Khilafat Movement

The Khilafat movement (1919–1922) was a political campaign launched by South Asian Muslims in British India over British policy against Turkey and the planned dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after World War I by Allied forces.

Leaders participating in the movement included Ahmad Sagheer Haji Variyami, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Hakim Ajmal Khan,^{[full citation needed]} and Abul Kalam Azad who organised the movement to redress the grievances of Turkey.

Mahatma Gandhi had supported the movement as part of his opposition to the British Empire, and he also advocated for a wider non-cooperation movement at the same time. Vallabhbhai Patel, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and other Hindu and Congress figures also supported the movement.

Generally described as a protest against the sanctions placed on the Ottoman Empire after the First World War by the Treaty of Sèvres, the movement is also noted for promoting Hindu–Muslim unity. It ended in 1922 after the end of the non-cooperation movement.

Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II (1842–1918) launched his pan-Islamist program in a bid to protect the Ottoman Empire from Western attack and dismemberment and to crush the 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 the caliph, the Ottoman sultan was nominally the supreme religious and political leader of all Sunni 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 organize a national war of independence 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 V (1844–1918) but following the revolution, the real power in the Ottoman Empire lay with the Young Turks. The movement was a topic in Conference of London (February 1920); however, nationalist Arabs saw it as threat of continuation of Turkish dominance of Arab lands.

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 Europe powers promised to protect the Ottoman sultan's status as the caliph. However, under the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), territories such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq were severed from the empire.