Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- A note on spelling
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: the medieval legacy
- 2 The effects of British rule on Muslims before 1857
- 3 1857 and its aftermath
- 4 Muslims come to terms with British India as Muslims
- 5 Muslims move towards political community 1871–1901
- 6 Muslims acquire a constitutional identity and enter all-India politics
- 7 Religion enters politics 1910–24
- 8 The period of frustration 1924–35
- 9 The two partitions: of British India and of the Muslim community
- Maps
- A descriptive bibliography of works in European languages
- Glossary
- Index
8 - The period of frustration 1924–35
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- A note on spelling
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: the medieval legacy
- 2 The effects of British rule on Muslims before 1857
- 3 1857 and its aftermath
- 4 Muslims come to terms with British India as Muslims
- 5 Muslims move towards political community 1871–1901
- 6 Muslims acquire a constitutional identity and enter all-India politics
- 7 Religion enters politics 1910–24
- 8 The period of frustration 1924–35
- 9 The two partitions: of British India and of the Muslim community
- Maps
- A descriptive bibliography of works in European languages
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
The calling off of the non-co-operation campaign and the abolition of the caliphate by the Turkish National Assembly left Muslims politically ‘all dressed up and nowhere to go’. The Khilafat agitation had been conducted in the spirit of an apocalyptic and not of a political movement. So much energy and passion had been mobilised, and the upshot was that Muslims appeared not only rather foolish but also rather dangerous in the eyes of their Hindu fellow-countrymen; foolish for pursuing an ideal which other Muslims in the pure Muslim lands of Arabia and Asiatic Turkey did not share, and dangerous because it seemed they could only be actively enlisted for causes which had little to do with India and into which the majority of India's population could not enter. Apparently Muslims of India did not mind being ruled by the British as long as the British did not ill-treat the Turks; worse still, the refusal of many middle-class Muslims to resign from appointments in the public and education services, or to forgo titles and pensions, suggested that they did not mind British rule so long as the British did not ill-treat them. Muslims had hitched their wagon to the crescent of the caliphate and it had dragged them ‘up the garden path’.
The outlook for the Muslim comfortable classes, even for those who had shown little enthusiasm for the Khilafat movement, was uncertain. The era of politics in the darbar and on the commissioner's or collector's veranda was nearly over.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Muslims of British India , pp. 198 - 221Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1972