Silk Letter Movement (Reshmi Rumal Andolan) 11.1.2013

The Silk Letter Movement (Reshmi Rumal Tehrik) was an effort from a group of revolutionaries, many of whom were connected with the Darul Uloom at Deoband. The said movement was a plan to mobilize the support of the governments of Afghanistan and Turkey to invade India and to simultaneously organize a revolt within India to overthrow the British rule. Obaidullah Sindhi and Maulana Madmood Hasan were two important leaders of this movement. In August 1916, some letters written on silk fell into British hands. Hence the term ‘Silk Letters Movement’. The letters were sent by Obaidullah Sindhi from Kabul and were to be delivered to Maulana Mahmood Hasan who was then in Mecca. The first official British document which dealt with this movement as also other major Indian revolutionary groups and revolutionary activities and ‘conspiracies’ in different parts of the country was Sedition Committee Report (1918). Chapter IV of this Report mentions ‘The “Silk Letter” conspirators’.