Meera is preparing a school project on the years 1919 to 1922. In an old district report from 1921 she reads that students left government colleges, lawyers stayed away from the courts and mill workers went on strike. The report adds that in one hill district peasants refused to carry loads for colonial officials. Her teacher explains that Gandhiji had linked this campaign to a movement of Indian Muslims about the Ottoman Caliph, and that a biographer of Gandhiji later gave the campaign a famous description. The campaign ended suddenly after an incident in a village of the United Provinces in February 1922.
Who led the movement of Indian Muslims that Gandhiji linked with this campaign?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali
Option (1) Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan — Incorrect. Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan were later leaders of the Muslim League; they did not lead the Khilafat Movement.
Option (2) Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Muhammad Iqbal — Incorrect. Sayyid Ahmad Khan was a nineteenth-century reformer and Iqbal a poet-thinker; neither led the Khilafat Movement.
Option (3) Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai — Incorrect. Abdul Ghaffar Khan led the Khudai Khidmatgars of the Frontier and Kidwai was a Congress leader; neither led the Khilafat Movement.
Option (4) Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali — Correct. The Khilafat Movement (1919-1920) was led by Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali. It demanded that the Khalifa keep control over the Muslim sacred places, and the Congress supported it.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.1 Knitting a popular movement … |