The Bombay building that brought Hindus and Muslims together to free India
…Since Hindus and Muslims were fighting for the same cause, Gandhi decided to embrace the Khilafat movement and the Ali brothers, merging their efforts with his newly named Noncooperation movement. In 1920, under Gandhi’s guidance, the movement was launched from Khilafat House, then located elsewhere in Mumbai. Later that decade, Umar Sobani donated his ancestral house to the cause, and the Khilafat House of today was born.…
“The Khilafat movement has no takers today. Thus the only way to secure its legacy is through education and through furthering the message of religious harmony that Khilafat House is an embodiment of,” says Arzu, who is striving to raise resources for projects like a Hindu-Muslim research center and a museum about the Khilafat movement.
With Hindu right-wing extremism and sectarian violence on the rise in India, the house could once again serve as a platform for national integration and harmony. “As long as you want the idea of India to be sustained,” says Arzu, “Khilafat House should stand in all its glory.”
