The Missing Pages of the Khalifat Movement

An urgent need for a successor was felt immediately after Prophet Muhammad’s demise. A group of seniors gathered in Medina and declared Abu Bakr, the father-in-law of Prophet as the first caliph. He was the father of the Prophet’s wife, Ayesha. Simultaneously a small fraction of people—the precursors of the group who later were known as the Shiah, stood for Ali’s claim to the Khalifate. He was both the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet. He was the husband of Fatima who was the daughter of Prophet Muhammad and Khadiza. Later, during the Umayyad period (circa 661–750), there was a growing emphasis to prove a genealogy that proved one to be a closer descendent of Prophet than the other, as that was an imperative condition for legitimate leadership. A similar trend was even observed in 17th century Europe where for a fee one could create a genealogy that would prove one to be a closer descendent of Adam. Although the sovereignty of the first four caliphs—Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali were marred by political mayhem, civil war, and assassination. Around circa 630 Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq were conquered, Egypt was taken from Byzantine control in circa 645, and subsequently, frequent raids were launched into North Africa, Armenia, and Persia by Rashidun caliphate. The followers of all four Rashidun caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali) later became the majority Sunni sect. The grandsons of the Prophet had to pay with their lives in the battle for righteous succession to the throne. Hazarat Ayesha also had remained at the loggerheads with other relatives in this war or as called Jung- e Jamal. The war ended with the death of almost all Sahabis. Sahabis were those who had themselves witnessed the presence of Prophet Mohammad.

They knew the charisma of this new cult. The Khalifate- was the omnipotent sovereign, the supreme political, and the spiritual head. He had the abundant powers to do everything, anything under the sun as per his whims and fancy. Therewithal he enjoyed unbounded, unbarred, unrestrained more so unquestionable power due to the blind followership and unparalleled respect from all his subjects. The Khalif obliged the Aamirs, Ulemas, and common people by accepting tributes and forms such as gold, gems, jewellery, slaves, pagan women (women of other religions) for their harams. The enticement, power, and flamboyance arising from this post, triggered a bloodied conflict among competing claimants for succession to the throne of Khalifa. After centuries of war marred with bloodshed, tribulations, and adversaries, the 18th century, witnessed Khalifa of Turkey- The Ottoman Empire.

One needs to observe that how none of the Mughal invaders in India starting from Babur, Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar to Mu?? al-D?n Muhammad or Aurangzeb ever paid any tribute to any of the Khalifa, yet surprisingly, the left coterie never calls these rulers as anti-Islamic.

Later during the period of British colonial history, the last Ottoman dynast, the Osmanian Khalif of Turkey was spoiled by unabated financial inflow from Britain and was left indebted to the level of bankruptcy. The extravagant lifestyle of the Khalif, Aamirs and Ulemas which included the imperial Harem filled with women, slaves and concubines blinded the rulers to the point of self-decimation. A systematically planned battle against voluptuary, sybarite khalif was also gaining sympathy from hardcore Islamic middle east nations as the concept of Khalif was never in practice in recent centuries. Arab world including Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Yemen had rejected the idea of Khalifa. These Arab nations were dominated by sharifs (Ashrafi Muslims). Even the citizens of Turkey, the Young Turks were over-enthusiastic to get rid of these rulers. However, the dynasty was on the verge of breakdown which did not trigger much fuss in the nearby lands but 6000 kilometers far from this epicenter, the ill fortune of Khalif caused a frenzy in the local Indian Muslims.

Lies, Damned Lies and Wordplay

“Names, once they are in common use, quickly become mere sounds, their etymology being buried, like so many of the earth’s marvels, beneath the dust of habit”, as Rushdie would lament. Today after a century, despite gallons of water which have flown in Ganga, what has been buried beneath the dust of habit and an unchanged narrative is the etymology of the word Khilafat or more appositely Khalifate. Only by a twist of the tongue, the entire future, demography, politics, and fate of crores of citizens of a nation were changed forever. This is the Power of vocabulary gimmick.

