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 Uniting Hindu-Muslims and Support for Gandhiji
Uniting Hindu-Muslims
Teaching by tongue can be perspired but by good deed can stay stronger.
Maulana’s movement of integrating Muslims to the national movemnet suffered setbacks. For five months he kept thinking of how to revive his journalistic fervour in order to shape Muslim opinion when he realized that revival of Al-Hilal was not possible, he launched Al-Balagh. The Government of the then British India could not do much to ban Al-Balagh under the prevailing press act and hence they decided to extern Maulana from Calcutta.
The Government’s of province of Punjab, Delhi, United provinces and Bombay had already prohibited Maulana’s entry in their territory. Thus the only place left for Maulana to take refuge in was Bihar and he decided to move to Ranchi. In Ranchi Maulana was interned and put in detention which continued till 31st of December 1919.
This was just about the time that British had put forth a proposal to send a deputation to the Viceroy to apprise and acquaint him with developments in India with regard to the feelings of Indian Muslims regarding Khilafat and Turkey’s future.
Mahatma Gandhi participated in the discussion and expressed his full support and sympathy to the Khilafat movement and on 20th of January 1920, a formal meeting under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi passed a resolution to support the stand taken by Indian Muslims with regard to Khilafat. This meeting was attended by Lok Manya Tilak and many other senior leaders.
Maulana Azad was supposed to accompany the delegation but refused on grounds that the question of Muslim paticipation in national movement and Congress support to Khilafat were beyond memorial and deputation stage as suggested by viceroy. So a meeting of the veteran leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Moulvi Abdul Bari of the Lucknow School of Firangi Mahal had been convened.
Mahatma Gandhi presided over the meeting and put forth the idea of non-cooperation with the British administration so that the government could come to terms with Congress on one hand and Muslim elite and masses on the other. All titles given to the Indian by the British were to be gracefully returned. Schools, law courts, public institutions and British national events were all to be boycotted by Indians.
Support for Gandhiji
Education imparted by heart can bring revolution in the society.
Mahatma Gandhi went even further to proclaim that all Indians in the service of the British Raj should resign their positions and posts and join the national movement. Maulana Azad had expressed similar position in one of his articles in Al-Hilal.
While Moulvi Abdul Bari, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Maulana Mohammed Ali, Maulana Shaukat Ali have had their reservations to accept Gandhiji’s non co-operation plan, Maulana Azad whole heartedly accepted it and offered his unconditional support.
As a sequel to the Mahatma Gandhi’s call for non-cooperation a special session of the Congress was convened in September 1920 at Calcutta to outline the programme of action necessary for affecting non-cooperation movement. Lala Lajpat Rai was made president for this session. Mr. C.R. Das and Lala Lajpat Rai did not agree with Gandhiji but Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal in the same meeting suggested the best way to fight British was to boycott all British goods as he believed that boycott of courts and educational instiutions will not affect the British as much as the boycott of their foreign goods.
The period immediately succeeding this special session was one of extensive touring on the part of Congress leaders to prepare the country for the launch of non-cooperation movement at the national level. This phase entailed mass contacts with public and extensive lecturing by all Congress leaders, until December 1920 when the regular annual session of the Congress was held at Nagpur.
By this time there was massive public uprising and the minds of some of those leaders who opposed Gandhiji’s non-cooperation movement also changed and they started supporting the non-cooperation movement. Maulana Azad and C.R. Das were the first to be arrested by the British and others followed. Subhash Chandra Bose and Birendra Nath Sasmal were also arrested. All were put in Alipur central jail which became the centre of political discussions. The period succeeding the arrest of senior Congress leaders was one of the turmoil for the Congress party as such.
In 1923 at the Gaya session of the Congress a strong difference of opinion was expressed among Congress leaders. Mr. C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru and Hakim Ajmal Khan formed the Swaraj Party. Thus the Congress was divided between two camps one of non-changers and another of pro-changers. The Swaraj party opposed by the orthodox followers of Gandhiji could not make much dent as a Swaraj party leader C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru were at the helm of affairs.
It was just about this time in September 1923 that Maulana Azad was released from Jail. His first and foremost task had been to bring about a reconciliation between the split Swaraj party and Congress. Maulana by then had turned 35 and he was elected president of the Congress. Congress presented in 1929 the independence resolution immediately after the appointment of Simon Commission in India in 1928.
Awakening Muslims
Slavery is worst even if it bears beautiful names.
Britishers used to see the Hindus and the Muslims as distinct entitis in order to divide the Indians. Maulana Azad did not favour the British policy of ‘Divide and Rule’. He wanted to see the Muslims in the mainstream of the nation and the Congress. He began to publish a weekly journal Al- Hilal on June 1, 1912 from Calcutta to infuse nationalism in the Hindus and the Muslims. This nationalist journal became quite popular. He wanted to wage a he had (religious fight) against communalism through this journal.
Meanwhile, the selfish British policies led to communal clashes in 1913 at Ayodhya. Maulana Kalam criticised it severely. At the same time he appealed to the Muslims not to follow the Britishers. His friend Hakim Ajmal Khan and the others criticised him for his views. Later on, they realised their mistake and begged him for forgiveness.
Maulana Azad had brought about a wake-up call amongst the Muslims through Al-Hilal. But the articles published in it were not to the liking of the Britishers. Due to his fame and revolutionary ideologies, both Al-Hilal and Maulana Azad became thorns in the eyes of the British government. As a result, both fell victim to the British policy. Al-Hilal was asked to give ₹ 2000 as surety and again ₹ 10,000.
Al-Hilal was closed for not submitting the surety. Maulana Azad was jailed under Indian security Act. He was given the freedom to read books in the jail. During the jail term, he wrote a book Tazkira based on his memories. In the jail itself, he began writing the urdu translation of the Quran Sharif along with commentaries. In 1919, he was released.
After being released, there were two major aims of Maulana Azad’s life—to work toward the freedom of India and to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity. In order to fulfill these two goals, he entered in the politics at the time of Khilafat movement. Later on, he became President of All India Khiiatat Committee.
During those days, Gandhiji had started non-cooperation movement. He met Gandhiji on January 18, 1920 in Delhi. Despite being young in age, he was a courageous warrior for Gandhiji. He went with Gandhiji to Meerut for the Khilafat movement being initiated in Meerut.
In February, 1920 Maulana Azad was offered the presidential position of the second conference of the Khilafat Movement. During the Khilafat Movement, he was completely in active politics as a popular leader. His popularity could be judged from the fact that in a special sesson of the Khilafat Movement convened at Lahore, the Muslims demanded that Maulana Azad should be made the Imam. It was a great honour for him. In 1921, he was arrested again and kept in Alipore jail. In 1923, when he was released, Khilafat activists once gain pressurised him to become the Imam but he refused the offer politely giving priority to the national service.
When Prince of Wales was to arrive in India, the Congress decided to boycott him. The volunteers were being organised in every province for this task. Maulana Azad and Chittaranjan Das were given the responsibility to awaken consciousness amongst people in Bengal for nationalism. But the government, through a notification, declared the voluntary organisations as illegal.
Maulana Azad along with the other leaders was arrested in Calcutta. He was sentenced to one year term. Before going to jail, he gave a powerful speech, whcih impressed Gandhiji and the other leaders.
In September 1923, Maulana Azad was made the President of the Indian National Congress. On September 15, 1923, a special session of the Congress was convened at Delhi under his Presidency.