The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 7
7 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN Viceroy's Executive Council, the highest office, then and right up to Independence, open to any Indian. He held that office with distinction for five years. Question: Would you care to make any broad comments on the Khilafat Movement ? Khan : The Khilafat Movement, during the years that it captured the imagination of the Muslims of India and even engaged the interest of Mr. Gandhi, was most active in the United Provinces of India, what is now called Uttar Pradesh. Its leading spirits were the two famous Ali brothers, Maulana Mohammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali. It never caught on in the Punjab to any remarkable degree, though it must be said that Muslims all over India were greatly agitated and supported the Khilafat Movement. The central idea behind the Khilafat Movement was to give whatever support was possible and to make whatever effort one could, through the British Government or by embarrassing the British Government, and by sending direct contributions to Turkey, to procure for Turkey better terms than had been imposed upon it in consequence of its having fought on the wrong side in the First World War. The name "Khilafat" was given to the movement to stimulate the religious interest of the Muslims as the Sultan of Turkey had traditionally occupied for centuries the position of the Khalifa, that is to say, the spiritual head of Islam. Not that the whole Muslim world accepted him as such; but the bulk of the Sunni Muslims looked upon him as Khalifa and accorded him honour and respect. This had no practical effect upon anybody's life, but it invested the Sultan with a certain degree of prestige. Even those sections of the Muslims of India like the Shias, for instance, who could not, from the religious point of view, accept anybody as a Khalifa outside their own Imams; and the Ahmadis who could not accept anybody as their religious leader outside their own Movement, lent their support to the Khilafat Movement, because Turkey did represent the secular strength and prestige of Islam to a large degree. Thus, delegates from all sections of Muslims of India attended Khilafat Conferences and Khilafat Movement continued to grow in strength until it sort of merged itself into, or, at least, became a parallel organization to the Congress, in alliance with the latter, in support of its political objectives. It was a very adroit move on the part of Mr. Gandhi to win the two Ali brothers over to the Congress by expressing his sympathy with the Khilafat Movement.