The Khilafat movement, a pan-Islamic movement that ignited the spirit of Dar-ul-Islam among Muslims of Bharat and was initiated with the only intention to salvage the Ottoman Khalif as a symbol of unity among Indian Muslims. The false narrative of affinity resulted in igniting the communal brotherhood in the Muslims of Bharat and the bloodshed of Hindus in India. On August 1, 1920, the Khilafat committee of India initiated a movement against the western powers to oppose the sanctions placed on The Ottoman Sultan- Abdul Hamid II. He was considered the leader of Sunni Muslims of the world, though the powers could sparingly be used, yet he was symbolically the supreme religious and political leader. This Khalifate Aandolan, led by brothers Shaukat and Mu?ammad ?Al? and by Abul Kalam Azad had nothing to do with Indian National Movement or even with India. Irony died a thousand deaths when this movement was concocted and merged with The Non-Cooperation Movement- The Asahyog Aandolan.

Now here lies the paradox, willingly or inadvertently, congress was agitating for the perpetuation of slavery for other nations whereas it was fighting for independence in India. Interestingly, Hindu leaders of congress were in support of this pan Islamic ruler – The Khalifa. However, the congress at that time did a wordplay, to call Khalifate Aandolan as Khilafat Andolan. While the Congress made a successful attempt to clothe this movement as a progressive, secular, nationalist movement which was an expression of solidarity with their fellow Muslims citizens but the initiators of the Khilafat movement never had even an iota of confusion about the motive of the movement which none other than pan Islamic unity on the strict lines of Darl-ul-Islam. Whether Ali Brothers, Syed Ahmed, Allama Iqbal, or Maulana Abul Kalam Azad they never minced their words and openly preached about ummah (pan Islamic brotherhood).

However, the merger of the Non-Cooperation Movement with Khilafat Movement by Mahatama Gandhi and subsequent agreement to cleverly call it Khilafat or Non- Cooperation Movement gained velocity by the kinetic force of Muslims who originally were protesting against Brits but for altogether different reasons and purposes as mentioned above. Such a merger also established the initiators of this movement, such as Ali Brothers and Abul Kalam Azad, ironically as the Freedom Fighters in the history of “Indian Nationalism”.

The concept of history plays a fundamental role in human thought. This thought was systematically manipulated by the then political establishment to legitimize their political chicanery, follies, frauds, fanaticism as justified. The academic cleansing not only shoe-horned Indian history into a Christo-Islamic framework thereby ostracizing academics but subconsciously manipulated the Indians about incidents which can be regarded as the most barbaric events in the history of mankind.

An offshoot of the Khilafat Movement was 1921 Malabar Moplah rebellion which is often discoursed as a peasant uprising was nothing short of a communal pogrom directed, an anti-Hindu genocide. The etymology of Moplah is from Ma-pila which means son in law. In the 8th-9th centuries, Kerala had trade links with Arabs and even then, many Malabar Hindus were converted into Islam. Some Arab Muslims settled in India and married to Hindu women. Their generations were called Moplah.

A master plan that was implemented in this massacre hasn’t changed much and was observed in the recent days in Malda, Asansol, Gopal Ganj, or Kashmir in 1990, the Direct-Action Day of Bengal in 1946 or more recently in Bengaluru and in the Shahin Bagh- 2020 Delhi Riots. A standardised pattern is vivid in all these incidents.

1. Isolate the police

2. Impede any possible backup of defence.

3. Speedily attack from many directions.

4. Ensure maximum damage.

5. Immediately play the victim card and scream slogans like Bhai-Bhai

6. Ensure that the concurring politicians, media groups, NGOs are fielded well in time to justify and defend their act through concocted stories.

“Shaukat Ali had visited Malegaon to deliver a lecture on the Khalifate Andolan. He instigated the local Muslims in such a way that they immediately put off the garb of Gandhi’s non-violence and demanded nothing below the Islamic supremacy over Hindus and hence called for Jihad. Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali were quite clear and unrepentant about their approach, they told the magistrate that whatever they are doing is legitimate as per their religion, and hence they were compelled to commit certain acts. Any law which will prohibit them from doing those acts will have no validity and which ipso facto meant that a Muslim can only be judged by the doctrine of the Koran and nothing else. The goalmouth of the brothers was Swaraj, similar to Gandhi, nonetheless for an Islamic India.

