Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who played a vital role in the Indian National Movement, was born on 11 November 1888 in Mecca. His father was Maulana Khairuddin and his mother was Alia. The original name of Azad was Abul Kalam Mohiddin Khairuddin. He was a great scholar in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu languages.
He started a magazine ‘Nairang-e-Alam’ at the tender age of twelve years. At the age of thirteen, he wrote articles on literary criticism, for which he was praised as a great scholar, poet, and intellectual. He participated in the All India Muslim Educational Conference and All India Muslim Editors’ Conference in 1904. Maulana Azad liked the ideology of the Muslim League during his earlier days. He was of the opinion, that armed struggle was the only solution to defeat the foreign rulers.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, A Luminous Mind – By, Jawaharlal Nehru
During that period, he started several revolutionary organizations of his own. But, he left his revolutionary path from 1920 January when he first met Mahatma Gandhi. Since then, he supported the Non-Violence Movement. He entered into the National Movement by participating very actively in the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movement. He wrote several Scholarly books and published several Urdu Magazines like ‘Al Hilal’, ‘Al Balag’ and other papers in order to create awareness among the people against foreign rule.
His wish was to inform about the Indian National Movement and inspire the people to fight against the British. His magazines were banned several times by the British government. During the Indian National Movement, he spent his life for a period of 10 years and seven months in different jails of the country. He presided over the Indian National Congress sessions held in Delhi in 1923, when he was only 35 years old.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s address while inaugurating the first IIT at Kharagpur in 1951
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad also played a vital role in the pact between the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress in 1927. He became the president of the Indian National Congress once again in 1939 and continued in that post till 1948. He strongly opposed the separatist ideology and announced that harmony between the Hindus and Muslims was more important than the independence for the nation.
After independence, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad became the first education minister and implemented creative and constructive programs and schemes in the educational arena. During the Indian Freedom Struggle and even in the post-independent era, Moulana Abul Kalam Azad longed for harmony between Hindus and Muslims till he breathed his last on 22 February 1958.
