The Khilafat movement was a political campaign launched mainly by Muslims in South Asia to influence the British government and to protect the Ottoman Empire after World War I.

In 1920 the movement gained force after the Treaty of Sevres, which solidified the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. Indian Muslims were keen that the Khalifa be allowed to retain control over Muslim sacred places in the erstwhile Ottoman Empire. The leaders of the Khilafat agitation, Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, now wished to initiate a full-fledged Non-Cooperation Movement. Gandhiji supported the movement.