This aphorism of Ali Brothers awakened the sleeping ghosts, there were recorded incidences wherein the local Maulanas had been reported to compete with each other for a particular Hindu woman in a village or fighting with each other for capturing Maal e Ganimat or looting the wealth of the Kafirs. In Malabar, the Moplahs foisted unilateral conditions on Nairs, Brahmins, and Thiyyas that; Hindu Muslim Brotherhood would mean either conversion to Islam or death. Other conditions were that their (Hindu) women shall be their property; that Hindus shall bear the entire cost of Khalifate Andolan as the British military cantonment had been established in this area on the insistence of Hindus so only Hindus will have to bear all its consequences; Hindu, being an inferior race had no right to chant any slogan like Swarajya in place of Khalifate and so on. Of course, the Hindus of Malabar could never understand the basic reason for the wrath of Moplhas, even to date no one knows why their families were put to hell fires. All police stations were captured and were set ablaze in the very beginning, “systematic” anarchy was planned, Maulanas became the self-styled collectors, magistrates, inspectors of these areas. British administration allegedly was complicit in this plan as no backup security procedure was executed for days together.”

The Moplah genocide of Hindus is known as the first effort of ethnic cleansing in recent history. These missing pages were buried by the successive education minister of India starting from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad followed by Humayun Kabir, M C Chhagla, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, self-proclaimed Marxist Saiyid Nurul Hasan, VKRV Rao, and so on. The textbooks filled with the pages of gratitude to the magnanimity of Islamic rule were widely discussed but the relentless conversions, rapes of Hindu women, loot, Jazia were conveniently hidden and even worse “academically justified”. Sir C S Nair, former president of the Indian National Congress, mentions in his “Gandhi and Anarchy” that “Hundreds of temples were desecrated and set on fire by the zealots. “For sheer brutality on women, I do not remember anything in history to match the Malabar rebellion. It broke out about the 20th of August. Even by the 6th of September, the results were dreadful. The atrocities committed more particularly on women are so horrible and unmentionable that I do not propose to refer them in this book.…but I would point out…two other forms of torture…as having been resorted to in the case of men—flaying alive, and making them dig their graves before their slaughter.

The Former President of Indian National Congress, Annie Beasant emphatically narrated in New India the plight of Malabar Hindus at the hands of Moplahs.

About two weeks later, on 24 December 1921, the Congress convened for the Ahmedabad Session, wherein it officially appointed Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi as the sole executive authority of the Congress. The learned scholar Sandeep Balakrishna elaborately discusses C Sankaran Nair’s comments on this issue. He describes that Gandhi wrote article after article, delivered a lecture after a lecture to support the Ali brothers for their cause of Ummah. Gandhi demanded that Palestine should also be included in the Khalifate of Turkey. He further brings forth what Gandhi articulated in a five-point doctrine for Hindus. (1). Hindus must not emphasize upon the prohibition of cow slaughter. (2). Hindus should not use Hindi and prefer Urdu, Persian or Hindustani language. (3). No religious procession should be organized in front of mosques as this can offend them. (4). No Bhajans and Kirtans should be sung as this can hurt Muslim’s sentiments. (5). If Muslims attack Hindus, even unprovoked, Hindus should show complete restraint and must not retaliate. Means, no matter how extreme, how outrageous they may be, Hindus should gladly submit to their demands.

1766 to 1792 was the era of the military invasion of Malabar (North Kerala). Hyder Ali’s (father of Tipu Sultan) mission of Islamic expansionism in Malabar was left unaccomplished during his lifetime. Hyder with the aid of Ali Raja and other Moplah followers killed and forcibly converted Hindus, destroyed numerous Hindu temples and brutally massacred those who did not convert as documented in the Malabar Manual by William Logan.

Tipu Sultan was more inhumane than his father. During this Jihadi movement from 1783 to 1791 thousands of Thiyyas, Nairs and Brahmins had fled Malabar, leaving behind their entire wealth, and sought refuge in Travancore State. Noted historian, Dr. M. Gangadharan writes “there is enough evidence that a few members of Zamorin family and many Nairs were forcibly circumcised and converted into Muhammadan faith as well as compelled to eat beef.” The sufferings of Hindus during the horrendous regime of Tipu were described in detail in many historical manuals preserved in the palaces of Zamorian & Kottayam, Palghat fort, and the office of East India Company. This report was prepared explicitly for the internal consumption of the British authorities and wasn’t made public. Even though Tipu had defeated the British in various battles, brutally killed their officers, and damaged their properties yet the British remained complacent as they were more worried about their common enemy, “Hindus”. Britishers in any case were not into discrediting or defaming Tipu Sultan.

