Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:32:48.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Hindu Champion of Pan-Islamism: Lajpat Rai and the Khilafat Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav Open the ORCID record for Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav [Opens in a new window]
Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav*
Affiliation:
Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Lala Lajpat Rai is increasingly viewed in historiography as a “Hindu nationalist” with a strong affinity with Savarkarite Hindutva. This article demonstrates that during the Khilafat movement, Lajpat Rai articulated a secular Indian nationalism that was sensitive to Muslim religiosity and Indian Muslims’ extraterritorial sympathies toward the caliphate and the Muslim world. Pigeonholing the entire thought of Lajpat Rai as “Hindu nationalism” obscures a historical-intellectual juncture when a Hindu political figure like him enthusiastically supported pan-Islamism as necessary for Indian nationalism. This article complicates scholarship that portrays Hindu responses to the Khilafat movement as consisting solely of fear and counter-consolidation. More importantly, by unveiling Rai's Khilafat-era nationalism, it uncovers the intellectual and political possibility of firmly holding a Hindu identity and articulating conceptions of Indian nationhood that are at ease with Islam and the wider Muslim world.

Keywords

First World WarHindu nationalismHindutvaIslamKhilafat movementLajpat RaiMuslim worldpan-Islamismsecular Indian nationalism
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , November 2022 , pp. 689 - 705
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Adcock, C. S. 2013. The Limits of Tolerance: Indian Secularism and the Politics of Religious Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashraf, Ali. 1992. “Appraisal of Azad's Religio-Political Trajectory.” In Islam and Indian Nationalism Reflections on Abul Kalam Azad, edited by Hasan, Mushirul, 100–121. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Aydin, Cemil. 2017. The Idea of the Muslim World: A Global Intellectual History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bain, William. 2003. Between Anarchy and Society: Trusteeship and the Obligations of Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhargav, Vanya Vaidehi. 2018. “Between Hindu and Indian: The Nationalist Thought of Lala Lajpat Rai.” PhD diss., University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Bhargav, Vanya Vaidehi. 2022. “Hindu Politics in Service of Secularism.” Working Paper 25, Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, “Multiple Secularities—Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities.” http://www.multiple-secularities.de/publications/working-papers (accessed March 29, 2022).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhatt, Chetan. 2001. Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Devji, Faisal. 2012. The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devji, Faisal. 2022. “Escaping the Global Event.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Douglas, Ian. 1972. “‘Abul Kalam Azad and Pakistan’ A Post-Bangladesh Reconsideration of an Indian Muslim's Opposition to Partition.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 40 (4): 458–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, M. K. (1919) 1965a. “Punjab Letter, Navajivan, 7 December 1919.” In The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (hereafter CWMG), vol. 16, 261–63. Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.Google Scholar
Gandhi, M. K. (1919) 1965b. “Speech at Amritsar Congress, 29 December 1919.” In CWMG, vol. 16, 356–60.Google Scholar
Gandhi, M. K. (1920) 1965c. “Congress Report on the Punjab Disorders.” In CWMG, vol. 17, 114–292.Google Scholar
Gandhi, M. K. (1920) 1965d. “General Dyer, 14 July 1920.” In CWMG, vol. 18, 45–46.Google Scholar
Gandhi, M. K. (1920) 1965e. “Letter to Viceroy, 22 June 1920.” In CWMG, vol. 17, 502–4.Google Scholar
Gandhi, M. K. (1920) 1965f. “Pledges Broken, Young India, 19 May 1920.” In CWMG, vol. 17, 434–36.Google Scholar
Gandhi, M. K. (1920) 1965g. “Speech on Non-Cooperation, Madras, The Hindu, 13 August 1920.” In CWMG, vol. 18, 154–55.Google Scholar
Gandhi, M. K. (1920) 1965h. “Turkey, Navajivan, 7 September 1919.” In CWMG, vol. 16, 104–6.Google Scholar
Hardiman, David. 2018. The Nonviolent Struggle for Indian Freedom, 1905–19. Gurgaon: Penguin/Viking.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, Peter. 1972. The Muslims of British India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasan, Mushirul, ed. 1983. “Mohamed Ali to Lord Chelmsford, 24 April 1919.” In Mohamed Ali in Indian Politics: Select Writings, vol. 2. New Delhi: Atlantik Publishers and Distributors.Google Scholar
Hasan, Mushirul. 1992. “Secular and Communitarian Representations of Indian Nationalism: Ideology and Praxis of Azad and Mohamed Ali.” In Islam and Indian Nationalism Reflections on Abul Kalam Azad, edited by Hasan, Mushirul, 77–99. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Hasan, Mushirul. 2010. The Mushirul Hasan Omnibus. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hovenkamp, Herbert. 2017. “The Progressives: Racism and Public Law.” Arizona Law Review 59:947–1001.Google Scholar
Jaffrelot, Christophe. 1999. The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s. New Delhi: Penguin.Google Scholar
