RSS NEWS

  • ఎమర్జెన్సీ: ప్రజాస్వామ్య పునరుద్ధరణ కోసం మహిళా కార్యకర్తల పోరాటం 
    ప్రజాస్వామ్యయుత ప్రభుత్వం, స్వీయ పరిపాలన, ప్రజలకు వ్యక్తిగత స్వేచ్ఛ, అభిప్రాయాలు వ్యక్తం చేసే హక్కు – వీటినే మనం చేసిన స్వాతంత్య్ర పోరాటం ద్వారా, రాసుకున్న  రాజ్యాంగం ద్వారా పొందే అత్యున్నత విలువలు. కానీ స్వాతంత్య్రనంతరం కూడా ఎన్నో సందర్భాల్లో నియంతృత్వ పోకడల ద్వారా ప్రజాస్వామ్య విలువల కోసం పోరాటం చేసి, సాధించుకున్న సందర్భాలున్నాయి. అలాంటి సందర్భాల్లో 1975-77 మధ్య కాలంలో దేశంలో విధించిన ఎమెర్జెన్సీ భారత చరిత్రలోనే మర్చిపోలేని చీకటి అధ్యాయం. 25 జూన్ 1975 నాటి ప్రధాని ఇందిరాగాంధీ దేశంలో విధించిన ఎమర్జెన్సీ 21 మర్చి 1977 వరకు 21 నెలల పాటు సుదీర్ఘంగా కొనసాగింది. దేశంలో అస్థిరత […]
  • నియంతృత్వ ఎమర్జెన్సీకి 49 ఏళ్లు
    -ప్రదక్షిణ వరిష్ట పాత్రికేయులు, రచయిత శ్రీ వేదుల నరసింహంగారి పుస్తకం `ఎమర్జెన్సీ జ్ఞ్యాపకాలు: ప్రజాస్వామ్య పునరుద్ధరణ పోరాటం’ ఆధారంగా ఈ వ్యాసం. ఇందిరాగాంధీ కాంగ్రెస్ ప్రభుత్వం అప్రజాస్వామికంగా, అత్యవసర పరిస్థితి/ ఎమర్జెన్సీ విధించిన 25 జూన్ 1975 రాత్రి నుంచి తీవ్రమైన దమనకాండ ప్రారంభమైంది. ప్రజల పౌరహక్కులు, స్వేచ్ఛా స్వాతంత్ర్యాలు పూర్తిగా అధికారికంగా హరించబడ్డాయి. పత్రికలపై పూర్తి స్థాయి సెన్సర్షిప్ విధించబడింది. అన్ని రాజ్యాంగ సంస్థలు పూర్తిగా, ప్రధాని ఇందిరాగాంధీ, ఆమె ఆంతరంగిక బృందం ఆధీనంలో ఉండి, […]
  • ఛ‌త్ర‌ప‌తి శివాజీ చరిత్ర‌.. వ‌క్రీక‌ర‌ణ‌లు, వాస్త‌వాలు – 1
    క‌న్నెప‌ల్లి వెంక‌ట సుబ్రమ‌ణ్యం ఛ‌త్ర‌ప‌తి శివాజీ మ‌హారాజ్ గురించి కొంత‌మంది క‌మ్యూనిస్టులు వాస్త‌వాల‌ను వ‌క్రీక‌రిస్తూ త‌ప్పుడు క‌థ‌నాల‌ను ప్ర‌చారం చేస్తున్నారు. అస‌లు చ‌రిత్ర‌ను గ‌మ‌నిస్తే వాస్త‌వ విష‌యాలు అర్థ‌మ‌వుతాయి. పురందర యుద్ధం గురించి వాస్త‌వాలు తెలియ‌ని క‌మ్యూనిస్టులు చ‌రిత్ర‌ను త‌ప్పుదోవ ప‌ట్టిస్తున్నారు. సభాసద్ బకర్ అనే పుస్తకంలో అస‌లు వాస్త‌వాల‌ను మ‌నం తెలుసుకోవ‌చ్చు. పురందర యుద్ధం శివాజీ మహారాజ్ కి మిర్జా రాజా జయసింగ్ కి మధ్య యుద్ధం జరిగిన 32 సంవత్సరాల తర్వాత రాయబడిన పుస్తకం […]
