Book Description

This study attempts to look at the legacy of the Khilafat movement in India early this century. The study shows that the abolition of the institution of the Caliphate in Turkey, and the reasons given by the Turkish ' ulama' for its abolition, provided food for thought to the Muslim elite in India. Muslims saw in the reasons for abolition of the Caliphate in Turkey, a process of 'ijtihad' (theological exploration) in which it was possible to update the institution of the Caliphate. This reflection made it possible to demand, from the British government and the Indian National Congress, an Islamic state. Such a development emerged as the legacy of the Khilafat movement. As Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) took up this challenge, he used a three-pronged approach to sell the idea to the Muslim masses. After tracing earlier views of the Caliphate this study looks at the connotations of the 'Ashura event (the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad) in Karbala, which occurred in the year 61 A.H. (685 C.E.), and its commemoration every year, to show how recalling this event helped Jinnah in his Pakistan movement. The study shows that the khilafatist leaders were involved in using the 'Ashura event in Karbala to motivate Muslims. The study also presents writings and compositions of poems using the 'Ashura event to arouse Muslims, literature recently (1986) released in the material proscribed by the British government in the 1920's and 1930's. Finally, the study shows that in the thinking of twentieth-century Indian Muslims the institutional rationale of the Caliphate seems to have evolved, from a one-man Caliph-emperor to a socially elected, democratic caliphal state, from the idea of an individual Caliph to the concept of an Islamic state.