The emperor of Turkey was also the religious head of Islam as a Caliph. After the First World War, the British liquidated Khilafat and this was a big jolt to the Muslim world, which rotated round the religious axis. Muslim power had ceased to exist elsewhere in the world but under the patronage of the British and due to acquiescence of the Hindus, Muslims were in a position to assert themselves in India. Religious fundamentalists like Ali brothers - Mohammed and Shoukat, Hasrat Mohani, with the patronage of Gandhiji and the Congress started a movement for the restoration of the Khilafat. This led to the creation of new wave of unrest in the country, which had no impact on the Turkish polity but changed the history of India.

The Khilafat movement began in 1919 and 27th October was observed as Khilafat Day. The first Khilafat conference was held at Delhi on 23rd November 1919 and was attended by Gandhiji. In a bid to get Hindus to support Khilafat a large number of Hindu leaders had been invited to this conference. In this conference Gandhiji advised the Muslim leaders to start non-cooperation with the British to force them to re-establish Khilafat. His message to the Hindus was, "We talk of Hindu-Muslim unity. What are these utterances worth if at a time when Muslims are in distress, we Hindus try to save our skin? Some say that Hindus should offer conditional help to the Muslims but unconditional help alone is the real help."

The second Khilafat conference was held at Allahabad on 3rd June 1920. A joint meeting of Hindus and Muslims held on that occasion was attended by Motilal Nehru, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Annie Besant but none of them supported the movement. Gandhiji, however, not only supported it but took over the leadership. On 9th June the working committee was elected and had Gandhiji as the sole Hindu member. A communication was addressed to the Viceroy within a fortnight after this meeting declaring that if a favourable decision on the Khilafat issue was not taken by 1st August 1920, a movement will be launched. On 1st August, Gandhiji himself served on the government a notice of the proposed movement and between 1st and 31st August he toured throughout the country with Ali brothers. 

In commenting upon this tour, the then prestigious periodical "Modern Review" wrote : "Reading between the lines of their speeches, it is not difficult to see that with one of them the sad plight of the Khilafat in distant Turkey is the central fact, while with the other attainment of Swaraj here in India is the object in view." Describing this report in "Young India" as cruelest cut Gandhiji wrote : "I claim that with us both the Khilafat is the central fact, with Maulana Mohammed Ali because it is his religion, with me because, in laying down my life for the Khilafat, I ensure safety of the cow, that is my religion, from the Musalman knife." It must be noted that in the Nagpur session of the Congress, Gandhiji had prevented the issue of cow-slaughter from being raised and had advised the Hindus to assist the Muslims in the Khilafat movement selflessly and without any quid pro quo.

The agitation was launched with effect from 1st September 1920. The Congress session was held at Calcutta four days later and adopted the resolution moved by Gandhiji and non-cooperation against the government was launched. At the behest of Maulana Shoukat Ali, Gandhiji himself had drafted this resolution during the journey and it was passed with 1886 votes in favour and 884 votes against it. Dr. B.R.Ambedkar has mentioned in his book "Thoughts on Pakistan" that "taxi drivers of Calcutta were enrolled as delegates". Along with the non-cooperation movement, Calcutta Congress adopted resolutions on atrocities in Punjab and shortcomings in the Reforms Act. Views of Annie Besant in this context are, "This must be noted that in March 1920, Gandhi had refused to associate any other questions than Khilafat with non-cooperation movement. Later he observed that Hindus are not being attracted towards the Khilafat issuue. So, in the meeting of All India Congress Committee Punjab atrocities and shortcomings in the Reforms Act in the causes of non-cooperation movement were included."

Many Hindu leaders participated in the Khilafat movement. Lokmanya Tilak had supported the movement in a public statement. Lala Lajpat Rai, speaking in his Presidential address at the Nagpur session of the Congress, which passed the resolution adopting non-cooperation agitation for Khilafat said, "Hindu-Muslim Unity has heralded a new dawn in India's history. Disowning the moment which comes but once in a century would be foolish as well as shortsighted." Even religious leaders like Swami Shraddhanand and the Shankaracharya of Puri supported the movement.