  • వివేచనతో కూడిన శౌర్యమే వీరశివాజీ – హిందూ సామ్రాజ్య దినోత్సవం
    1674వ సంవత్సరం జ్యేష్ట శుద్ధ త్రయోదశి నాడు ‘హిందూ రాజ్యం ఏర్పడదు అనే భావన పటాపంచలైంది. ‘డిల్లీశ్వరోవా జగదీశ్వరోవా’ అనే ఆలోచన ముగిసింది. పరిమిత సాధనాలతోనే హిందువు శ్రేష్ఠ, స్వతంత్ర పాలకుడయ్యాడు. హిందువుల పౌరుష పరాక్రమాలు లోకానికి తేటతెల్లమైన చత్రపతి శివాజీ పట్టాభిషేకమైన రోజు. అదే హిందూ సామ్రాజ్య దినోత్సవం. శివాజీ 1630 ఫిబ్రవరి 19 వైశాఖ శుక్ల పక్ష తదియనాడు పూణే జిల్లాలోని జున్నార్‌ పట్టణం దగ్గర శివనేరి కోటలో శంబాజీ జిజాభాయి పుర్వాదంపతులకు జన్మించాడు. తల్లి బాల్యంలో శివాజీకి మాతృభూమిపై, ప్రజలపైన […]
  • వీరనారి ఝాన్సీ ల‌క్ష్మీబాయి
    భారతదేశం ఎందరో వీరులను వీర మాతలను కన్న తల్లి. 18వ శతాబ్దంలో మాతృభూమి దాస్య శృంఖలాలు ఛేదించడం కోసం అనేక మంది వీరులు వీర మాతలు ఈ గడ్డ పై జన్మించారు. స్వతంత్ర సాధన కోసం తమ ప్రాణాలను తృణపాయంగా ఎంచి తల్లిభారతి పాదాల చెంత సమ్పర్పించారు. తల్లి భారతి కిరీటంలో ఒక్కో మణిలా వెలిగారు. అందులో అగ్రగణ్యులారు ‘మణి’ కర్ణిక… మన రాణి ఝాన్సీ లక్ష్మీ భాయి. ఉత్తర భారతదేశ రాజ్యమైన ఝాన్సీ అనే రాజ్యానికి […]
  • శ్రీ కె. ఎస్. సుదర్శన్ జీ – తత్వవేత్త అయిన ఫీల్డ్ మార్షల్
    -అనంత్ సేథ్ రాష్ట్రీయ స్వయంసేవక్ సంఘ్ 5వ సర్ సంఘచాలక్ శ్రీ కుప్పహళ్లి సీతారామయ్య సుదర్శన్ జీ ఆషాఢ శుద్ధ తృతీయ, 18 జూన్ 1931 నాడు రాయ్ పూర్ లో జన్మించారు. వారు 9 సం|| వయస్సు నుండే ఆర్‌ఎస్‌ఎస్ శాఖకు వెళ్ళటం ప్రారంభించారు. వారు 6 దశాబ్దాలు సంఘ ప్రచారక్ గా సేవచేసి, ప్రొఫెసర్ రాజేంద్ర సింహ్ జీ తర్వాత 2000 సం|| లో సర్ సంఘచాలక్ బాధ్యతలు స్వీకరించారు. చదువు రీత్యా ఇంజనీర్ అయిన వారు, శారీరిక దార్ఢ్యత మరియు […]
  • RSS Sarsanghchalak Late KS Sudarshan Birth Anniversary: Committed to swadeshi and economic self-reliance
    KS Sudarshan was directly associated with Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) as Marg-darshak for about 7 years before taking up the responsibility of Sarsanghachalak. After the formation of SJM by Dattopant Thengadi in 1991, Swadeshi movement took off only after its national convention of 1993 in Delhi. With the support from karyakartas of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh […]
