The Khilafat Movement & Blunders of Mahatma Gandhi: History Should Remember Him as Mahatma, or a Callous and Ruthless Politician, Sans Vision
The Khilafat Movement and Intentional Blunders of Mahatma Gandhi: History Should Remember Gandhi as Mahatma, or a Callous and Ruthless Politician, Sans Vision?
?
The Opening Gambit
1. The Khilafat Movement was a major episode in India’s freedom struggle, yet it remains one of the most controversial aspects of Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership. While his intentions to foster Hindu-Muslim unity were noble, the consequences of supporting the Khilafat Movement unleashed religious tensions, deepened sectarian divides, and sowed the seeds of separatism. Through a lens of historical reflection, many critics have argued that Gandhi’s stance on this movement was an enormous political miscalculation. His alignment with the cause of the Ottoman Caliphate, far removed from India's concerns, eventually resulted in violence, religious fanaticism, and significant harm to the national unity he sought to cultivate.
?
The Origins and Nature of the Khilafat Movement
2. The Khilafat Movement originated after the end of World War I, when the Ottoman Empire faced disintegration. Muslims across the world were concerned about the fate of the Ottoman Sultan, who was also the Caliph, the spiritual leader of Sunni Islam. The Treaty of Sèvres (1920) humiliated the Ottoman Empire, and the abolishment of the Caliphate seemed imminent. In India, Muslim leaders like the Ali brothers (Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali) spearheaded the Khilafat Movement to restore the Caliphate. They saw it as a crucial symbol of Islamic unity and power, despite the fact that the Ottoman Sultanate had little to do with India’s immediate struggles.
3. Although the Khilafat cause was theological and international in nature, it quickly became entwined with Indian politics when Gandhi decided to support it. Gandhi’s logic was based on the belief that by supporting the Khilafat Movement, he could enlist the support of Muslims for the broader Indian independence struggle. His vision of Hindu-Muslim unity would, he believed, pave the way for a united front against British colonial rule. But this strategy, however idealistic, proved to be deeply flawed.
?
Gandhi’s Calculated Risk Sans Vision
4. Gandhi’s support for the Khilafat Movement was part of his broader strategy of non-cooperation with the British government. By rallying Hindus and Muslims around the Khilafat issue, he hoped to disrupt British control over India. In theory, it seemed like a masterstroke. In practice, however, it demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of religious nationalism.
5. In the Congress meeting of 1920, Gandhi succeeded in merging the Non-Cooperation Movement with the Khilafat cause, despite opposition from prominent leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, and Annie Besant. Many of these nationalist leaders recognized the inherent dangers of merging a religious cause with a political one. They argued that India's political struggle should remain focused on Swaraj (self-rule) rather than a religious issue tied to the fate of a foreign sultan. Dr. Annie Besant, a staunch advocate for women’s rights and Indian independence, warned Gandhi that by aligning with the Khilafat Movement, he was inadvertently encouraging religious extremism. This view was shared by many others, including C.F. Andrews and Madan Mohan Malaviya, who foresaw the dangers of stoking Muslim fanaticism in the name of national unity.
6. Despite these warnings, Gandhi pressed forward, declaring, “I give more importance to this movement of Muslim brothers than to Swaraj itself.” This statement underscored the level of significance he attached to the Khilafat cause. Yet, as events unfolded, it became clear that this prioritization of the Khilafat Movement over more immediate concerns of self-rule was a catastrophic mistake.
The Moplah Uprising: A Case Study In Gandhi’s Miscalculation
7. One of the darkest episodes linked to Gandhi’s support for the Khilafat Movement was the Moplah Rebellion in the Malabar region of Kerala (1921). The Moplahs, a Muslim community, had grievances related to land and economic oppression, but under the banner of the Khilafat cause, their rebellion morphed into an anti-Hindu pogrom. Thousands of Hindus were massacred, women were raped, and many were forcibly converted to Islam. Eyewitness accounts, like those of Madhavan Nair, the first president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, vividly describe the atrocities that were committed against Hindus during the uprising.
8. Nair's book, Malabar Kalapam, describes how Hindus were beheaded and thrown into wells. Gandhi’s reaction to this horrific violence was seen as grossly inadequate. Rather than condemn the Moplahs, he famously stated, "Hindus were not made Muslims in Malabar; they were just killed," an absurd minimization of the forced conversions and atrocities. This statement led to sharp criticism from nationalist leaders such as Swami Shraddhanand, who was a fierce advocate for Hindu rights and the leader of the Arya Samaj's Shuddhi (purification) movement, which sought to bring converted Hindus back to their original faith.
9. Gandhi’s silence, or worse, his apparent sympathy for the Moplahs, gave rise to accusations that he was willing to overlook violence against Hindus in his quest for Hindu-Muslim unity. Leaders like Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a stalwart of the Hindu Mahasabha, accused Gandhi of encouraging Islamic extremism through his blind support of the Khilafat Movement. In his sharp critique, Savarkar pointed out Gandhi’s habit of sympathizing with Muslim fanatics while vilifying Hindu leaders who were defending their communities.
