Khilafat Movement

By Author: Ibrahim Machiwala Lodhi
Total Articles: 463
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"When the first World War ended in November, 1918 the fate of the defeated Ottoman Empire in Turkey was no longer in doubt. The other fallen empires, Austria-Hungary had been dismembered, and the Ottoman Turks could not hope to escape the consequences of allying themselves with Germany. For Indian Muslims this raised grave issues of the political power of Islam. They had provided a large number of recruits in the war and had contributed materially towards the defeat of Turkey. Their sympathies were with the Turks, for the Turkish Sultan was looked upon as the Khalifa, the leader of the Islamic community. In 1915, secret treaties were concluded between Britain, France, Russia and Italy under which the signatories agreed, in the event of their victory, to partition the Ottoman Empire into four sphere of influence, apart from the direct annexation of some Turkish territories by each of the Entente powers (A History of the Peace Conference of Paris, 1924, 4:1-22). Their object was stated to be "setting free of the populations subject to the bloody tyranny of the Turks; and the turning out of Europe of the Ottoman Empire as decidedly ...
... foreign to Western civilization"(Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919-1939, 1952, 4:301-3).

The Muslims in India had little or no idea of the extent of decay within the Turkish Sultanate. The tragedy of their position was that they turned to it at a time when the Turkish Empire could no longer be preserved and when the ideal they sought.