The Khilafat Movement received support from both Hindus and Muslims and it was led from the front by Gandhiji. In spite of this, the movement lost momentum. Why ?

The Khilafat Movement (1919-1924) was launched by Indian Muslims to protect the Ottoman Caliphate and the sovereignty of the Khalifa over Muslim sacred places [c1][c2]. While Mahatma Gandhi successfully integrated it with the Non-Cooperation Movement to foster Hindu-Muslim unity, the movement's primary religious objective was rendered obsolete by developments in Turkey [c3][t1]. In 1922, the Sultan was stripped of political power, and in 1924, the nationalist government led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha formally abolished the office of the Khalifa [t1][t3]. This internal secularization of Turkey removed the very raison d'être of the Indian Khilafat agitation. Additionally, the withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Movement by Gandhi after the Chauri Chaura incident in 1922 had already weakened the domestic momentum, leading to the eventual disintegration of the movement by the mid-1920s [t3][t5].

Sources

1. [1] THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART III, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 11: MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT > What was the Khilafat Movement? > p. 290
2. [2] History , class XII (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 3: Impact of World War I on Indian Freedom Movement > Khilafat Movement > p. 37
3. [3] Rajiv Ahir. A Brief History of Modern India (2019 ed.). SPECTRUM. > Chapter 16: Non-Cooperation Movement and Khilafat Aandolan > Non-Cooperation Movement and Khilafat Aandolan > p. 328