British officials tried to weaponize pan-Islamism against Bolshevism after World War One.

Evidence

At the start of the First World War, when the Ottomans allied with Briton’s enemies, British anxiety deepened. Immediately, the Government of India telegraphed all districts describing pan-Islamism to officials, directing them to warn certain Muslim preachers of the consequences of criticizing the government, and requiring all householders to report foreigners. Despite such concerns, after the war some authorities aimed to use pan-Islamic thought to British advantage. In 1919, the Government of India sent to at least one provincial government a copy of a fatwa that called “upon all Muhammadans to oppose Bolshevism” and the central government sought to publicize it by feeding it to Muslim newspapers. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 72

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay: how empires weaponize the very ideologies they fear, pivoting from suppression to co-option of Muslim solidarity as a bulwark against communism.
• XREF: Parallels how Cold War powers cynically used Islamic rhetoric against Soviet influence. — connects to: British colonial ideology consolidated the essentialized idea of Islam as a homogeneous threat; British conflated diverse Indian Muslim movements into an imagined Wahhabi conspiracy — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 76; Fears of Ottoman-inspired pan-Islamism never produced actual uprisings in India. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 71 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• British colonial ideology consolidated the essentialized idea of Islam as a homogeneous threat #expands (0.70)
• Fears of Ottoman-inspired pan-Islamism never produced actual uprisings in India. #qualifies (0.65) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 71
• British conflated diverse Indian Muslim movements into an imagined Wahhabi conspiracy #expands (0.60) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 76