Khilafat movement was launched with the purpose of pressurizing the British government to preserve the authority of the Ottoman Sultan as Caliph of Islam following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the war. All India Khilafat Committee was created at Lucknow by leaders like Muhammad Ali, Shaukat Ali, Maulana Azad, Hasrat Mohani and many others. It was also a period of Hindu-Muslim unity due to overlapping of Non-Cooperation and Khilafat movement.
The leaders of the Khilafat Movement joined hands with Indian National Congress for the upcoming Non-cooperation Movement. March 19, 1920, was observed as Khilafat Day and following that there was an all-party conference in June 1920 at Allahabad. The agenda of the Non-cooperation Movement was finalized.
Reasons for Khilafat agitation:
a. The caliph of Turkey was the temporal and spiritual leader of the Muslims all over the World. During the I world War the British had promised the the caliph would not be deprived of his powers and that the Turkey would not be partitioned. But after the war, the caliph was deprived of his powers.
b. The Khilafat Movement was launched as a measure of protest by the Muslims against the treatment meted out to Ottoman Turkey by the imperial powers.
c. The First World War had resulted in the defeat and disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.
d. There were rumours that a harsh peace treaty was to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor or the caliph who was also the spiritual head of the Muslims.
e. The Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919 to defend the powers of the caliph Muslim leaders Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali were at the forefront of this agitation that was eventually incorporated with the non-cooperation movement by Gandhi.