The Murder of Swami Shraddhanand
10. The murder of Swami Shraddhanand in 1926 by Abdul Rashid, a Muslim extremist, further illustrated the dangers of religious fanaticism that Gandhi had unwittingly stoked. Rashid, who killed Shraddhanand due to his active role in the Shuddhi Movement, was praised by certain factions of the Muslim community as a martyr. But what shocked many was Gandhi's response. In his Young India journal, Gandhi wrote that the murder was the fault of both Hindus and Muslims. He argued that Hindus bore part of the responsibility for having fanned the flames of religious hatred. This statement was seen as an unacceptable justification of violence, especially against someone like Shraddhanand, who was championing the rights of Hindus.
11. Veer Savarkar’s article published in 1927, after Shraddhanand’s assassination, fiercely condemned Gandhi’s stance. He accused Gandhi of sympathizing with Muslim extremists and of abandoning the principles of justice. Savarkar pointed out that while Gandhi had been vocal in his condemnation of Hindu leaders, he had remained disturbingly silent about the violence and forced conversions carried out by Muslim mobs.
?
The Telegram to Afghanistan and the Hijrat Movement
12.? Another significant aspect of the Khilafat debacle was the Hijrat Movement, which was indirectly fuelled by Gandhi’s support for the Khilafat cause. Muslim leaders like Mohammad Ali and Maulana Abdul Bari issued a fatwa declaring India to be Darul Harb (a land of war) and encouraged Muslims to emigrate to Afghanistan, which they claimed was an Islamic sanctuary. Thousands of Muslims sold their properties and embarked on this ill-fated migration. When they arrived in Afghanistan, however, they were not welcomed as brothers but were beaten, looted, and treated as unwanted outsiders. The movement led to immense suffering and disillusionment among Indian Muslims. Many who returned to India after the failed Hijrat were impoverished and embittered.
13. The Hijrat Movement further highlighted the dangers of intertwining religious zeal with political objectives. Muslim leaders, under the influence of the Khilafat Movement, took extreme measures that did not serve the interests of Indian Muslims but instead led them into further despair. Yet, even in the face of this failure, Gandhi continued to defend his support for the Khilafat cause, even though it was clear by then that the movement was a disaster for Indian unity.
The Collapse of the Khilafat Movement
14. The Khilafat Movement ended in 1924 when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk abolished the Caliphate and established a secular republic in Turkey. This rendered the entire movement in India moot. However, the consequences of Gandhi’s support lingered. The Muslim community, feeling betrayed by the Congress and alienated from the broader nationalist movement, began to drift toward separatism, which would later culminate in the demand for Pakistan.
15. Leaders like C.F. Andrews, who had once been close allies of Gandhi, began to question his judgment. Annie Besant, in her statement issued on November 29, 1921, accused Gandhi of promoting religious violence by making the Non-Cooperation Movement part of the Khilafat cause. She argued that Gandhi’s failure to anticipate the dangers of aligning with religious fundamentalism had weakened the nationalist cause and divided the country along religious lines.
The Long-Term Impact of Gandhi’s Support for the Khilafat Movement
16. In retrospect, Gandhi’s support for the Khilafat Movement is seen as one of the key moments that exacerbated Hindu-Muslim tensions in India. While Gandhi believed that by supporting the Khilafat Cause he could foster unity, he instead sowed the seeds of discord. The movement emboldened Muslim leaders who were already advocating for separate political and religious identities. As Swami Shraddhanand, Veer Savarkar, and Bhai Parmanand had warned, the consequences of encouraging Muslim fanaticism under the guise of the Khilafat Movement would be felt for decades.
17. By supporting the Khilafat Movement, Gandhi, showing complete lack of vision, contributed to the rise of Muslim fundamentalism and separatism in India. He placed too much faith in the ideal of Hindu-Muslim unity without fully understanding the dangers of politicizing religious sentiment. In the years that followed, the same Muslim leaders who had once worked with Gandhi during the Khilafat agitation would lead the charge for a separate Muslim homeland, which would eventually culminate in the partition of India.
?
Epilogue
18. Mahatma Gandhi’s support for the Khilafat Movement was a grave miscalculation that had lasting consequences for India’s political landscape. By merging the Khilafat cause with the Indian independence movement, Gandhi alienated many of his own followers and encouraged Muslim leaders to adopt more extreme positions. The violence of the Moplah Rebellion, the assassination of Swami Shraddhanand, and the disastrous Hijrat Movement all serve as grim reminders of the dangers of intertwining religious fervor with political objectives. Although Gandhi’s intention was to foster unity, his approach backfired, deepening communal tensions that would plague India for decades to come.
?
-------------
Bibliography
Endnotes
?
?