Khilafat and Non Cooperative Movement

Khilafat and Non Cooperative Movement

Between 1919 and 1922, two powerful people's movements were organized against the British rule. These movements were - Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movement, although both these movements started on different issues, but both were not directly related to the same mode of struggle. But it played a major role in encouraging the Indian independence movement.

The combined Khilafat Non-Cooperation movement was the first All-India agitation against British rule.

Background

The background of both these movements lies in the series of events that took place after the First World War due to the steps taken by the British rule in the Indian context. The year 1919 was the most important for these movements, because almost every section of Indian society became dissatisfied and angry with government policies and activities in this particular year. Several reasons were responsible for this public dissatisfaction, which is described as follows-

• The public was stricken with the economic difficulties that arose after the First World War. Inflation increased greatly due to World War. The people of middle and lower middle class living in towns and cities got handicapped, laborers all got worried by inflation. There was a huge shortage of food grains. Inflation began to rise, industrial production plummeted and people were burdened with taxes. Almost every section of the society started struggling with economic troubles. This aroused anti-British sentiments among the people. Thousands of people have also died due to drought, epidemics and plague.
• Incidents of Rowlatt Act, martial law in Punjab and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre exposed the cruel and rude attitude of foreign rulers.
• The Hunter Commission's recommendations on excesses in Punjab opened everyone's eyes. On the other hand, in the British Parliament, especially the 'House of Lords', the actions of General Dyer were justified and 'Morning Post' collected a sum of £ 30,000 for Dyer. All these activities were sufficient to expose the British rule.
• The real objective of the Mategue-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919 was also to implement a diarchy regime and not to provide relief to the people. These reforms disappointed the nationalists who were demanding self-government.

Several other events after World War also set a broad background for Hindu-Muslim political integration.

• Lucknow Pact (1916) - This increased cooperation between Congress and Muslim League.
• In protest against the Rowlatt Act, along with other sections of society, Hindus and Muslims also came close to each other.
• Original nationalist Muslims such as Mohammad Ali, Abul Kalam Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Hasan Imam etc. became more influential by getting rid of the orthodox views of the school. Due to which the influence of the Aligarh school on the Muslim League began to diminish. Young nationalists also advocated militant nationalism and stressed on playing an active role in the nationalist movement. He was deeply influenced by anti-imperialist sentiments and wanted to end imperialist slavery.

In the scenario of all these activities, Khilafat was born, with which the historical non-cooperation movement emerged on the table of the National Independence Movement.

Caliphate issue

The Khilafat issue made the process of the rise of fundamental nationalist tendencies accessible to the younger generation of Muslims and those Muslim scholars, in whom gradually anti-British sentiments were being awakened. After the First World War, the attitude of the British towards Turkey made Indian Muslims very angry. Not only Indian Muslims, but the entire Muslim world considered the Turkish Khalifa as their religious head, it was natural that Muslims sympathized with Turkey. In World War I, Turkey sided with Germany and Austria against Britain. Therefore, after the end of the war, Britain took a harsh attitude towards Turkey. Turkey was divided and the Caliph was removed from office. This move of Britain created a wave of fury among the Muslims of the whole world. In India too, Muslims strongly criticized this move of Britain and made the following demands in front of British.

1. Re-establish the caliph's dominance over the religious places of Muslims,
2. The Khalifa should be given more land by restructuring the territories.

In early 1919, a 'Khilafat Committee' was formed under the leadership of Ali brothers - Mohammed Ali and Shaukat Ali, Maulana Azad, Ajmal Khan and Hasrat Mohani, whose purpose was to pressure Britain to change Britain's attitude towards Turkey. . Thus a broad backdrop was laid for the nationwide demonstration.

