaders such as Pir Ghulam Mujaddid Sarhandi (1st) Sheikh Shaukat Ali Siddiqui, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, Raees-Ul-Muhajireen Barrister Jan Muhammad Junejo, Hasrat Mohani, Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Dr. Hakim Ajmal Khan to form the All India Khilafat Committee. The organisation was based in Lucknow, India at Hathe Shaukat Ali, the compound of Landlord Shaukat Ali Siddiqui. They aimed to build political unity amongst Muslims and use their influence to protect the caliphate. In 1920, they published the Khilafat Manifesto, which called upon the British to protect the caliphate and for Indian Muslims to unite and hold the British accountable for this purpose.[5]
In 1920 an alliance was made between Khilafat leaders and the Indian National Congress, the largest political party in India and of the nationalist movement. Congress leader Mohandas Gandhi and the Khilafat leaders promised to work and fight together for the causes of Khilafat and Swaraj. Seeking to increase pressure on the British, the Khilafatists became a major part of the Non-cooperation movement — a nationwide campaign of mass, peaceful civil disobedience. The support of the Khilafatists helped Gandhi and the Congress ensure Hindu-Muslim unity during the struggle. Gandhi described his feelings towards Mohammad Ali as "love at first sight" to underscore his feelings of solidarity. Khilafat leaders such as Dr. Ansari, Maulana Azad and Hakim Ajmal Khan also grew personally close to Gandhi. These leaders founded the Jamia Millia Islamia in 1920 to promote independent education and social rejuvenation for Muslims.[6]
The non-cooperation campaign was at first successful. Massive protests, strikes and acts of civil disobedience spread across India. Hindus and Muslims collectively offered resistance, which was largely peaceful. Gandhi, the Ali brothers and others were imprisoned by the British. Under the flag of Tehrik-e-Khilafat, a Punjab Khilafat deputation comprising Moulana Manzoor Ahmed and Moulana Lutfullah Khan Dankauri R.A. took a leading role throughout India, with a particular concentration in the Punjab (Sirsa, Lahore, Hariyana etc.).
However, the Congress-Khilafat alliance began withering soon. The Khilafat campaign had been opposed by other political parties such as the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha.

Khilafat Movement and Nehru report[edit]

Central Khilafat Committee participated in All parties Conference,which formed a committee under the presidency of Moti Lal Nehru to draft a constitution, which came to be known as"Nehru Report"[1928].
Maulana Md. Ali Jauhar was at that time in jail,so the central Khilafat Committee was represented by Maulana Shaukat Ali, Begum Mohammad Ali and following other thirty members from Central Khilafat Committee :-1.Maulana Md Ifran, Bombay 2.Maulana Mohiuddin Ajmery,Bombay 3. Yasin Noori,Bar-at-Law,Ahmadabad 4.S.K.Nabibullah,Advocate,Bombay 5.Moulvi Gulsher Khan Akola(Berar) 6. Maulana Md. Ibrahim,Muzaffarpur(Bihar) 7. Moulvi Manzoor Ali Taib,Simla 8.Haji Musa Khan, Aligarh 9.Maulana Azad Subhani, Gorakhpur 10.Maulana Md. Jafri, Editor 'Millat'Delhi 11.Syed Lal Badshah,Peshawar 12. Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi 13.Syed Rauf Pasham,Madras 14.Hafiz Mohd. Usman, Aligarh 15. Sheikh Abdul Majid,Karanchi 16.Doctor Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi,Muzaffarpur (Bihar) 17.Seth Hashim Abdur Rahman,Calcutta 18. khawja Ghyasuddin,Calcutta 19.Sheikh Ilahi Bakhsh,Sitamarhi(Bihar) 20.Maulana Abdul Mohasin Md. Sajjad,Phulwarisharif,Patna(Bihar) 21.Sardar SulaimanQasim Mitha,Malabar Hill,Bombay 22.Haji Ali Md. Jalaluddin,Bombay 23.Maulana Abdul Rauf,Bombay 24.Moulvi Fateh Md.,Editor 'Insaf',Bombay 25.Md. Jan,Bombay 26.Seth Ahmad Bhamriwala,Bombay 27. Khan Bahadur Abdul Ahad Khan,Bombay 28 Moulvi Himaytullah,Bombay 29.Md. Bakhsh Jamadar, Bombay 30. Zahid ali, Bombay.[7]
Khilafat Committee rejected Nehru Report.

Collapse[edit]

In wake of these disturbances, the Ali brothers began distancing themselves from Gandhi and the Congress. The Ali brothers criticised Gandhi's extreme commitment to non-violence and severed their ties with them after he suspended all non-cooperation movement after the killing of 23 policemen at Chauri Chaura in 1922. However, it is also true that the immediate reason for the disposal of the committee was the much criticised embezzlement of 1.6 million rupees. The Ali brothers were severely criticised by Muslim politicians and the public. Although holding talks with the British and continuing their activities, the Khilafat struggle weakened as Muslims were divided between working for the Congress, the Khilafat cause and the Muslim League.[8] Another reason was that members of the movement were concerned with the fate of khalifa than were the western powers and the people of Turkey
The final blow came with the victory of Mustafa Kemal's forces, who overthrew the Ottoman rule to establish a pro-Western, secular republic in independent Turkey. He abolished the role of Caliph and sought no help from Indians.[9]
The Khilafat leadership fragmented on different political lines. Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari created Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam with the support of Chaudhry Afzal Haq .Leaders such as Dr. Ansari, Maulana Azad and Hakim Ajmal Khan remained strong supporters of Gandhi and the Congress. The Ali brothers joined Muslim League. They would play a major role in the growth of the League's popular appeal and the subsequent Pakistan movement. There was, however, a Caliphate Conference in Jerusalem in 1931 following Turkey's abolition of the Khilafat, to determine what should be done about the caliphate.[10] People from villages such as Aujla Khurd were the main contributors to the cause.

Legacy[edit]

The Khilafat struggle evokes controversy and strong opinions. By critics, it is regarded as a political agitation based on a pan-Islamic, fundamentalist platform and being largely indifferent to the cause of Indian independence. Critics of the Khilafat see its alliance with the Congress as a marriage of convenience. Proponents of the Khilafat see it as the spark that led to the non-cooperation movement in India and a major milestone in improving Hindu-Muslim relations, while advocates of Pakistan and Muslim separatism see it as a major step towards establishing the separate Muslim state. The Ali brothers are regarded as founding-fathers of Pakistan, while Azad, Dr. Ansari and Hakim Ajmal Khan are widely celebrated as national heroes in India. Jats were the only group who were with the Ali brothers the whole time. Main tribes of Jats included Metlas and Aujla.[11]

See also[edit]

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