MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD
Introduction
1. Maulana Abul Kalam was one of the fore runners of India’s freedom struggle and reached the post of Congress President. He was a nationalist Muslim and his love for India was unquestionable. He was a strong supporter of Gandhian ways of freedom struggle and remained very actively involved with all the negotiations between Congress party and British government for solving India`s constitutional problem. He was the first Education Minister of free India.
His Early Life
2. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born in Mecca in 1888 in a conservative family of a Muslim Pir, who had very good following. His fore-fathers came from Herat. His father Maulana Khairuddin was brought to Delhi by his maternal grand father who was Director of Education of Delhi at that time. After first war of independence he migrated to Mecca and settled there but came back to India in 1890 and settled down at Calcutta. He had his early education under strict control of his father. At the age of 14 he took out a weekly paper ‘Lasan-e-sidqua’.He completed his education at the age of 16 and thereafter started teaching. As a child he did not cherish the idea of religious intoleration. After the death of his father he went around some Muslim countries in 1908 and met some religious revolutionaries.
3. He came to the conclusion that Muslim of India must come out of their isolation and join main national stream of India’s freedom struggle. He met Mahatma Gandhi and became a great champion of Hindu Muslim unity. He was opposed to two nation theory advanced by Muslim League and opposed the partition of the country till the end.
4. He remained President of Indian National Congress for six long years from 1939 onwards and guided the nation during the most difficult years of India’s freedom struggle. After India became an independant nation he was given important portfolio of Education in Nehru’s cabinet.
His Views
5. Religion. Azad was a reformist and his approach and interpretation of ‘Holy Quraan’ was very rational. In his view the unity of brotherhood and the unity of religion constituted the message of the Quraan.
6. Political. Maulana Abul Kalam stood for Hindu-Muslim unity and opposed the two-nation theory as expounded by Muslim League. He opposed the views of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan that the Muslims of India should not co-operate in the country’s freedom struggle. In his view liberty is a primary right of each individual and there is no justification in one nation dominating the other.
7. He had full faith in non co-operation movement. He wanted that the Muslims in India should show flexibility and follow policy of give and take. He was opposed to the separation and sectarian nationalism outlook, as was being preached by Muslim leadership of those days. In his view both communities should struggle together because they have common destiny. He appealed to both to renounce the idea of inferiority and superiority of race and that National problems should not be approached on communal lines.
1. Maulana Abul Kalam was one of the fore runners of India’s freedom struggle and reached the post of Congress President. He was a nationalist Muslim and his love for India was unquestionable. He was a strong supporter of Gandhian ways of freedom struggle and remained very actively involved with all the negotiations between Congress party and British government for solving India`s constitutional problem. He was the first Education Minister of free India.
His Early Life
2. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born in Mecca in 1888 in a conservative family of a Muslim Pir, who had very good following. His fore-fathers came from Herat. His father Maulana Khairuddin was brought to Delhi by his maternal grand father who was Director of Education of Delhi at that time. After first war of independence he migrated to Mecca and settled there but came back to India in 1890 and settled down at Calcutta. He had his early education under strict control of his father. At the age of 14 he took out a weekly paper ‘Lasan-e-sidqua’.He completed his education at the age of 16 and thereafter started teaching. As a child he did not cherish the idea of religious intoleration. After the death of his father he went around some Muslim countries in 1908 and met some religious revolutionaries.
3. He came to the conclusion that Muslim of India must come out of their isolation and join main national stream of India’s freedom struggle. He met Mahatma Gandhi and became a great champion of Hindu Muslim unity. He was opposed to two nation theory advanced by Muslim League and opposed the partition of the country till the end.
4. He remained President of Indian National Congress for six long years from 1939 onwards and guided the nation during the most difficult years of India’s freedom struggle. After India became an independant nation he was given important portfolio of Education in Nehru’s cabinet.
His Views
5. Religion. Azad was a reformist and his approach and interpretation of ‘Holy Quraan’ was very rational. In his view the unity of brotherhood and the unity of religion constituted the message of the Quraan.
6. Political. Maulana Abul Kalam stood for Hindu-Muslim unity and opposed the two-nation theory as expounded by Muslim League. He opposed the views of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan that the Muslims of India should not co-operate in the country’s freedom struggle. In his view liberty is a primary right of each individual and there is no justification in one nation dominating the other.
7. He had full faith in non co-operation movement. He wanted that the Muslims in India should show flexibility and follow policy of give and take. He was opposed to the separation and sectarian nationalism outlook, as was being preached by Muslim leadership of those days. In his view both communities should struggle together because they have common destiny. He appealed to both to renounce the idea of inferiority and superiority of race and that National problems should not be approached on communal lines.