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Dr. Kaustubh Aryavanshi: Naming the building of Johar University in Rampur, which was built on the foundation of fear and corruption, is also like honoring the mistake of history which changed the geography of the country. Very few people in the young generation would be aware that Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, in whose name this university was built, who has been described in history books as a great freedom fighter, journalist, poet and educationist, had laid the foundation for the partition of the country by including the Turkish Khilafat movement in India’s freedom struggle.
Born on 10 December 1878 in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, the role of Maulana Jauhar and his brother Maulana Shaukat Ali (Ali brothers) in the history of the Khilafat movement and the Indian freedom struggle gives rise to many questions. When the freedom struggle was at its peak, the Khilafat movement was linked with the non-cooperation movement and its main objective was said to be to strengthen Hindu-Muslim unity and to put pressure on the British government. However, historical facts make it clear that mixing this religious movement with the national freedom struggle caused serious and far-reaching losses to the country and the freedom movement.
Infiltration of religion in national politics
This movement was carried out in India during the years 1919-1924. After the First World War, the British had weakened the power of the Turkish Sultan (Caliph) and his empire. Like Muslims around the world, Indian Muslims also wanted to preserve the post of Caliph. Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar and his brother Maulana Shaukat Ali brought this Khilafat movement to India and started leading it. Whereas, it is well known that the basic objective of the Khilafat movement was to protect the position and empire of the Caliphate (spiritual head of Islam) of Turkey, which was purely a religious and international Muslim issue. When this religious issue was brought to the center of the Indian freedom struggle, its biggest damage came in the form of deep infiltration of religion into Indian politics. This led to the independence movement, which had hitherto focused largely on secular and national issues (such as the Rowlatt Act, the Salt Act, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Swaraj), began to split along religious lines.
Beginning of appeasement politics
Mahatma Gandhi and senior Congress leaders openly supported the Khilafat movement so that Indian Muslims could join the mainstream of the national movement, but its long-term consequences were controversial. This promoted a culture of ‘appeasement’ in Indian politics, especially in the Congress Party. The tradition of giving prominence to religious issues on the national stage for political gains, which later influenced the politics of the country. The seeds of Muslim appeasement were so deeply ingrained in Congress that till date the party has not been able to come out of it. Later, regional parties, especially Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal, carried forward this tradition for political gains and grabbed the Muslim vote bank from Congress.
Moplah insurgency and communal violence
When excitement increased during the Khilafat movement, it led to many regional and violent consequences, which had a negative impact on nationalism. The biggest example of this is the Moplah rebellion of 1921 in Kerala, which originally started as a Khilafat and peasant movement, but soon turned into violent communal riots in which Hindus were targeted. This incident created a deep gap of distrust between the two communities.
Disorientation and end in non-cooperation movement
With the unification of the Khilafat and non-cooperation movements, the focus of the movement shifted from solely achieving independence against British rule to the restoration of the Turkish Caliphate. When Gandhiji withdrew the non-cooperation movement after the Chauri-Chaura incident in 1922, the Khilafat movement in India also started weakening. However, in 1924, Türkiye’s modern leader Mustafa Kemal Pasha himself abolished the post of Caliph in Türkiye. The result was that the ‘big objective’ for which Indian Muslims were brought to the front, died in Turkey itself. The Indian independence movement did not get any diplomatic or political benefit from the Khilafat Movement, except that a deep gulf of hatred was born between Hindus and Muslims.
eventual partition of the country
The aim of the Khilafat movement was never to secure the independence of India but to protect the position of the Caliphate of Turkey. That is why many historians believed that linking the Indian independence movement with the religious-political issue of another country was a serious mistake. During the independence movement, the efforts of Mohammad Ali Jinnah to become a universally accepted leader of the Muslims suffered a major setback due to the Khilafat movement. That is why he criticized Gandhiji’s decision. The differences increased so much that Jinnah started to distance himself from Congress and prepare his own ground. The political developments that followed caused damage to the communal fabric of India, which ultimately prepared the ground for the two-nation theory and partition of the country.
Why a university in the name of Jauhar?
When the pages of history are testifying to a wrong decision, the question becomes inevitable that how appropriate was it to establish a university in Rampur in the name of Maulana Jauhar, who imposed a foreign movement on India just because he was a Muslim? The answer is nothing but the radical thinking of SP leader Azam Khan. Had this not been the case, he would have definitely considered the names of Abul Kalam Azad, Shaheed Abdul Hameed or former President Bharat Ratna Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam while naming the university.