In spite of all this, Hindu leaders did not wholeheartedly participate in this movement. In a surcharged atmosphere Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya and Dr. Munje raised a dissenting voice. Dr. B.R.Ambedkar's views on the issue were, "The Mohammedans started the Khilafat movement in 1919. The objective of the movement was two-fold; to preserve the Khilafat and to maintain the integrity of the Turkish Empire. Both these objectives were unsupportable. The Khilafat could not be saved simply because the Turks, in whose interest this agitation was carried on, did not want the Sultan. They wanted a republic and it was quite unjustifiable to compel the Turks to keep Turkey a monarchy when they wanted to convert it into a republic. It was not open to insist upon the integrity of the Turkish empire because it meant the perpetual subjection of the different nationalities to the Turkish rule and particularly of the Arabs, especially when it was agreed on all hands that the doctrine of self-determination should be made the basis of peace settlement." 

Another important person who opposed the introduction of the extra-territorial problem of Khilafat into Indian politics and tendered his resignation from the Congress on this ground was Bar. Jinnah. Although when Jinnah presided over the Nagpur session of the Muslim League held towards the end of 1920, he mentioned Khilafat from a purely religious angle. He observed, "From purely Muslim angle for us Khilafat is a question of life and death. I declare that Muslims will not take rest until they solve this question."

At the very beginning of Khilafat movement, Ali brothers declared that India under the British rule is Dar-ul-Harab i.e. a theatre of war for the Muslims, as a result of which thousands of Muslims committed Hijrat and migrated to Afghanistan. This move was blessed by Gandhiji who always blessed every move of the Ali brothers. They invited the Amir of Afghanistan to convert this Dar-ul-Harab into Dar-ul-Islam and Gandhiji supported this move also.

As soon as the British declared war on the Amir of Afghanistan, Mohammed Ali started issuing directions to Indian Muslims. In the All India Khilafat conference held at Karachi in August 1921, a resolution was adopted that "British service by any Muslim under the present circumstances is against the religious edicts". When he was proceeded against in the court of justice at Karachi for sedition, he pleaded innocence and took shelter under the edicts of Quran. He said that he could be pronounced guilty if and only if he had strayed from the path ordained by Quran. He referred to the Ayats of Quran and discussed briefly about Dar-ul-Harab and Dar-ul-Islam. He re-emphasized his view that any land that does not belong to Muslims is a theatre of war and Quran has directed Muslims to commit Hijrat or Jehad.

At the Khilafat Conference at Nagpur, the Ayats of Quran recited by the Maulanas contained frequent references to Jehad and killing of the Kafirs. When Swami Shraddhanand pointed out this to Gandhiji, the latter smiled and said, "They are alluding to the British Bureaucracy." Swamiji observed that it was all subversive of the idea of non-violence and when the reversion of feeling came the Mohammedan Maulanas would not refrain from using these verses against the Hindus. 

Swamiji's fears proved to be correct when in August 1921, Moplahs started armed aggression against Hindus in Malabar and declared that the Dar-ul-Harab had been converted into Dar-ul-Islam. The Moplahs are a band of fanatic Muslims who have descended from the Arabs who settled in the Malabar Coast in about the 8th or 9th century A.D. and married mostly Indian wives. They had over the years acquired an unenviable notoriety for crimes perpetuated under the impulse of religious frenzy. Government property was destroyed. Europeans who did not succeed in escaping were murdered. A certain Ali Musliar was proclaimed Raja, Khilafat flags were flown, Ernad and Walluvanad were declared Khilafat kingdoms. The main brunt of the Moplah ferocity was borne, not by the government but by the Hindus were constituted the majority of the population. Massacres, forcible conversions, desecration of temples, foul outrages upon woman were perpetuated freely. To those who appealed to the Moplahs in the name of Gandhi they said, “Gandhi is a kafir, how can he be our leader?” Said Mrs Annie Besant, “Malabar has taught what Islamic rule means and we do not want to see another specimen of Khilafat Raj in India”.

