Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (11 Novermber 1888 – August 1958) was a freedom fighter in India’s struggle for Indepen-dence from Britain. He had an illustrious career being a journalist, a cabinet minister in Free India’s government.
He was born in Mecca. Azad was a descendent of a lineage of learned Muslim scholars. His father was Maulana Khairuddin who moved to Calcutta in 1890. Educated according to the traditional curriculum, Azad learned Arabic and Persian first and then philosophy, geometry, mathematics and algebra. He was taught at home, first by his father, later by appointed teachers who were eminent in their respective fields. Seeing that English was fast becoming the international language, Azad taught himself to read, write and speak the language. He adopted the pen name ‘Azad’ to signify his freedom from traditional Muslim ways.
Azad was introduced to the freedom struggle by revolutionary activities of Bengal revolutionaries. Azad found the revolutionary activities restricted to Bengal and Bihar. Within two years, Azad helped setup secret revolutionary centres all over north India and Bombay.
Azad began publication of a journal called ‘Al Hilal’ in June 1912 to increase revolutionary recruits amongst the Muslims. The ‘Al Hilal’ reached a circulation of 26,000 in two years. The British Government used the Press Act and then the Defence of India Regulations Act in 1916 to shut the journal down.
He supported Gandhiji’s Non-Cooperation Movement and joined the Congress in January 1920. He presided over the special session of Congress in September 1923 and is said to be at the age of 35, the youngest man elected as the President of the Congress.
He was arrested in 1930 for violation of the salt laws as part of Gandhiji’s Salt Satyagraha. He was put in Meerut jail for a year and a half. Maulana Azad was the staunchest opponent of partition of India into India and Pakistan.
He played an important role in Indian National Congress of which he became president on two crucial junctures, first in 1923 when he saved its unity threatened by the controversy on council entry and later in 1940 to 1946 when there was direct and final confrontation with the imperialist power.
In independent India he was Minister for Education in which capacity he promoted the setting up of various academic and cultural institutions. Apart from a politician Maulana was a writer with a distinct prose style marked by high level erudition and a poet’s sensitivity to men and affairs. His Tarjaman-ul-Quran is one of the most authentic and intellectually stimulating interpretations of the fundamentals of Islam. Among his political writings ‘Qaul-e-Faisal’ and India Wins Freedom are significant as expressions of his views on politics.
Maulana Azad served as the Minister of Education in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet from 1947 to 1958. He was honoured with the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1992.
Maulana Azad made an outstanding contribu-tion to induction of Muslim masses into the mainstream of national struggle for independence. He also stood firmly committed to the cause of united India in the face of strong opposition by the Muslim League, led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
