Khalifat Day
October 17, 2023
After World War One ended in 1918, Gandhi stepped forward as a national leader of the Indian independence movement. The British kindly cooperated by offering a number of provocations that unified the subcontinent against their rule. The first of these was the Rowlatt Act, a piece of legislation passed in early 1919 (over unanimous Indian opposition) that stripped away civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism. Two weeks after its passage, Gandhi led the first nationwide hartal, a one-day general strike marked by a day of fasting, demanding its repeal. The British responded with the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Another of these provocations was the dividing up of the Ottoman Empire. In January 1918, Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, had publicly pledged that goal of the Allied forces was not ‘to deprive Turkey of the rich and renowned lands of Asia Minor.’ This firmed up British support among Indian Muslims, who were needed in the army to help fight the war, after the Sykes–Picot Agreement (a secret pact made with France in 1916 dividing up the Ottoman Empire) was made public.
Of course, once the war was over, the colonizers began moving ahead with their plans anyway, operating under ‘the basic axiom that the future of the Middle East belonged, not to the people who actually lived there, but to the victorious Allies.’1 Muslims in India raised objections in what became known as the Khilafat (an alternate spelling of Caliphate) Movement.
Since Hindu-Muslim unity was one of Gandhi’s primary goals, he saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate solidarity by taking up their demand—don’t dismantle the Ottoman Empire. “As you are my neighbours and my countrymen,” he explained to a conference of Muslims, “it is my duty to share your sorrows. I cannot talk about Hindu-Mahomedan unity and fail in giving effect to the idea when the test has come.” In return for his support, Muslim leaders agreed to endorse nonviolence as the only mechanism for change.
Throughout 1919 he spoke in favor of the Khilafat satyagraha, and endorsed Friday, October 17 as a day of fasting and prayer. Muslims would observe a 24-hour fast starting the evening of the 16th, and spend all of Friday (the holiest day of the week) in prayer. For Hindus, he suggested that they read through the 700 verses of the Bhagavad Gita during their fast, and contemplate its meanings. In addition, a full hartal should be observed.
The Khilafat effort ultimately failed, along with the ‘Swaraj in a year’ campaign, and the other post-World War One efforts. Independence was another quarter century away. By that point, Hindu-Muslim unity had sunk to such depths that the partitioned nations were left soaked in blood. Still, it was an experiment worth trying.
What is a demand made by someone outside your traditional circles that you are willing to support?
Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age (Arthur Herman, 2008) p. 263n