IN THE SERVICE OF A “PURE IDEAL”: GANDHI, INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS AND THE DENIAL OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/AFA/2025.21.2.158Keywords:
Armenian Genocide, Gandhi, Indian National Congress, Khilafat Movement, South Asia, DenialAbstract
Determined to reverse the impending disintegration of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, South Asian Muslims launched the Khilafat movement (1919-1924). Realizing that this issue had galvanized Muslims like no other, Gandhi saw the movement as a rare opportunity to unite Hindus and Muslims and offered unwavering support. This support was premised on the denial of the Armenian genocide. Legitimated in South Asia post-independence (1947) through historiographies, foreign policy and commemorative practices, this historical episode has transitioned into a mnemonic regime. This positive memorialization in South Asia has been extremely useful for Turkey in furthering its narratives of denial leading to a transregional mnemonic landscape that is premised on occlusion and justification of violence against the Armenians. While existing scholarship has briefly remarked on Gandhi’s denial, using a range of primary sources, including unpublished letters, this article shows the far more expansive role Gandhi played along with the Indian National Congress in mainstreaming a network of genocidal apologia and denial. Examining the absence of any detailed work on this denialism even after a century, this article also deals with the blind spots of postcolonial studies and the complicity of South Asia academia in perpetuating hegemonic narratives.
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