Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements

In 1920, Gandhi tried something no Indian leader had risked before. He merged a Muslim religious protest with a Hindu-led freedom campaign. Together, they became India’s first true nationwide mass movement against British rule.

Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, photographed before 1931. With his brother Shaukat Ali, he led the Khilafat Movement and later worked alongside Gandhi in the Non-Cooperation campaign. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

MCQ Questions

Modern Indian History · ModHist0062

Khilafat & Non-Cooperation, 1919–1924

Gandhi’s first nationwide mass movement, and how it ended

1919

Rowlatt Act & Jallianwala Bagh

The repressive Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre fuel nationwide anger at British rule.

1919–1920

Khilafat Movement begins

The Ali brothers lead Indian Muslims protesting the Treaty of Sèvres, which threatens the Ottoman Caliph.

1920

Non-Cooperation Movement launched

Gandhi links the Khilafat cause to a new nationwide boycott of British goods, schools, courts and titles.

1920–1922

Millions join, for the first time

Hindus and Muslims mobilise together under shared leadership, well beyond the movement’s earlier urban base.

Feb 1922

Chauri Chaura incident

A mob burns a police station, killing 22 policemen and breaking the movement’s non-violent discipline.

1922

Gandhi suspends Non-Cooperation

Gandhi calls off the movement over the single incident, prioritising non-violent means over near-term gains.

1924

Ottoman Caliphate abolished

Turkey ends the Caliphate itself, removing the Khilafat cause’s original rationale.

📑 Contents

1The Roots of Two Movements
2Hindu-Muslim Unity, and Its Limits
3Test Yourself
4Chauri Chaura and the Movement’s End
5Previous Year Questions

✊ The Roots of Two Movements

1. The Rowlatt Act, 1919

Fact The Rowlatt Act (1919) let British authorities jail Indians without trial. It sparked protest across the country.

2. Jallianwala Bagh

Fact On 13 April 1919, British troops fired on an unarmed crowd at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar. Hundreds were killed.

3. The Treaty of Sèvres

Fact The Treaty of Sèvres (August 1920) broke up the defeated Ottoman Empire after World War I. It threatened to end the Ottoman Caliphate.

4. Why Indian Muslims cared

Context Indian Muslims saw the Ottoman Caliph as the symbolic head of the global Muslim community.

5. The Khilafat Movement

Fact The Khilafat Movement (1919–1924) protested this threat. It was led by the Ali brothers, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali. See ModHist0210 — The Ali Brothers.

6. Gandhi links the two causes

Fact Gandhi supported the Khilafat cause. He deliberately linked it to a new Non-Cooperation Movement, launched in 1920.

7. What Non-Cooperation called for

Method Non-Cooperation called on Indians to boycott British goods, schools, courts, and titles — withdrawing cooperation from colonial rule.

📘 Hindu-Muslim Unity, and Its Limits

1. A first-of-its-kind alliance

Fact The Khilafat-Non-Cooperation alliance was the first time Hindus and Muslims joined a mass movement under one shared leadership.

2. Millions mobilised, for the first time

Fact Millions took part, for the first time, well beyond the freedom struggle’s earlier, narrower urban base.

3. Gandhi’s own words

Quote Gandhi called this alliance a rare chance. He said such a moment “would not appear again within a hundred years.”

4. Strict non-violence, a break from the past

Method Gandhi’s strict insistence on non-violence set Non-Cooperation apart from earlier, more militant forms of resistance.

5. How deep did unity run?

Debate Some historians question how deep this unity really ran. They read it as a tactical alliance against a shared British target, not a lasting bond.

6. Why the debate matters

Analysis That debate matters because the alliance did not hold. Communal tensions rose again later in the 1920s, after the movement ended.

Test Yourself

🏆 Chauri Chaura and the Movement’s End

1. The attack, 4 February 1922

Fact On 4 February 1922, a mob at Chauri Chaura, in present-day Uttar Pradesh, attacked a local police station.

2. Casualties

Fact The mob set the station on fire. It killed 22 policemen and 3 civilians. See ModHist0207 — Bhagwan Ahir, the protest’s chief organiser.

3. Gandhi calls off the movement

Fact Gandhi called off Non-Cooperation on 12 February 1922, just eight days after the incident.

4. His stated reason

Reasoning He held that the killings broke the movement’s founding pledge of strict non-violence.

5. Means over ends

Analysis This decision showed Gandhi’s core conviction: the means mattered as much as the end, even at high political cost.

6. Congress leaders who disagreed

Fact Some Congress leaders, including Motilal Nehru and C. R. Das, opposed the sudden withdrawal. They felt the movement was close to a real breakthrough.

7. A disillusioning end

Debate Some historians argue the abrupt suspension left mobilised masses disillusioned, feeding communal tensions later in the 1920s.

8. The Khilafat cause fades

Fact The Khilafat cause itself weakened after Turkey abolished the Caliphate in 1924, under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

9. Gandhi’s rise to dominance

Legacy This phase established Gandhi as the Congress’s dominant mass leader, a position he held through most of the freedom struggle.

10. What came next

See also Gandhi’s next major mass campaign came in 1930. See ModHist0063 — Civil Disobedience and the Salt March. The freedom struggle’s final mass phase followed in 1942. See ModHist0288 — Quit India Movement, 1942.

📝 Previous Year Questions

UPSC Mains 2021, GS Paper I, Q12: Gandhi’s Constructive Programmes

Mains PYQ Asked to bring out Gandhi’s constructive programmes during the Non-Cooperation Movement and Civil Disobedience Movement.
View this Mains question →

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