Question

Why was the Khilafat movement started?
A) To protest against the injustice done to Egypt
B) To protest against the injustice done to Arabia
C) To protest against the injustice done to Persia
D) To protest against the injustice done to Turkey

Answer 1

Hint: In India, the brothers Shaukat and Muhammad Ali started a movement in support of the caliphate. The leaders joined Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation campaign for Indian independence, promising Gandhi nonviolence in exchange for his support for the Khilafat movement.

Complete answer:
Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali founded the Khilafat movement. Turkey was destroyed by the British in the First World War, and the Ottoman Empire was dismantled. Turkey's sultan was stripped of all power. The caliph was regarded as the spiritual leader of Muslims. It was thought that any weakening of the caliph's position would have an effect on the Muslim position. As a result, India's Muslim community began the Khilafat movement.

In the years following World War I, Indian Muslims allied with Indian nationalism to form the Khilafat movement (1919-1924). Its aim was to put pressure on the British government to keep the Ottoman Sultan's rule as Caliph of Islam after the Ottoman Empire disintegrated at the end of the war. Hence, when we look into each option, we see that the movement was not started to protest against the injustice done to Egypt, Arabia and Persia. But it was started by the Indian Muslims to fight for right of people in Turkey.

Hence, the correct option is (D) To protest against the injustice done to Turkey.

Note: The Khilafat campaign persisted as Muslims protested the British government's involvement in the First World War against Turkey. The revolution disappeared, when Turkey's new emperor, Kemal Attaturk, repealed the Khilafat and expelled the Khalifa, Muhammad VI, in 1924.