Development of Khilafat

Non-cooperation program: For some time the leaders of the Khilafat were confined to meetings, dharna and petitions in favor of this movement. But later the demand started to get strong that strong demonstrations should be organized against the British rule and the concept of non-cooperation with the British should be followed in every way. Thus the Khilafat's stance gradually began to change. In November 1919, the All India Conference of Khilafat was held in Delhi. This conference called for boycott of English goods. At the same time, the Khilafat leaders also stated in clear terms that they would not cooperate with the government until the terms of the post-war treaty were made favorable to Turkey. Gandhiji, who was the chairman of the All India Khilafat Committee, saw the issue as an appropriate platform for establishing unity among Indians and declaring a non-cooperation movement against the government.

Congress's attitude on Khilafat question

It was quite clear that the support of the Congress is essential for the success of the Khilafat movement. Although Gandhiji was fully supportive of the Khilafat and wanted to launch a satyagraha and non-cooperation movement against the government on this issue, the Congress lacked consensus on the issue. Bal Gangadhar Tilak objected to a treaty with Muslim leaders on religious issues, and was also apprehensive about the use of 'Satyagraha' as a political weapon.

Gandhiji worked tirelessly to make Tilak acquainted with the specifics of Satyagraha and all his doubts regarding its merits were dispelled. Along with this, he also explained to Tilak the justification for making a pact with the Muslim community on the issue of Khilafat. Gandhiji's non-cooperation program was also opposed in some other states. However, the Congress later succumbed to this issue and approved Gandhiji's proposal for a political program. There were several reasons for the Congress taking a flexible stand on the Khilafat issue and supporting Gandhiji's non-cooperation program.

It was felt that this is a golden opportunity to establish Hindu-Muslim unity and bring the Muslim community into the mainstream of the national movement. Realized the presence of this foreign rule and took the inspiration of the struggle for his rights by holding him responsible for his plight.

The confidence of the Congress was gradually decreasing when the constitutional struggle continued. He was disenchanted with the government's discriminatory and oppressive recommendations of the Hunter Commission, particularly with regard to the events in Punjab.

The Congress was well aware that Indians were looking for an appropriate opportunity to express their dissatisfaction.

Congress supports Muslim League

The Muslim League also decided to give full support to the Congress to launch a movement on the issue of political questions. In early February 1920– 1920, a joint delegation of Hindus and Muslims met the Viceroy and demanded him to resolve the Khilafat question, but to no avail from this mission. In February 1920, Gandhiji declared that the Punjab issue was wrong. Therefore, the government should apologize for the Amritsar massacre and resolve the excesses committed in Punjab. Soften your behavior towards Turkey and present a new plan to satisfy Indians. He also warned that if the government does not accept these demands, then they will start the non-cooperation movement.

May 1920 - Seabreeze treaty was signed with Turkey in May 1920. Turkey was partitioned by this treaty.

In June 1920- the Central Khilafat Committee was held in Allahabad. In this session, it was decided to boycott schools, colleges and courts and Gandhiji was entrusted with the responsibility of leading the movement.

31 August 1920 - Khilafat Committee formally launched the Non-Cooperation Movement (unfortunately Bal Gangadhar Tilak died on 1 August 1920).

In September 1920, a special session of the Congress was held in Calcutta. In this session, the Congress gave its approval to continue the non-cooperation program till the issue of Punjab and Khilafat is resolved and self-rule is established. In this session, the Congress decided the following programs:

Boycott of government educational institutions.

Boycott of Courts and work of justice through Panchayats.

Boycott of Legislative Councils - Although the Congress leaders differed on this issue and they were opposed to the inclusion of this program in the Non-Cooperation Program. The most prominent name among the opponents CR Belonged to the slave. Legislative councils were to be held a few days later (in November 1920). But the leaders who disagreed with the idea of ​​boycott also followed the discipline of the Congress and boycotted the elections. Most of the voters also did not participate in these elections.

Boycott of foreign goods and promotion of Khadi in its place. The spinning wheel was also encouraged.

The renunciation of government titles and unpaid positions, the renunciation of government services, the non-payment of government taxes, the boycott of government and semi-government festivals and the absence of soldiers, laborers and clerks to work in Mesopotamia.

