A Japanese researcher, Takashi Oishi, observes that “Muslims in India was one of the principal forces which supported pan-Islamism”.

“The table below, which lists the amounts of subscriptions remitted to the Red Crescent Society of the Ottoman Empire from various areas, is eloquent of such a distinguished position of India.[i]

Notice the total contributions from India was more than 157,000, and the next highest was from Algeria which was 13,800.

Table.1 Subscriptions to the Red Crescent Society , Ottoman Empire, during the year February 1912-February 1913.

Areas

 Amount (Turkish Lira)

Crete

China

Bukhara

Tunis

Cyprus

Bulgaria

France

Java

275

372

509

612

963

986

1,192

1,599

America

London

Persia

Rumania

Afghanistan

Austria-Hungary

Germany

1813

2,038

2,595

3,255

3,744

3866

4676

Bosnia

Egypt

South Africa

Algeria

India

Others & Unidentified

6,210

9,857

13,211

13,804

157,044

28,283

Another example of the altruistic attachment of Indians to the Turkish cause is illustrated in the following account by Naeem Qureshi in his book Pan-Islam in British Indian Politics:

“The conclusion of the peace treaty (Treaty of Lausanne) brought a genuine exhilaration to Muslim India. On 26 July 1923, corresponding with ‘Idu’l-azha, the occasion was celebrated enthusiastically all over the country as the victory of Turkish arms….There were flag-bearing processions, illuminations, display of fireworks and special prayers in mosques, gurdwaras and temples….”[ii]

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Footnotes:

[i] The Red Crescent was the Islamic counterpart of the Red Cross. The table, based on an article in Muhammad Ali’s journal Comrade, 24 May 1913, indicates the money remitted to the Society from February 1912 to February 1913. Here I grouped some areas of minor amounts under the category of “others”, but this rule was not applied to some areas, like Bukhara and China, where money must have been raised from mainly Muslims there. The total, if calculated from each country’s amount, will be a little different, because here piasters, a subdivision of the lira, are omitted. Quoted in An Enquiry into the Structure of PanIslamism in India: The Phase of the ItaloTurkish and Balkan Wars, 1911-1913,  by Takashi Oishi, Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 8, 1996, pp 59-60

[ii] Times of India, 27 and 28 July 1923; and SBR, Punjab Police Abstract of Intelligence, 45/30, 4 Aug. 1923, para 279.