Muslims of the Dutch East Indies and the caliphate question

Abstract

The abolition of Abdulmejid's caliphate by Turkey's National Assembly in March 1924 and the call by Azhar `ulama for an international congress in Cairo to elect a new khalifa in the following year had the effect of making Muslims in the Dutch Indies more aware of their living under infidel rule. These events, and the conquest of the Hijaz by Ibn Sa`ud during the same years, briefly caused feverish activity in the Indies. The Dutch Indies government’s interim advisor for native affairs, R.A. Kern, even spoke of "a milestone in the Muhammadan movement in this country." For a few years these issues kept Indonesian Muslim leaders occupied and caused splits in the ranks; then suddenly the caliphate issue dropped from the agenda, never to reappear.