  • ఐరోపాలోని ఎస్టోనియాలో అతిపెద్ద శివాలయం ప్రారంభం
    ఐరోపాలో అత్యద్భుత ఘట్టం ఆవిష్కృతమైంది. ఈ ప్రాంతంలోని ఎస్టోనియాలో అతిపెద్ద శివాలయం ప్రారంభోత్సవం జరిగింది. జూన్‌ 4 న ఈ ఉత్సవాలు ప్రారంభమై… పదమూడో తేదీ వరకూ వైభవోపేతంగా జరిగాయి. దేవాలయ ప్రారంభోత్సవం, మహా కుంభాభిషేకం తమిళనాడుకి చెందిన భూపతి శివాచార్య స్వామిగల్‌, వెంకటేష్‌ జయరామ్‌ అనే అర్చకులు నిర్వహించారు. సంప్రదాయమైన ముఖ్య ఘట్టాలతో పాటు సాంస్కృతిక ఉత్సవాలు కూడా ఘనంగా జరిగాయి. ఈ ఆలయంలో ప్రధాన దేవత శివునితో పాటు శ్రీ కర్పగ నాధర్‌, బ్రహ్మంద్‌ […]
  • మోహన్ భాగవత్ అలా అనలేదు : క్లారిటీ ఇచ్చిన సంఘ్
    రాష్ట్రీయ స్వయంసేవక్ సంఘ్ సర్‌సంఘ్‌చాలక్‌ మోహన్‌ భాగవత్‌  వ్యాఖ్యలను తప్పుదోవ పట్టించేలా హిందీ పత్రిక దైనిక్‌ జాగరణ్‌ ఓ వార్త ప్రచురించింది. దీనిని రాష్ట్రీయ స్వయంసేవక్ సంఘ్ అఖిల భారత ప్రచార ప్రముఖ్‌ సునీల్‌ అంబేకర్‌ ఖండిస్తూ వివరణ ఇచ్చారు. ఆరెస్సెస్ విషయంలో బీజేపీ జాతీయ అధ్యక్షుడు జేపీ నడ్డా చేసిన వ్యాఖ్యలకు మోహన్‌ భాగవత్‌ స్పందించారని ఆ పత్రిక పేర్కొంది. “మన దేశంలోని ప్రతి పౌరుడికీ తన మనసులోని భావాలను వ్యక్తపరిచే స్వేచ్చ వుందని, నడ్డా […]
  • దేశ వ్యాప్తంగా ఊపందుకున్న ”డీ లిస్టింగ్‌” డిమాండ్… ఎక్కడికక్కడ సమావేశాలు నిర్వహిస్తున్న గిరిజనులు
    మతం మారిన గిరిజనులను షెడ్యూల్డ్‌ తెగల జాబితా నుంచి తొలగించాలన్న (డీ లిస్టింగ్‌) ఉద్యమం దేశవ్యాప్తంగా ఊపందుకుంది. వనవాసీ సంఘాలు దేశ వ్యాప్తంగా దీనిపై పెద్ద ఉద్యమాన్నే నడుపుతున్నాయి. అనేక రాష్ట్రాల్లో డీ లిస్టింగ్‌ డిమాండ్‌ తో ‘‘పోస్ట్‌కార్డ్‌’’ ఉద్యమాన్ని కూడా చేస్తున్నారు. కొందరు గిరిజనులు మతం మారినా… ఇప్పటికీ గిరిజన సమాజానికి వచ్చే ప్రయోజనాలను పొందుతున్నారని, దీనిని వెంటనే రద్దు చేయాలని డిమాండ్‌ చేస్తున్నారు. దేశ:వ్యాప్తంగా ‘‘జనజాతి సురక్షా మంచ్‌’’ పేరుతో గిరిజనులందరూ ఏకమై పెద్ద […]