The activists made a commendable effort to encourage Hindu-Muslim unity and remove untouchability during the entire movement. Non-violence was paramount throughout the program. The Congress session was held in Nagpur in December 1920. In this session-

• The program of non-cooperation movement was approved.
• There was a significant change in the principle of the Congress - the Congress declared its goal of achieving self-government in a peaceful and just manner in place of its goal of achieving self-government in a constitutional manner. Thus the Congress accepted the concept of mass struggle beyond the constitutional scope.
• Some important organizational changes were also made - now a 15-member executive committee was formed to look after the day-to-day activities of the Congress. For the actual implementation of the programs at the local level, the State Congress Committees were formed on linguistic basis. Congress committees were also formed in villages and towns, membership fees were reduced to four years.
• Gandhi announced that if the Non-Cooperation Movement was launched with full dedication, the goal of Swarajya would be achieved within a year. Samay Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, GS Kaparde and B.C. Pal left the Congress because he was in favor of organizing the struggle in a constitutional and just manner. Whereas Surendranath Banerjee formed the 'Indian National Liberal Federation' and thereafter his contribution to national politics remained minimal.

There was renewed energy in the announcement by the Congress to approve the program of non-cooperation movement and full support by the Khilafat Committee. Subsequently, in the years 1921 and 1922, it gained unprecedented popularity throughout the country.

Spread of movement

Gandhiji consulted the entire cadre with the Khilafat leader, the Ali brothers. About 90 thousand students left government schools and colleges and got admitted to national schools and colleges. At that time there were 800 national schools and colleges in the country.

West Bengal was the leader in the boycott of educational institutions. The students of Calcutta organized a statewide strike. His demand was that the school manager break his ties with the government. Acharya Narendra Dev, C.R. Various national educational institutions were established under the leadership of Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Zakir Hussain and Subhash Chandra Bose. Subhash Chandra Bose became the Principal of 'National College Calcutta'. Jamia Millia, Kashi Vidyapeeth, Gujarat Vidyapeeth also contributed significantly to this. In Punjab, Bombay, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Assam, the program was also implemented.

Many eminent lawyers of the country gave up their advocacy. Among them Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, C.R. Das, C. Rajagopalachari, Saifuddin Kichlu, Vallabhbhai Patel, Asaf Ali, T. Prakasam and Rajendra Prasad were the prominent ones. Holi of foreign cloth was publicly lit and within a short time the import of foreign cloth was reduced to half. Dharnas were also given at foreign clothing shops. Strikes were also organized at foreign liquor shops and toddy shops. Mahatma Gandhi returned the Kaiser-i-Hind medal. The Congress ordered its workers to collect funds. The 'Tilak Swarajya Fund' even surpassed its target and collected more than one crore rupees. Charkha and Khadi were widely publicized. The volunteer armies of the Congress began to act like parallel police.

In July 1921, during the Khilafat Movement in Karachi, the Ali brothers declared that any Muslim staying in the army was against religion. Therefore, all Muslims should resign from the army. Due to this, Ali brothers were arrested and put in jail in September. On 4 October, Gandhiji issued a statement with 47 senior Congress leaders and confirmed the statement of the Ali brothers and called upon all Indian citizens and soldiers to sever all ties to the colonial rule. On the second day, the Congress Executive passed a similar resolution and the local Congress Committees were asked to pass a similar resolution.

After this, the Congress gave permission to the local congressional committees that whenever they feel that the public is ready for disobeying the law, they can start the movement. At this time there was already a non-tax movement against the Union Board of Taxes in Chirala-Pirala and Pedanandipadu taluks of Midnapore (Bengal) and Guntur (Andhra).

In Assam, tea plantation workers, steamer laborers and Assam-Bengal Railway employees also went on strike. J.M., a nationalist leader from Bengal Sengupta played an important role during this period.

