Mumbai marks 100th anniversary of Khilafat Movement

On Sunday, Mumbai marked 100 years of the Khilafat Movement, an international campaign to restore the post of the Caliph or Khalifa, which Mahatma Gandhi incorporated

On Sunday, Mumbai marked 100 years of the Khilafat Movement, an international campaign to restore the post of the Caliph or Khalifa, which Mahatma Gandhi incorporated into the freedom movement.

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To commemorate the event in 1919 when Gandhi led a procession on Eid-e-Milad, in keeping with tradition, this year a procession was held from the All India Khilafat Committee (AIKC) headquarters at Mazagaon to Haj House, Fort.

Politician Swami Agnivesh participated in the procession as the chief guest.

The Khilafat Movement, which continued till 1924, was an agitation started by Indian Muslims in 1919, to oppose the move by the British government to abolish the Ottoman Caliphate after the Turkish Empire was dissolved in the aftermath of World War I.

The Ottoman Sultan was considered to be the Caliph, or leader, of Islam.

Later, the Muslim leaders joined forces with Gandhi, who used the movement to bring Hindus and Muslims together for the freedom struggle. “The movement was started to oppose the move to abolish the Ottoman Empire because the community feared that they would lose access to Mecca and Madina. But eventually it brought people from various communities together,” said Farid Ahmed Khan, president, Urdu Caravan Mumbai, which promotes Urdu language and literature.

Khan added that it was the mother of freedom fighter Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar, after whom Mohammed Ali Road is named, and Shaukat Ali, who had insisted that the movement should continue as a freedom struggle.

In the run-up to the centenary celebrations, AIKC and Urdu Caravan organised a week-long event featuring a seminar, competition and shayri and poetry programmes.

Sarfraz Arzoo, acting chairman, AIKC, displayed pictures of the Ali family and the first procession from Khilafat House, originally Chhotani House in Masjid Bunder, to Haj House.

The Khilafat House office also contains a 100-year-old collection of minutes of meetings signed by several leaders of the movement, including MK Gandhi, C Rajagopalachari, and Maulvi Abdul Qazum.

Last year, the procession was led by Giani Harpreet Singhji, the jathedar (Sikh clergy leader) of Akal Takht.