Jaffrelot, Christophe. 2011. “Genesis and Development of Hindu Nationalism in the Punjab: From the Arya Samaj to the Hindu Sabha (1875–1910).” In Religion, Caste, and Politics in India, by Jaffrelot, Christophe, 74–121. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Jalal, Ayesha. 2007. “Striking a Just Balance: Maulana Azad as a Theorist of Trans-National Jihad.” Modern Intellectual History 4 (1): 95–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordens, J. T. F. 1981. Swāmī Shraddhānanda: His Life and Causes. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1901) 2003a. “Defects of the Congress and Remedies, Kayastha Samachar, November 1901.” In The Collected Works of Lala Lajpat Rai (hereafter CWLLR), edited by B. R. Nanda, vol. 2, 3–11. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1902) 2003b. “Hindu Nationalism, Hindustan Review and Kayastha Samachar, September–October 1902.” In CWLLR, vol. 2, 295–301.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1907) 2003c. “Hinduism and Common Nationality, before 1907.” In CWLLR, vol. 2, 331–35.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1909) 2003d. “Hindu Nationalism, The Punjabee, 23 October 1909.” In CWLLR, vol. 4, 155–68.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1914) 2003e. “East and West, The Tribune, 19 December 1914.” In CWLLR, vol. 5, 54–56.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1916) 2003f. “An Asiatic View of the Japanese Question, The Outlook, 18 October 1916.” In CWLLR, vol. 6, 106–12.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1916) 2003g. “An Indian View of the Great European War, The New York Times, 21 February 1916.” In CWLLR, vol. 5, 76–80.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1916) 2003h. “Asia and the War, The Masses, September 1916.” In CWLLR, vol. 6, 103–5.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1916) 2003i. “The Dilemma of Asia, The Independent, 2 October 1916.” In CWLLR, vol. 6, 124–127.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. 1916. The United States of America: A Hindu's Impression and a Study. Calcutta: R. Chatterjee. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.278375/mode/2up.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1916) 2003j. “Why India Is in Revolt against British Rule?, February 1916.” In CWLLR, vol. 6, 169–96.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1916) 2003k. “Young India: An Interpretation and a History of the Nationalist Movement from Within, 1916.” In CWLLR, vol. 6, 199–328.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1920) 2003l. “Amritsar-Place of Political Pilgrimage, The Tribune, 16 March 1920.” In CWLLR, vol. 9, 26–29.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1920) 2003m. “Presidential Address, Calcutta Congress, 4 September 1920.” In CWLLR, vol. 9, 64–143.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1920) 2003n. “Hindu-Muslim Unity and Non-Cooperation, The Tribune, 13 November 1920.” In CWLLR, vol. 9, 241–43.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1920) 2003o. “Importance of India to Human Progress, Young India, February 1920.” In CWLLR, vol. 8, 62–67.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1920) 2003p. “Khilafat, Bande Mataram, 9–10 June 1920.” In CWLLR, vol. 9, 202–7.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1920) 2003q. “Role of the Muslim National University, 15 December 1920.” In CWLLR, vol. 9, 297–98.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1920) 2003r. “Towards Freedom, 20 February 1920.” In CWLLR, vol. 8, 151–59.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1920) 2003s. “Unity, the Foundation of Liberty, The Tribune, 26 February 1920.” In CWLLR, vol. 9, 3.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1920) 2003t. “Unity, the Price of Liberty, The Tribune, 28 February 1920.” In CWLLR, vol. 9, 23–26.Google Scholar
Lajpat Rai, Lala. (1921) 2003u. “Apprehension of Afghan Invasion of India, Bande Mataram, 17–19 May 1921.” In CWLLR, vol. 10, 271–76.Google Scholar
Manela, Erez. 2007. The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Minault, Gail. 1982. The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Muhammad, Shan, ed. 1980a. “Khilafat Deputation to Viceroy, 19 January 1920.” In The Indian Muslims: A Documentary Record (1900–1947), vol. 6, 129–36. Meerut: Meenakshi Prakashan.Google Scholar
Muhammad, Shan, ed. 1980b. “Presidential Address by Hakim Ajmal Khan, All-India Muslim League, Amritsar, 30 December 1919.” In The Indian Muslims: A Documentary Record (1900–1947), vol. 6, 81–112. Meerut: Meenakshi Prakashan.Google Scholar
Nair, Neeti. 2011. Changing Homelands: Hindu Politics and the Partition of India. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, Hugh. 1972. “Negotiating the Lucknow Pact.” Journal of Asian Studies 31 (3): 561–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedersen, Susan. 2015. The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramnath, Maia. 2011. Haj to Utopia: How the Ghadar Movement Charted Global Radicalism and Attempted to Overthrow the British Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rathore, Naeem Gul. 1965. “Indian Nationalist Agitation in the United States: A Study of Lala Lajpat Rai and the India Home Rule League of America, 1914–1920.” PhD diss., Columbia University.Google Scholar
Raucher, Alan. 1974. “American Anti-Imperialists and the Pro-India Movement, 1900–1932.” Pacific Historical Review 43 (1): 83–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Francis. 2007. Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces’ Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rodrigues, Shaunna. 2020. “Abul Kalam Azad and the Right to an Islamic Justification of the Indian Constitution.” In Dimensions of Constitutional Democracy: India and Germany, edited by Roy, Anupama and Becker, Michael, 125–43. Singapore: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar. (1923) 1969. Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu? Bombay: Veer Savarkar Prakashan.Google Scholar
Shaikh, Farzana. 2012. Community and Consensus in Islam: Muslim Representation in Colonial India, 1860–1947. Delhi: Imprint One.Google Scholar
Skaria, Ajay. 2003. “Gandhi's Politics: Liberalism and the Question of the Ashram.” South Atlantic Quarterly 101 (4): 955–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tejani, Shabnum. 2008. Indian Secularism: A Social and Intellectual History, 1890–1950. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Zaman, Faridah. 2016. “Revolutionary History and the Post-Colonial Muslim: Re-writing the ‘Silk Letters Conspiracy’ of 1916.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 39 (3): 626–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zavos, John. 2000. The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar