This book is a brief historical account of Khilafat, an Islamic political institution mired in controversies from its inception. It is an attempt to present an objective critique of the Islamic polity that, in a way, was primarily responsible for crafting schisms in Islam with its commencement. By the time the last Khilafat of the Ottomans came to an end in the aftershock of the Second World War, the Muslim political elite in India launched a movement for the restoration and continuation of the Ottoman Khilafat.
The most paradoxical dimension of the issue was that in the Arab peninsula, the epicenter of Islam, the people were struggling to cast away the yoke of the Ottoman Khilafat, then why were the Indian Muslims emotionally involved in a movement that was vehemently condemned and assailed by a majority of Muslims outside the Indian subcontinent?
Preface
1. Theoretical Framework
2. The Rightly Guided Caliphs
3. Transformation of Khilafat
4. Khilafat Movement
5. Beyond the Movement
6. Conclusion
Notes and References
Index
Biography
Zaheer Ali is Mumbai-based academic, freelance journalist and social activist. He is the Head of the Centre for the Promotion of Democracy and Secularism (CPDS).
