Love and Loss: The Muslim Emotional Communities during the Khilafat Movement

• ALI GOHAR

  Production Head, Baeyet Studio.

  Author

The socio-political campaign known as the Khilafat Movement (1919-1924) among Indian Muslims was driven fundamentally by the intertwining emotions of love and loss, underscoring its nature as a cultural and sentimental eruption rather than merely a political reaction. This study investigates the emotional mobilization that coalesced around the symbolic figure of the Ottoman Caliphate, a deeply revered spiritual and cultural authority for Indian Muslims. The central research problem determines the extent to which emotions such as fervent love, grief, anger, and hope served as catalysts for collective action and political commitment against British colonial policy. Employing the theoretical frameworks of Social Constructivism and Emotional Communities (Rosenwein 2006; Reddy 2009), this analysis examines how Khilafat leaders, notably the Ali Brothers (Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar and Maulana Shaukat Ali), utilized "emotives" to construct a powerful, shared affective register. Furthermore, the thesis explores the representation of this emotional narrative in primary sources, including contemporary press accounts (Tejani 2007), political speeches, personal correspondence, and the evocative poetry of Allama Iqbal and Josh Malihabadi (Tignol 2023). It argues that the movement's memory is embedded in this collective emotional experience, affirming the critical role of affect in shaping Muslim identity and political praxis in the early twentieth century, thereby enriching the historical understanding of anti-colonial resistance.

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