Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Conforming to the customary practice of those days, he married at a young age of thirteen to Zulaikha Begum.

He breathed his last on February 22, 1958 due to stroke.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was the face of communal harmony in modern India. Despite being a Muslim, he strongly condemned communal separatism and was against Muhammmad Jinnah and his viewpoints.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born as Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin on November 11, 1888 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia to Maulana Muhammad Khairuddin and Zulaikha Begum.

Descendant of the eminent scholars of the Islamic religion, learning and writing came naturally to young Azad. Since an early age, he became multi-linguist, mastering numerous languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Bengali, English and Arabic. He received tutelage in Hanbali fiqh, shariat, mathematics, philosophy, world history and science.

A meritorious student, he was blessed with a strong aptitude for knowledge that helped him stay ahead of his contemporaries. At a young age, he brought out several journals, served as an editor of the weekly Al-Misbah and reinterpreted the holy Quran, the Hadith and the principles of Fiqh and Kalam.

It was during this time that he developed radical political views that were in contingent with the Indian nationalist movement. He was critical of the British Raj and the Muslim’s communal issues that he believed were not as important as national freedom.

His visit to Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Turkey reformed his belief and conviction and turned him into a nationalist revolutionary. Upon returning to India, he was influenced by prominent Hindu revolutionaries Sri Aurobindo and Shyam Sundar Chakravarty and actively participated in the national struggle for freedom.

Despite being trained as a clergyman, he did not take up clerical duties and instead decided to work along with Hindu revolutionaries in the freedom struggle. With time, he accentuated the radical activities which were concentrated in Bengal and Bihar, by spreading them all over North India and Bombay.

In 1912, he started the Urdu weekly newspaper, Al-Hilal, through which he openly attacked the British policies and fervently wrote articles on Indian nationalism. The newspaper became a revolutionary mouthpiece publicizing extremists’ ideals and views.

Interestingly, the rift created between the Hindus and Muslims, which had stiffened in the wake of the issue of separate communal electorates, got a breather as Al-Hilal improved Hindu Muslim relations and encouraged youth to fight for independence and Hindu-Muslim unity.

In 1914, with the stiffening of censorship due to the establishment of Press Act, Al Hilal was banned. He then started a new journal, Al Balagh which worked on the same lines as Al Hilal, actively propagating nationalist causes and communal unity.

The threat posed by Al Balagh finally resulted in the banning of the newspaper under the Defence of India Regulations Act. He was arrested and imprisoned in a jail in Ranchi where he remained until January 1, 1920.

For his unsurpassable contribution as a nationalist revolutionary, and his constant support for a vision of united and free India, he was posthumously conferred with the prestigious Bharat Ratna—India’s highest civilian award—in 1992.