Punjab

by Rajmohan Gandhi

This 1913 decision was linked to the turmoil in India’s Muslim community over what was happening to Turkey and its possessions. In 1911, when Italy attacked Libya’s Tripoli, then part of the Turkish empire, the British had barred Turkey from crossing Egypt to defend its territory. In the Balkan wars of 1912-13, Greeks, Bulgars and Serbs routed the Turks. Joined to Turkey’s humiliation was the possibility of Europe’s non-Muslims controlling the sacred sites located in the Turkish empire’s territory, including Mecca, Medina, Najaf, Karbala and Jerusalem. India’s Sunni Muslims, some of them inclined to think of the distant Turkish Sultan as their religious head, were disquieted, and Muslims who were not Sunnis seemed to share the unease. The Muslim League took up Turkey’s cause, and Jinnah, who had not only stayed aloof from it thus far but also questioned separate electorates, joined the League, while not relinquishing his Congress connection.