Historic Alleys

Having lived in Turkey for a few years and having admired Mustafa Kemal Ataturk‘s rebuilding of that war torn nation into a modern Turkey, I was always curious as to what Mustafa Kemal had to say about India. After all, he had come eye to eye with many an Indian soldier working in the British Army at Gallipoli and slew many (a lot of them still rest in Turkish graves) and later hobnobbed with many an Indian Khilafat representative. This article will lightly focus on the Kemalist approach to the Indian Khilafat movement. As it all ended, it appeared that Mustafa Kemal had lost interest in the concept of the Caliphate and walked away from the whole thing, leaving the Indian side who had invested time, resources and huge amounts of money in Turkey’s support, bewildered and shattered.