Gandhiji brushed the whole thing away by maintaining that “brave God-fearing Moplahs who were fighting for what they considered as religion, and in a manner, which they considered as religious”. When a resolution condemning the Moplahs for their atrocities against the Hindus was brought before the subjects committee of Congress session, several amendments were proposed to water down the resolution. But even such a modest resolution was unacceptable to the Muslims. Maulana Hasrat Mohani was then known as a staunch nationalist but he, too, opposed the condemnation of Moplahs. He pleaded, "The Moplah country no longer remained Dar-ul-Aman but became Dar-ul-Harab and they suspected the Hindus of collusion with the British enemies of the Moplahs. Therefore, the Moplahs were right in presenting the Quran or sword to the Hindus. And if the Hindus became Mussalmans to save themselves from death, it was a voluntary change of faith and not forcible conversion." At the annual session of the Khilafat Conference in 1923, Shaukat Ali, President of the session praised the Moplahs while conceding some Hindus had suffered at their hands, he said the while chapter was a closed book since they had a duty to the brave Moplahs. He announced that he and his brother Muhammad Ali would provide for the maintenance of one Moplah orphan.

Five years after the beginning of the Khilafat movement, in 1924 the post of Caliphate was abolished by the Turks themselves without creating a stir in the Muslim world. Muslim historian Prof I H Qureshi admits that the claims of the Sultan of Turkey as the supreme religious authority of the Muslim world had no practical influence outside the Ottoman Empire. He adds “But now the Indian Muslims had lost their own liberty, they had reason to feel a strong emotional attachment to a Caliph whom they could claim as their own sovereign, even though in a nominal and religious sense. Indeed before the First World War, prayers for the Turkish Sultan had come to be included in the Friday prayers of Indian mosques”.

The Hindu-Muslim unity brought about by Gandhi in 1920-21 was artificial in character and did not produce any real change of heart. It was based on common hatred for the British, for different reasons though, by the Muslims on account of the treatment meted out to the Caliphate, by the Hindus for Swaraj. The so-called Nationalists Muslims who had joined Gandhiji in 1921 were really Pan-Islamists who merely exploited Gandhi for securing redress of the Khilafat wrong. They fought the British with the help of the Hindus and as soon as the Khilafat agitation came to an end, they  turned against the Hindus. For the Muslims, both the British and the Hindus were Kafirs.

Gandhiji and the Congress brought a great calamity on India by backing the Khilafat movement. The most blood thirsty era of modern times commenced with this movement. It did not succeed in re-establishing Khilafat but started a process of unimaginable destruction in India. The Khilafat movement brought to the forefront the concept of Dar-ul-Harab and Dar-ul-Islam with the approval and backing of Gandhiji and the Congress. This Islamic ideology did not die with the Khilafat; on the contrary it was encouraged by Mahatma Gandhi and grew and blossomed with the creation of Pakistan. The seeds of separatism and partition were sown way back in 1919. The very ideology which Gandhiji encouraged the Muslims to follow against the British, were also applied against him and the Hindus. At the time of his election to the presidentship of Congress in 1923, Mohammed Ali had compared Gandhiji respectfully with Jesus Christ. However, after a year, expressing his views as a Muslim he had said, "Howsoever unblemished is the character of Mahatma Gandhi, from a religious perspective he should appear to me inferior as compared to a characterless Muslim."  

Gandhiji, the messiah of non-violence, failed to see violence in the concept and practice of Jehad. He failed to condemn the "the brave and god-fearing Moplahs...." This marked the beginning of the biggest curse of Indian politics which plagues Indian polity even today - the policy of appeasement of the minorities. The Hindus who suffered at the hands of the Moplahs could not expect any support - financial, political or moral from the Congress or its Hindu leaders. On the contrary the Moplahs were praised for their bravery and also got ample aid from the Muslim leaders. The foundation of the perpetual tendency of the Congress to tone down the atrocities committed by the Muslims and to blow out of proportion the stray incidents of oppression of Muslims by the Hindus, was laid down in the aftermath of Moplah rebellion.

Thus India paid a heavy price for taking up an extra-territorial issue which was neither relevant to the Indians nor to any other principality in the world.