Regionalizing Pan-Islamism: Documents on the Khilafat Movement

This book brings together an important collection of documents that have not been used before by the historians of the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation movements. The political historian of the twentieth century is familiar with the major actors operating on the national scene. These reports, hitherto unpublished, reveal the role of local and regional leaders, their linkages, strategies and techniques of mobilization. Likewise, there exists much secondary literature on the mobilization conducted, say by M.K. Gandhi, Maulana Abdul Bari, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad or the Ali brothers. These documents, on the other hand, reveal, perhaps for the first time insuch detail, the mobilization processes in the localities. There is, consequently, much that is new in them. This work makes an important statement on a vital phase in India’s encounter with British colonialism. Though written for the officials, the reports unwittingly reveal the depth of the agitation against the government. Finally, as a source book, we are introduced to many facets of the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation movements. With detailed biographical notes, the editors have placed Regionalizing Pan-Islamism in its context and made it accessible to modern readers.