On 17 November 1921, strikes and demonstrations were organized at various places to protest against the visit of Prince of Wales to India. After this, violent incidents and clashes with police took place in many places including Bombay. The non-cooperation movement was gradually becoming effective. Many local movements added more energy to it. Among them were the Awadh Kisan Movement (Uttar Pradesh), Ekta Movement (Uttar Pradesh) Mopala Uprising (Malabar) and the movement of Sikhs demanding the expulsion of the Mahants from Punjab.

Government response

In May 1921, talks were held between Gandhiji and Lord Viceroy of the then Viceroy of India. In this talk, the readings demanded Gandhiji on behalf of the government to urge the Ali brothers to withdraw their speech which was causing widespread violence. Gandhiji felt that the government was trying to create a rift between him and the Khilafat leaders. Hence, they turned down the demand of the government. After this, in December, the government started the offensive against the agitators. Voluntary organizations were declared illegal, public meetings were banned, the press was banned and many leaders including Gandhiji were arrested.

Last stage of movement

On the other hand, Gandhiji was pressurized to launch the Civil Disobedience Movement at the national level. In December 1921, the Congress session was held in Ahmedabad. (Although the President of this session was CR Das, Hakim Ajmal Khan was made the Executive Chairman due to his being in jail) In this session, Congress gave Gandhiji full authority to decide the goal, time and future strategy of disobedience. gave. On the other hand, there is no change in the attitude of the government. The appeal of the all-party conference in January 1922 and the letter written by Gandhiji to the Viceroy also had no effect on the government.

On 1 February 1922, Gandhi announced that if the government would not restore civil liberties and release control from the press, they would be forced to launch a nationwide civil disobedience movement.

This movement was to begin from the Bardoli taluka of Surat. But before the start of this movement, Chauri Chaura Incident happened and the whole scenario changed.

Reasons for Gandhiji to withdraw the movement

After the Chauri Chaura Incident, Gandhiji felt that the Indians had not yet learned the principle of non-violence very well or could not fully understand it. They felt that the reins of the movement would go out of their hands and go into violent hands. He believed that violent agitation could be easily crushed by the government on the pretext of protecting the interests of the state and behind this the government could argue that it was a compulsion to resort to weapons to suppress violence. Gandhiji feared that such actions would thwart the entire strategy of non-violent non-cooperation movement. The strategy of Gandhi's non-violent movement was that if the colonial government resorted to repression against the peaceful movement, Indians would become emotionally against it and the real face of the government would be exposed.

The movement was slowly becoming boring or tiring. This was also natural as the government was not ready to take a compromise approach in any way. In such circumstances, the movement going on such a wide scale could not be drawn much. Khilafat, the main issue of this movement, should also become irrelevant after some time. Gone. Because in November 1922, the Turkish people revolted under the leadership of Mustafa Kamal Pasha and the political rights of the Sultan were taken away. The post of Caliph was abolished and a secular state was established in Turkey. Legal system was established all over Turkey on the lines of Europe and women were given wide rights. Education was nationalized and modern industries and agriculture were encouraged. The post of Khalifa was abolished in 1924.

List of personalities associated with non-cooperation movement during British India

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Bapu)
He issued a manifesto and in March 1920 announced his principle of non-violent non-cooperative movement. He was a prominent leader of the movement who urged people to adopt indigenous principles and habits, including hand spinning, weaving and working to remove untouchability. He addressed millions of people during his nationwide tour in 1921. The violence in Chauri-Chaura in Uttar Pradesh during February 1922 forced the movement to be postponed.

He moved the main resolution on the Non-Cooperation Movement during the annual session of Congress in Nagpur in 1920. He was a lawyer by profession who boycotted law courts and left a lucrative practice. His three subordinates and supporters, Birendranath Samshal, J.M. Sengupta and Subhash Bose played major roles in uniting Hindus and Muslims in Midnapore, Chittagong and Calcutta respectively.

He propagated the non-cooperation movement and encouraged the formation of Kisan Sabha to take advantage of the policies of the government. He was against Gandhi's decision to withdraw the movement. (What Is Non-Cooperation Movement)

Jm Sengupta
He was a Bengali nationalist leader, he supported the workers of tea gardens in Assam for their protest and strike.