Dr. Shreerang Godbole

Chapter VII

The Khilafat Movement may be roughly said to have played out in two phases before it lost steam. The first phase (December 1918-July 1920) was the phase of petition and persuasion. This meant stirring public opinion, building up organizations, passing resolutions and petitioning the Government. The second phase (August 1920-March 1922) was the phase of coercion and carnage. These two phases follow classical Islamic practice that entails preaching when the ummah is weak and wholesale violence once it gathers sufficient strength.

Muslim discontent after World War I

A series of secret treaties and war-time agreements from 1915-1918 sought the dismemberment of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Turkey’s downfall was closelyinterwoven with the question of the Khilafat and of the guardianship of Islam’s holy places, issues that were dear to the Indian Muslims. The Indian Muslims also feared that the collapse of the Ottoman Turkish Empire would adverselyaffect their political importance within India. The Indian Muslims complained that loyalty to the British had not fetched them any dividend.

In 1918, a joint report on Constitutional Reforms by Viceroy Lord Chelmsford and Secretary of State for India in the British Cabinet Sir Edwin Montague, known popularly as the Montford Report was published. The Report observed, “The Muhammadans were given special representation with separate electorates in 1909…The Muhammadans regard these as settled facts, and any attempt to go back on them would rouse a storm of bitter protest and put a severe strain on the loyalty of a community… The Muhammadans regard separate representation and communal electorates as their only adequate safeguards…we are convinced that… the present system must be maintained…But we can see no reason to set up communal representation for Muhammadans in any province where they form a majority of the voters (The Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms, London, 1918, p. 188). This mere suggestion of discontinuing communal representation not in toto but merely in Muslim-majority provinces was enough to raise the hackles of Muslim leaders.

The Press Act (1910) and the Defence ofIndia Act (1915) had been frequently used to impede the publicationof Muslim journals like the Comrade, Hamdard, Al-Hilal, Al-Balagh and Zamindar. More importantly,prominent leaders such as Mahmud al-Hassan, the Ali brothers, Abul Kalam Azad and HasratMohani were in detention. Among the prominent leaders who had escaped internment during the War, only Maulana Abdul Bari, Dr. Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan and MushirHosain Kidwai were politically active. Since early 1917, a movement had been started to get the detained Muslim leaders released (The Khilafat Movement in India, 1919-1924, Muhammad Naeem Qureshi, dissertation submitted to University of London, 1973, pp.51, 52).

Gandhi’s obsession with Hindu-Muslim unity

It was in 1915 that Gandhi returned to India, having conducted successful satyagraha campaigns in South Africa.It was in the winter of 1917 that Gandhi was persuaded to join the campaign for the release of detained Muslim leaders. His circle of Muslim friends now widened and included the Ali brothers, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Maulana Abdul Bari. He earned their gratitude when he forcefully presented the Muslim point of view with regard to Turkey at the Delhi Imperial War Conference in April 1918 (Qureshi, ibid, p. 53).

In February 1919, the Rowlatt Actwaspassed by the Imperial Legislative Council. This allowed certain political cases to be tried without juries and permitted internment of suspects without trial. This resulted in widespread discontent and culminated in the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar on 13 April 1919.

Right from the start of his political career, Gandhi was obsessed with Hindu-Muslim unity. This is how Ambedkar describes this peculiar trait in Gandhi, “At the very commencement of his career… Mr. Gandhi startled the people of India by his promise to win Swaraj within six months, Mr. Gandhi said that he could perform the miracle only if certain conditions were fulfilled. One of these conditions was the achievement of Hindu-Muslim unity. Mr. Gandhi is never tired of saying that there is no Swaraj without Hindu-Muslim unity. Mr. Gandhi did not merely make this slogan the currency of Indian politics but he has strenuously worked to bring it about. Mr. Gandhi…declaring his intention to launch Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act …March 1919… had prescribed that the masses attending the meetings should take a vow (of Hindu-Muslim unity)… There was nothing in the campaign of Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act which could have led to any clash between the Hindus and the Muslims. Yet Mr. Gandhi asked his followers to take the vow. This shows how insistent he was from the very beginning upon Hindu-Muslim unity” (Pakistan or the Partition of India, B.R. Ambedkar, Thacker and Company Limited, 1945, pp. 135,136).

