maulana abul kalam azad history

orn:
November
11, 1888
Died:
February
22, 1958
Achievements: Started a weekly journal Al Hilal
to increase the revolutionary recruits amongst
the Muslims; elected as Congress President in
1923 and 1940; became independent India's first
education minister.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's real name was Abul
Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin. He was popularly
known as Maulana Azad. Maulana Abul Kalam
Azad was one of the foremost leaders of Indian
freedom struggle. He was also a renowned
scholar, and poet. Maulana Azad was well versed
in many languages viz. Arabic, English, Urdu,
Hindi, Persian and Bengali. Maulana Azad was a
brilliant debater, as indicated by his name, Abul
Kalam, which literally means "lord of dialogue".
He adopted the pen name 'Azad' as a mark of his
mental emancipation from a narrow view of
religion and life. Maulana Azad became
independent India's first education minister. For
his invaluable contribution to the nation,
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was posthumously
awarded India's highest civilian honour, Bharat
Ratna in 1992.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born on
November 11, 1888 in Mecca. His forefather's
came from Herat (a city in Afghanistan) in
Babar's days. Azad was a descendent of a lineage
of learned Muslim scholars, or maulanas. His
mother was an Arab and the daughter of Sheikh
Mohammad Zaher Watri and his father, Maulana
Khairuddin, was a Bengali Muslim of Afghan
origins. Khairuddin left India during the Sepoy
Mutiny and proceeded to Mecca and settled
there. He came back to Calcutta with his family in
1890.
Because of his orthodox family background Azad
had to pursue traditional Islamic education. He
was taught at home, first by his father and later
by appointed teachers who were eminent in
their respective fields. Azad learned Arabic and
Persian first and then philosophy, geometry,
mathematics and algebra. He also learnt English,
world history, and politics through self study.
Azad was trained and educated to become a
clergyman. He wrote many works, reinterpreting
the Holy Quran. His erudition led him to
repudiate Taqliq or the tradition of conformity
and accept the principle of Tajdid or innovation.
He developed interest in the pan-Islamic
doctrines of Jamaluddin Afghani and the Aligarh
thought of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Imbued with
the pan-Islamic spirit, he visited Afghanistan,
Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. In Iraq he met the
exiled revolutionaries who were fighting to
establish a constitutional government in Iran. In
Egypt he met Shaikh Muhammad Abduh and
Saeed Pasha and other revolutionary activists of
the Arab world. He had a first hand knowledge of
the ideals and spirit of the Young Turks in
Constantinople. All these contacts
metamorphosed him into a nationalist
revolutionary.
On his return from abroad, Azad met two leading
revolutionaries of Bengal- Aurobindo Ghosh and
Sri Shyam Shundar Chakravarty,-and joined the
revolutionary movement against British rule.
Azad found that the revolutionary activities were
restricted to Bengal and Bihar. Within two years,
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, helped setup secret
revolutionary centers all over north India and
Bombay. During that time most of his
revolutionaries were anti-Muslim because they
felt that the British Government was using the
Muslim community against India's freedom
struggle. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad tried to
convince his colleagues to shed their hostility
towards Muslims.
In 1912, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad started a
weekly journal in Urdu called Al Hilal to increase
the revolutionary recruits amongst the Muslims.
Al-Hilal played an important role in forging
Hindu-Muslim unity after the bad blood created
between the two communities in the aftermath
of Morley-Minto reforms. Al Hilal became a
revolutionary mouthpiece ventilating extremist
views. The government regarded Al Hilal as
propogator of secessionist views and banned it
in 1914. Maulana Azad then started another
weekly called Al-Balagh with the same mission
of propagating Indian nationalism and
revolutionary ideas based on Hindu-Muslim
unity. In 1916, the government banned this
paper too and expelled Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
from Calcutta and interned him at Ranchi from
where he was released after the First World War
in 1920.
After his release, Azad roused the Muslim
community through the Khilafat Movement. The
aim of the movement was to re-instate the
Khalifa as the head of British captured Turkey.
Maulana Azad supported Non-Cooperation
Movement started by Gandhiji and entered
Indian National Congress in 1920. He was elected
as the president of the special session of the
Congress in Delhi (1923). Maulana Azad was
again 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 became the president of Congress in 1940
(Ramgarh) and remained in the post till 1946. He
was a staunch opponent of partition and
supported a confederation of autonomous
provinces with their own constitutions but
common defence and economy. Partition hurt
him greatly and shattered his dream of an
unified nation where Hindus and Muslims can co-
exist and prosper together.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad served as the Minister
of Education in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet
from 1947 to 1958. He died of a stroke on
February 22, 1958.