The Biography of Famous Personalities of India will tell you about the controversies, the dark sides of a person that you may have never heard of.
Maulana Abul Kalam Search of Truth and Revolutionary Path
Search of Truth
Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.
This is early adulthood conflict that Maulana’s personality exhibited. The expression of which he reflected during rest of his life moving back and forth into the fold of Islamic and Modernised realms. Maulana often wondered why differences among different sects of Muslims existed when they were both believers of the same faith. Further Maulana could not understand that why do they oppose each other when they have common source of inspiration.
Further Maulana could not reconcile himself with dogmatic assurances with each sect in Islam branded the other sect with as mistaken inheritical. These differences among the orthodox schools of Islam began to raise doubts in Maulana’s mind about Islam itself.
Intellectual unrest continued for a period of two to three years, thereafter, Maulana sought and longed to find solutions to his doubts. As the time passed by, Maulana shifted his position from one phase to another until finally a stage came when all old bonds imposed on Maulana’s mind by his immediate ancestral family, his total upbringing were all completely shattered.
In Maulana’s own words “I felt free of all conventional ties and decided that I would chalk out my own path of truth.” And it was about this time when Maulana decided to adopt a pen name Azad which became his title as Maulana Azad—free of all inherited beliefs. Thus Maulana Azad psyche lived a metamoraphic change. In subsequent years of his life he reflected a cautious blend of the two as he started with his newspaper Al-Hilal and subsequently Al-Balagh.
Perhaps in 1904 the heightened political activity in Bengal led to the severest political unrest in the province of Bengal. Bengal had a history of political awakening and Lord Curzon trying to settle the disturbances of Bengal decided to pay special attention to this province and propounded the theory of Division of Bengal and thus weakening the Hindu influence in the political unrest in West Bengal. The division had to be between Hindu Bengal and Muslim Bengal.
The Bengalis irrespective of religion couldnot accept the division of the province and did not take this measure of this division lying down. There was an unprecedented outburst of political revolutionaries. Shri Aurobindo Ghosh having left Baroda to take centre position in Bengal politics. His newspaper Karmayogi became the most powerful instrument of liberating Bengal province from division.
On Revolutionary Path
Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.
It was during this period that Maulana Azad for the first time came in contact with Sri Shyam Sunder Chakravorty who was one of the most revolutionary workers of the day. Through him Maulana met other revolutionaries of Bengal including Sri Aurobindo Ghosh whom he met two-three times.
Maulana was attracted to revolutionary ideas and revolutionary politics and joined one of the revolutionary groups. Most recruitments in the revolutionary groups were exclusively from Hindu middle classes. All revolutionary groups were actively anti-Muslims.
They saw that the British government was using the Muslims against India’s political struggle and the Muslims were playing the government’s game. The other factors responsible for the revolutionary’s dislike of Muslim was largely due to the fact that political awakening among Hindus of Bengal was so great that no Hindu officer could be fully trusted in dealing with these revolutionary activists.
They, therefore, invited a number of Muslim officers from United Provinces for manning the intelligence branch of the police. East Bengal had become a reality a separate province and its lieutenant governor Bamfield Fuller was appointed the first lieutenant governor who wooed Muslims community and treated Muslims as his most favourite wife.
When Maulana expressed his willingness to join Hindus revolutionary group, they were initially surprised and did not fully trust him and even tried to keep him out of their inner councils. Maulana Azad at this point of time argued with the revolutionaries that Muslims of Egypt, Turkey and Iran were engaged in revolutionary activities for achievement of democracy and freedom, and therefore to keep out Indian Muslims Community off, and not allowing them to join the national political struggle could be the biggest folly of the Hindu revolutionaries. Maulana went to the extent of even arguing that active hostility or indifference to Muslims expressed by Hindu revolutionaries would weaken the national movement. He advocated that with all earnestness Indian Muslims be made part of the national movement.
Maulana decided to draw up a programme of action for integrating Muslims into the national movement. He realized that he would have to first build up strong Muslim opinion in favour of India’s struggle for freedom and how religion Islam had given its credence to the theme of Hubbul-Watani (nationalism) and being loyal and true to the land that a Muslim inhabits.
During those days there were very few Urdu dailies. A number of dailies, weeklies, and monthlies were published in Urdu from Punjab and United provinces. Neither did they have high standards nor get-up, printing was poor as its content was lacking.
Thus, Maulana thought of launching Al-Hilal press and the first number of Al-Hilal journal was published in June 1912. Al-Hilal was perhaps a turning point both in the history of Urdu Journalism in India as well as causing unprecedented political opinion shaping among Muslims within a very short period. Al-Hilal created a revolutionary stir among Muslim masses and within a couple of months the populanty of Al-Hilal grew so well that Al-Hilal’s back issues were to be reprinted with every new issue in order to provide the entire set to the new subscriber.
The leadership of Muslims during that time was in the hands of Aligarh party of which Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was chief trustee whose basic tenet was that Muslims should be loyal to British and ought to remain aloof from freedom movement. Al-Hilal produced a rejoinder to this Ideology by advocating among Muslims that they must come forward in large numbers and join national mainstream movement and take as active part as the Hindus were taking.
This gave rise to awakening among Muslim masses and the British as well as the Aligarh party office bearers and workers felt threatened. A movement to oppose Al-Hilal was launched. The British administration was persuaded to ban the news paper and threat to kill its editor was also expressed. About twenty six thousand copies of Al-Hilal were printed every week.
The government was feeling disturbed by the success of Al-Hilal and its ability to change the popular Muslim opinion in India. As a measure to check Al-Hilal’s editor, the government fined Al-Hilal and imposed a security deposit of ₹ 2,000. Sometime later this security deposit was forfeited and fresh security of ₹ 10,000 was imposed. Maulana was just not deterred by these trivial acts of British Raj, and till finally the war broke out in Europe in 1914 and Al-Hilal press was sealed and confiscated in 1915.