It is possible that Gandhi’s life-long obsession with Hindu-Muslim unity was influenced by his early interaction with Muslim leaders in the winter of 1917.

Gandhi-Bari quid pro quo

The first public expression of the anxiety over the fate of Turkey was given at the All India Muslim League session held in Delhi on 30, 31 December 1918. However, the agitation over Turkey was mostly centred in thelarger towns of the U.P.,Bengal, Punjab, Bombay and Sind. Clearly, Muslim mobilization was not enough. Hindu support was needed to further the pan-Islamist agenda.

The Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India (Vol. 3, Government of Maharashtra, p.139) says in its report of 3 March 1919, “In March 1919, Gandhi was in Lucknow as the guest of Abdul Bari… An informer reports that Mr. Gandhi met Maulvi Abdul Bari some time ago and discussed the Satyagraha movement (against Rowlatt Bill) with him. Gandhi is said to have been most optimistic about the success of the movement. He told Abdul Bari that he had agents in every city and that the passive resistance idea would extend to the servants of officials and to the army. Hindu-Muslim unity would be complete and the Government would be paralysed. It was agreed that when agitation was at its height there would be a large meeting of Ulemas, Maulvis and Mahommadans generally, at which Abdul Bari should be elected Shaikh-ul-lslam and the Muslim demands regarding the Khilafat, the holy places, etc., should be formulated. The Hindus would support these demands which should be submitted to His Excellency the Viceroy with the warning that non-acceptance of them would mean jehad. In return for the assistance of the Hindus, Abdul Bari, in his capacity as Shaikh-ul-lslam, was to issue a fatwa declaring that the animal originally sacrificed by Ibrahim was a sheep and not a cow, and that cow-sacrifice was prohibited in future. The scheme is said to have been ruined by the outbreaks of violence in various parts of the country” (p. 139).

Gandhi and Abdul Bari were both utilizing each other and the issues they stood for to their own advantage. Gandhi exploited the Khilafat issue to gain Muslim support and through them the leadership of a united India. Otherwise, he himself admitted that he ‘cared nothing for Turkey as such, but the Indian Mahommadans did … and, he felt justified in championing it’. For Abdul Bari, Gandhi’s support meant the strengthening of the Khilafat movement and perhaps personal fame as the ‘Shaikh-ul-Islam’ of the sub-continent. For this he was prepared to modify his earlier stance and preach cow protection (Qureshi, ibid, pp. 59-60). The Rowlatt Satyagraha was short-lived and was suspended by Gandhi on 18 April, 1919.

Islamist consolidation

On 19 March 1919, some wealthy Bombay Muslim businessmen ofFirangi Mahal connection funded the establishment of the Bombay Khilafat Committee. In the middle of May 1919, theAmir Amanullah of Afghanistan embarked upon a war with the British. The pan-Islamists lost no time in coquetting with the Amir’s agents. Abdul Bari circulatedan ‘inflammatory’ leaflet and a lengthy jihad pamphletappeared in the U.P. whichemphasised the necessity of a religious war (The Khilafat Movement in India 1919-1924, A.C. Niemeijer, MartinusNijhoff, 1972, p. 75; see also Qureshi, ibid, p.67).

In spite of deputations to London to plead Turkey’s case, efforts by pan-Islamist societies in London and agitations in India, no favourable result was in sight. To givea more united expression to their feelings, an All India Muslim Conference was held in Lucknow in September 1919 which was attended by around 1000 important Muslimleaders of different shades of political opinion. Twosignificant decisions were taken by the Conference;first, the establishment of a central co-ordinating bodyand, secondly, the fixing of 17 October 1919, as the ‘Khilafat Day’.

The Muslim League was reluctant to pursue an aggressive anti-Government line, hence it was thought necessary to establish a temporaryorganisation solely for the Khilafat question. The Khilafat Committee of Bombay was designated as acentral body with branches to be formed all over the country.Consequently, at a meeting heldon 11 November 1919, the Bombay Khilafat Committee changed its title to ‘The Central Khilafat Committee ofIndia, Bombay’ (Qureshi, ibid, p. 71).

