E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timesin addition to being a temporal ruler, was the Caliph or religious head of allIslam.Pan-Islamism has never been a mass movement in India or elsewhere. The fateof the Caliph nevertheless agitated the Moslems in India. The Moslem leaders,notably Mohamed and Shaukat Ali, the brothers who were interned by theBritish during the war, Jinnah, Asaf Ali and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had hopedthat Indian interest in the Caliph would at least induce England to moderatethe peace terms imposed on Turkey. But when it became obvious that the Turkswould be shorn of their imperial possessions, and that the Sultan himself wouldbe deposed, concern for the Caliph, added to distaste for the British, produceda powerful Caliphate or, as it is always known in India, Khilafat movement.The Moslem conference in Delhi, in November 1919, which Gandhi attended,was a Khilafat meeting. Many Hindus were Present. This period was thehoneymoon of Hindu-Moslem Political friendship. The letter of invitation, whichreached Gandhi in Lahore, said cow protection as well as the Caliph would bediscussed. Gandhi demurred. He told the conference that if, in deference toHindu regard for the cow as a sacred animal, Mohammedans wanted to desistfrom slaughtering it they should do so irrespective of the Hindu attitudetowards the Khilafat question. Similarly, if Hindus believed they ought tosupport Moslems on behalf of the Caliph they should, but not in the expectationof a bargain on cow protection. The cow, therefore, was removed from theagenda.The conference debated what to do; resolutions condemning British harshnesstowards Turkey were not enough. A boycott of British textiles was suggested.But how could buyers distinguish British from other foreign textiles, and mightnot British goods be sold as Japanese or Italian or Belgian? Perhaps all importedcloth should be boycotted. Could India produce sufficient textiles to supply thedomestic market?Gandhi sat on the platform searching his mind for a plan of action. He waslooking for a programme and then for a word that would be alike a slogan and aperfect summary of that programme. Finally, he found it, and when he waswww.mkgandhi.org Page 212