Khilafat Movement in Sub-Continent: A Shade of Pan-Islamism

Abstract

Since the beginning of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the institution of Khilafat had been a symbol of the territorial integration and a major component of Pan-Islamism among the Muslims of the world. Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) preached the Muslims for observing unity and for possessing the feelings for other Muslims and the same was repeated by the Kuhlfa-i-Rashdin. The Khilafat, as an institution, had been working to achieve spiritual and political goals especially during the rule of Ottomans. Most of the Indian rulers used to obtain investiture from the Ottoman Caliph to legitimise their rule. Whenever, the Caliph faced humiliation, inflicted by the non-Muslims, the whole Muslim community accumulated itself for defending his prestige. The research has attempted to prove that the Khilafat Movement (1919) in India was also the shade of this Pan-Islamic sentiment. The Indian Muslims smelt the mutilation of the Ottoman Empire in the early quarter of the twentieth century by the hands of the British. They were afraid of the demise of Caliph as well as the abolition of Khilafat in Turkey. Therefore, they organised themselves, promoted the Islamic concept of brotherhood and restricted +the British from depriving Turkey of the privilege to lead the Muslim spirit in the world. No doubt, the betrayal of the Hindu leaders in the movement and Kemal Ataturk’s annihilation of the institution hurt the Indian Muslims to a greater extent but they had learnt many things in this short period. Additionally, from the movement onward, the Muslims recognized their identity and strove for its protection through obtaining an independent land where they could practise the teachings of Islam in true spirit.