Central Khilafat Committee

The CKC or the Jamiyat-i-Khilafat-i-Hind as it was also known, met again in Amritsar (December 1919) and Bombay (February 1920).  As per its constitution, the objects of the CKC were:To secure for Turkey a just and honourablepeace; to obtain the settlement of theKhilafat question; also of the holy placesof Islam and the Jazirat-ul Arab (Arabian Peninsula) in strict accordance with the requirements of theShariat; to secure the fulfilment of thepledges of Rt. Hon. Mr. Lloyd George, givenon 5th January, 1919 and of Lord Hardinge,regarding the preservation of the integrityof the Turkish Empire; for the abovepurpose to approach the British Ministers,the Viceroy of India and the Britishpublic; to carry on propaganda work in andout of India; to take such further steps asmay be deemed necessary.

The CKC with its headquarters at Bombay consistedof 200 members – later increased to 250 in 1923. Bombay was given 54 seats, Sind 20, Madras 15 and the remainingseats went to other provinces.The provincial Khilafat committees were required towork in affiliation with the CKC and where no suchcommittees existed the central body was to do the work.The central and the provincial committees were to collectfunds.With a hundred odd local committees anda vast membership, it became the mostpowerful Muslim body until the re-vitalisation of the MuslimLeague in the late 1920’s (Qureshi, ibid, p. 72).

In addition, there were so-called Khilafat Workers and Khilafat Volunteers. At some places, men were appointed to collect fourannas a head from those who wished to style themselves Khilafatmembers (Niemeijer, ibid, p. 85).

On the level of mass membership, no clear distinction was made in those years between Congress andKhilafat adherents. It was not uncommon evento combine offices in the Congress organization with similar ones in theMuslim League, and the same rule applied to Congress and the KhilafatConference and the CKC. This was because the Congress fully accepted the Khilafat demands since the summer of 1920.Large meetings took place especially in Punjab, Sind, Bombay, the U.P., Bihar, Bengal andMadras. The movement was also spreading to the villages. Not only the Muslim masses, but Muslim liberals too participated. As an exception, some liberal Muslims, notably Jinnah considered the Khilafat movement to be “a false religious frenzy” ofwhich no good could ultimately come, either for India in general or forthe Indian Muslims in particular (Niemeijer, ibid, pp. 86-90).

It is remarkable that inthese early manifestations of the Khilafat movement, no mention is madeof co-operation with the Hindus or of swaraj. Almost on the contrary,Seth Haji Abdullah Harun, president of the Khilafat Conference inSind – a man who in the years 1911-1913 was prominent in the SindRed Crescent Society complained bitterly of having been lumped together “with extremists and Home Rulers”(Niemeijer, ibid, p. 91).

Hindu misgivings

The supporters of the Khilafat Movement themselves had doubts about the so-called Hindu-Muslim unity engendered by the Khilafat Movement. In 1913 itself, Muhammad Ali had warned Hindu and Muslim leaders alike against “mistaking the accidental for the essential” and “drowning the problem in a deluge of words.”Several years after the event, Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman of the Muslim League described in his memoirs “the silly excitement” of the Muslims who tookSwami Shraddhanand inside the mosque at Delhi. Probably becoming wise some thirty years after the events, Jawaharlal Nehru spoke about “theartificial unity Gandhi had forged out of diverse discontents”(Niemeijer, ibid, p. 93).

