RAS question
The Khilafat Movement (1919-1924) was launched to:
Correct answer: (D) Restore the Caliph of Turkey and protect the Ottoman Empire.
The Khilafat Movement of 1919-1924 was launched to restore the Caliph of Turkey and protect the Ottoman Empire after the First World War.
Explanation
The Khilafat Movement was a post-First World War protest against the harsh treatment of the Ottoman Empire and the Caliph. Its demand was not a separate homeland or support for British policy; it centred on restoring the Caliph of Turkey and protecting the Ottoman Empire. The movement was led by the Ali Brothers, Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, along with Maulana Azad and Hakim Ajmal Khan. Gandhi supported it because he saw it as a way to bring Hindus and Muslims together in anti-British politics. That link with Hindu-Muslim unity is why the movement is usually read with the Non-Cooperation phase, not as a communal separatist demand.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) A separate Muslim homeland refers to the later Pakistan demand, whereas the Khilafat issue was about the Caliph of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire after the First World War.
- (B) The movement protested British handling of the Ottoman Empire and the Caliph, so it was not launched to support the British war effort.
- (C) Gandhi supported the movement as a means of Hindu-Muslim unity, so opposing that unity was not its purpose.
Concept
This tests the nationalist-movement strand of Modern Indian History, especially how post-war international issues fed into anti-British mobilisation in India. It recurs in RAS because Khilafat links leaders, Non-Cooperation politics, and Hindu-Muslim unity in one compact theme.