One of the noted Congressman of pre-independence days, K. Madhava Nair, mentions in his book Malabar Kalapam (Mappila outrage): “The communal Mappila outrage of 1921 in Malabar could be easily traced to the forcible mass conversion and related Islamic atrocities of Tipu Sultan during his cruel military regime … It is doubtful whether the Hindus of Kerala had ever suffered so much devastation and atrocities since the reclamation of Kerala by the mythological Lord Parasurama in a previous Era. Many thousands of Hindus were forcibly converted into Muhammadan faith.” While the same Congressman now minces his own words while saying that Tipu had not differentiated between Hindus and Muslims in Mysore. Nevertheless, even the contemporary liberal lobby never dared discuss the previous testaments laid down by the same leader describing Tipu as a frenzied Muslim chauvinist. An excerpt from a Letter from Nana Phadnis to Mahadji Scindia on 5 September 1784- What Exactly Happened at Sringeri Math in April 1791? mentions that in Kozhikode alone where there were around 7000 Namboodiri Brahmin houses, more than 2000 houses were devastated by Tipu alone. Sultan did not spare even the children and women. Menfolk had to escape into the forests and the neighbouring principalities. All this substantially altered the local demography by manifold increasing the Mappilas population by death and conversion of Nairs and Brahmins into Islam. Malabar Manual by William Logan (p. 449-451) also mentions –

Tipu’s letter to Afgan Zaman Shah evidently speaks how he invited him to attack India, conquer and bring it under the Khalifa. In precis, Tipu was a staunch supporter of Khalifa and used to send huge annual tributes for seeking his blessings. Nonetheless, the mission of Malabar could still not be accomplished.

The psychological ailment which is fundamentally responsible for the archetypical Malabar Massacre results from master race syndrome, from which even Hitler was suffering. The fascination with the foreign lineage instead of affinity with the indigenous roots, the romanticization about the mythical stories of their magnanimous past viz. the morbid feelings of present victimhood and hence the quest to reclaim such power back is based on the falsified theory of “theological supremacism”.

The indoctrination of unfounded fear in the common consciousness of the Muslim community by the radical religious leaders caused collective injury to the community. This utopian dream was further capitalized by the British government and successive governments of “free India”, who further insinuated the colonial construct in the minds of Indian Muslims that they were the real claimants to rule over India.

This false sense of religious stratification or dualism was new to the Indian civilization which always socialized its generations on the Vedantic philosophy of non-dualism. Therefore, even to date, it becomes unfathomable for many Indians to believe the historic religious massacres based on the binary notion of theological supremacy in India. On the contrary, those like Hedgewar, Savarkar who highlighted such religious adulterations, and pinpointed such dualism were ironically tagged communal by the noted “historians” and great “Mahatamas”. Consequently, while the common consciousness of the Muslim community was radicalized by their own leaders on the notion of religious dualism, the “moderate Hindu leaders” distorted the common consciousness of Hindus mainstreaming The Religious Theology of Islam as secular discourse and the vice versa (Hindu Identity) as communal. The baton was further passed on to the government of independent India which made “Islamic Identity” as the new shibboleth which further widened the fault lines between the Hindus and the Muslims eventually harming the common members of both the community.

Such psychological conditioning has resulted in the bloodshed of Hindus, the monolithic identity of Muslims, and more importantly casualty of truth. The Truth in fact remains that Indian Muslims are more empowered than any Muslim in any other Islamic Nations and “equally” empowered as all fellow Indians, dismissing any kind of supremacy which certainly upsets a few. Their right from full enfranchisement, employment, socio-economic equity, the cultural and educational expression is guaranteed in the constitution which itself is a manifestation of the civilizational character of India.

These historical facts and references become pertinent to mention as they highlight that the ultimate aim of Umma has remained unchanged since centuries from Tipu Sultan to Burhan Wani. The archetypical model of Jihad has remained unchanged, what has changed is only the epicenter of this Jihad. It was Malabar a hundred years ago, Dhaka 80 years ago, Kashmir 30 years ago, Shahin Bagh, Bengaluru now, and tomorrow it may be in Coonoor, Asansol, Malda, or Mewat. What ironically also remains unchanged are those “who confused” and “those who choose to remain confused”.