For the majority of the Hindus, thereligious and even the political aspects of the Khilafat Movement had little appeal. Among their leaders, PanditMadan Mohan Malaviya (1861-1946) was perhaps the chiefsceptic. In December 1918, as the President of theCongress, he had ruled out the plea of Chittaranjan Das (1870-1925)to lend support to the Khilafat issue. Sankaran Nair (1857-1934, President of 1897 Congress session) was openly critical of the Khilafatists’ motives! Lokmanya Tilak (1856-1920) was another sceptic. Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950) and Indulal K. Yajnik (1892-1972, participant in Gandhi’s Kheda Satyagraha in 1918) exchanged ‘many unholy jokes and laughs over the sacred cause of the Khilafat.  Bipin Chandra Pal (1858-1932), who hadalways dreaded ‘the virus of pan-Islamism’, was alsohesitant to lend his support.  Motilal Nehru (1861-1931) considered that there were ‘many things nearerhome than the question of the Khilafat which we have toattend to’. V.S. Srinivasa Sastri(1869-1946, follower of Gopal Krsihna Gokhale; Gandhi used to address him as ‘elder brother’) advisedGandhi to stay clear of the Khilafat movement for ‘we have no right to embarrass the Government of India’. There were others who gave only verbal support and yetothers attached conditions of cow protection before theyjoined the Muslims (Qureshi, ibid, pp. 74, 75).

In spite of Gandhi’s efforts and his earlierclaims that twenty-one crores of Hindus were ready to helpMuslims dictate to the Government whatever terms they wished, the Khilafat Day (17 October 1919) saw no big Hindu-Muslim entente. Only at Dacca, Bombay,Lucknow, Hyderabad (Sind), Sukkur and a few other placesdid the Hindus join the Muslims in demonstrations andobserve hartals (Qureshi, ibid, p. 76).

In ameeting of the CKC in 1920, “extremist Moslem leaders advocatedjoining any Afghan army that might invade India to drive out theBritish. Hindu leaders demanded explanation and made it clear thatat first sign of such danger Hindus would cease to co-operate”(Niemeijer, ibid, p. 95).

From persuasion to coercion

Despite all efforts, Prime Minister Lloyd George’s speeches created grave doubts that Turkey would get the treatment the Khilafatists were hoping for.  The British Government had called for Peace Celebrations in India in December 1919 to celebrate the end of the War. When on 23 November1919, the first session of theAll-India Khilafat Conference opened at Delhi; it was unanimously decided to boycott of the Peace Celebrations as a religious duty. It was decided to send a deputation to Britain to place their demands before responsible British ministers. If this failed to bring about desired result, it was decided to start boycott of British goods, followed if required by gradual cessation of cooperation with the Government. The last bit about Non-cooperation was Gandhi’s suggestion to circumvent the Muslim insistence on boycott of goods and violence.

To get the crucial Hindu support to the Khilafat Movement, a special joint meeting of Hindu and Muslimdelegates was held the following day (24 November 1919). To assuage Gandhi, he was made President and the resolution on boycott of goods that he had opposed was withdrawn. To win Hindu approval, Fazlul Haque had proposed adding the Punjab issue (Jallianwala Baug massacre and Martial Law) to the Khilafat issue. But this proposal was dropped because Gandhi was opposed to it. He wanted the Khilafat issue to be the sole basis for Non-Cooperation.  The Khilafatists successfully organized boycott of the Peace Celebrations. The moderate businessmen leaders in the CKC were sidelined and the Ali brothers became the leaders of the Khilafat Movement.

At CKC meetings atBombay in April and May, 1920, the principle of Non-cooperation wasaccepted and a committee was appointed to work out a scheme for itsinitiation. In June 1920, an All-India Khilafat Conference at Allahabad resolved to give effect to Non-cooperation “without further delay”; theViceroy, however, was given “a month’s warning”.

Whereas the Khilafatists accepted the Non-cooperation programme without too much opposition towards itand in rather a short time, Congress took a longer time to do so. Initially, the Khilafatists were prepared to go a good deal further than Congress. Their programme included resignation from the police and the army and refusal topay taxes, whereas the Congress programme initially envisaged merely advising people not to offer themselvesas recruits for the army. These widely differing programmes reflected the wavering within the Hindu leaders in the Congress.

How Gandhi neutralized the opposition to the Khilafat Movement within the Congress and forced it to come around to the position taken by Khilafatists is another story. With an ally like Gandhi, the time for persuasion was over; it was now time for coercion and carnage for the Khilafatists!

…to be continued

(The author has written books on Islam, Christianity, contemporary Buddhist-Muslim relations, Shuddhi movement and religious demography)