Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Also called: Kemal Ataturk · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"
Meaning
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded modern Turkey. After the Ottoman Empire lost the First World War, he led the Turkish fight for freedom. In 1923 he became the first President of the Republic of Turkey. He wanted a modern state run without religious rule. So in 1924 he abolished the Caliphate, the office of the Khalifa, the religious head of Sunni Muslims. This mattered for India: the Khilafat movement had been fighting to save that very office.
Example
Indian Muslims had joined Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920–22 to protect the Khalifa. When Ataturk's government ended the Caliphate in 1924, the Khilafat cause collapsed. With it, a key support of Hindu–Muslim unity in Indian politics weakened.
Don't confuse with
- The Ottoman Sultan (Khalifa): the ruler whose religious office the Khilafat movement defended. Ataturk was the Turkish leader who abolished that office.
Related concepts
- Hind Swaraj
- Swaraj
- Khilafat movement
- Ali brothers
- Caliphate
- Jazirat-ul-Arab
- Calcutta special session 1920
- Nagpur session 1920
- Non-cooperation movement
- Louis Fischer