Basanti Debi
That c. R. Das's wife, was one of the first female volunteers to make an arrest in court in 1921.

He organized anti-union movement in Contai and Tamluk sub-divisions of Midnapore. In November-December 1921, Sansal started a no-tax movement amidst the substantial tenancy of Mahisha of Midnapore.

Jitendralal Banerjee

He organized the peasants to oppose the settlement campaigns in Bogra, Pabna and Birbhum in 1921-22.

Subhash Chandra Bose
He supported the movement and resigned from the civil service. He was appointed as the Principal of the National College in Calcutta.

Ali brothers (Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali)
He was the largest Khilafat leader who supported Gandhi in his nationwide tour to spread the movement. At the All India Khilafat Conference, Muhammad Ali declared that 'it was religiously illegal for Muslims to continue in the British Government'. The Ali brothers were later arrested.

Motilal Nehru
He abandoned his legal practice in response to the non-cooperation movement by Gandhi. He was arrested in 1921. Other notable lawyers left their practice. M. J. Jayakar, Saifuddin Kichlu, Vallabhbhai Patel, c. Rajagopalachari, t. Prakasam and Asaf Ali were involved. His sacrifice inspired many others, who boycotted government jobs and entered the mainstream of the freedom struggle.

Lala Lajpat Rai
He was not initially in favor of the non-cooperative movement's policy (he was against the boycott of schools) but later supported the movement. In fact, he opposed his return in 1922.

Rajendra Prasad
He actively supported the Gandhian movement in Bihar.

Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel
He spread the movement in Gujarat and considered the Non-Cooperation Movement as an alternative to revolutionary terrorism to fight against a colonial government.

Motilal Tejawat
They organized the Bhils and the Bhil movement strengthened non-cooperation activities.

Alluri Sitaram Raju
He led tribes in Andhra and linked their demands with the Non-Cooperation Movement.

Hasrat mohani
He was a Khilafat leader who condemned the arrest of the Ali brothers and demanded complete independence.

Purushottam Das Thakurdas, Jamnadas Dwarkadas, Kavasji Jahangir, Firoz Sethna and Setalvad
He started a non-cooperation association in 1920.

Kunhammed Haji, Kalathingal Mammad, Ali Muslimar, Sithi Koya Thangal and Imbechi Koya Thangal
He served as the President of the Khilafat Republic and established branches at many places.

K. Madhavan Nair, u. Gopal Menon, Yakub Hasan and P. Moidan koya
He was a supporter of Khilafat leaders and non-cooperation movement. He was arrested in February 1921.

Muhammad usman
He was one of the Khilafat agitators, organized volunteer groups and trade unions in Calcutta. Swami Vishwanand (supported by Marjari mine owner Ramjas Agarwal) and Swami Darshanananda organized coal miners of the Raniganj-Jharia belt for the non-cooperation movement.

Kishan Singh and Mota Singh
He called for agitations without revenue and led the 'Babbar Akali' group that emerged as dissidents of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in Jullundur and Hoshiarpur in 1921.

Jairamdas daulataram
He was a close aide of Gandhi and promoted the non-cooperation movement.

Swami Govindanand
He was a supporter of Gandhi, he was accused of treason in May 1921.

FAQ's related to Khilafat and Non Cooperative Movements

Q) Who launched Khilafat Movement and why was the movement launched?

A) In 1919 AD, led by Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali (popularly known as Ali brothers), Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Hasrat Mohani and some others, Khilafat movement was launched to protest against the injustice done to Turkey by Britain. Turkey participated in the First World War against Britain. Britain did injustice to Turkey, which was one of the defeated countries.

Q) Who launched Non-Cooperation Movement and why was the movement launched?

A) The Non-Cooperation Movement was launched in August 1920 by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It was the first nationwide mass movement launched to oppose British rule in India through non-violent means.