HİNT MÜSLÜMANLARINDA TÜRK İMGESİ: BALKAN SAVAŞLARI ÖRNEĞİ

An image consists of a person’s, a community’s and/or a society’s positive and/or negative conceptions and attributions towards an object, an event and/or another community. Factors such as ideological approaches, culture, collective memory, past experiences, and/or geography play an important role in forming these impressions. If a society’s approach towards another society is a matter of question, the image determines political stance and generates one of the reasons for social reactions. This study does not include examples of factionalized society, culture and/or political formulations but examples concerning positive perceptions of a society of another and how these perceptions are reflected on their reactions. In doing so, the study analyses the contributions of Indian Muslims to the Ottoman Empire and Turkish nation during the Balkan Wars with examples and questions the reasons behind these supports. Indian Muslims attempted to mold public opinion in order to bring attention to the Balkan Wars. They aided Ottomans in kind and cash, sent medical teams and played an active role in battle and organized activities for refugees. This study aims to reveal approaches and sensitivities of Indian Muslims to one of the biggest social problems that Turks faced in the early 20th century through data that were obtained from the Ottoman Archive and several newspapers of that period.