Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Towards Freedom (An Old And Rare Book)

A good deal has been written on and about Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. But these writings generally present a partial appraisal of his achievements.

In this Book, the author has made an attempt to set right the common error in the tendency to study Azad by dividing his public life into two parts pre-1920 and post-1920 in so far as his political and to some, even his religious-ideas were concerned and has brought out in sharp relief that it was only Azad who faced and countered resolutely the powerful Hindutva elements in the Congress and outside and the wild forces of Muslim separatism all round, and that particularly, during the final phase of the national struggle, in order to save the country from the evil of partition which, he believed, would be a disaster for the Muslims and for India as a whole.

This is a very useful reference book for politicians, research scholars, and students of history.

The late professor Ziya-ul-Hasan Faruqi held two masters degrees-from Allahabad and McGill Universities. He had held various positions in the Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, like Principal, Jamia College; Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Sciences; Professor of Islamic Studies; Director, Zakir Husain Institute of Islamic Studies. With a knowledge of Arabic, Persian and Urdu, he had edited scholarly journals both in English and Urdu. He had been member of academic bodies of Aligarh Muslim University, Kashmir University, Hamdard Institute of Islamic Studies, Dar-ul Mussannifin, Azamgarh and Islamic Research Institute of Nadwat-ul-'Ulama', Lucknow. Prof. Faruqi had visited many European and Middle East countries besides the U.S.A. and Canada as a scholar. He had a number of books to his credit and had presented papers at national and international forums. He had also contributed widely to many English and Urdu journals.

To write a political biography of a national leader like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad who, in words of Jawaharlal Nehru, represented a "peculiar and special type of greatness" and always reminded him "of the great men of Renaissance" and "of the Encyclopaedists who preceded the French Revolution, men of intellect, men of action", is indeed a task of Herculean magnitude. Azad was a man of ideas in almost all the aspects of his intellectual and public life. To study the ideas and try to portray a definite picture of a particular aspect of a multi-dimensional and complex personality. are all the more difficult and challenging.

Born and brought up in a conservative family of recognised religious divines and steeped deep in almost all the Islamic disciplines, Azad stood "for almost fifty years.... as the champion of nationalism and progress, freedom and democracy" and carved out a niche for himself in the history of modern India. This he was able to do through his distinctive approach towards the understanding of the Qur'an, the Sunnah of the Prophet and the world-view and the mind that the two sought to build. The document that he submitted to the Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta in 1922, would serve as one of the best explanations of what has been said above. Islam's emphasis on equality and justice, democracy and freedom, peace and progress inspired Azad to declare that Islam and political servitude were incompatible. He was well-versed in the knowledge of the sources of the truth embodied in the basic teachings of Islam. And that was why "he reacted so strongly against the servile politics, the feudal class divisions and the intellectual ossification of the Indo-Mohammedan society of the day... For Maulana Azad, Islam meant freedom from political bondage, economic exploitation and intellectual obscurantism. It was the emphasis on freedom in all its aspects which dragged him from the cloister of the recluse into the battleground of politics."

A good deal has been written on and about Azad. But these writings generally present a partial appraisal of his achievements. He has been studied as an erudite scholar of the Qur'an and of Islam as a whole, as a distinguished man of letters with a profound knowledge of Arabic, Persian and Urdu and working understanding of English and French, as a great orator who could keep the audience spell-bound for hours, as a powerful writer who could sway his readers to the direction of his own choice or as a staunch nationalist who worked and suffered for national ideals.

Ian H. Douglas wrote an intellectual and religious biography of Azad (Delhi, 1988), a doctoral thesis, in which he put hard labour and all the intellectual ability at his command to ingeniously make an attempt to damage Azad's name as an intellectual and religious leader. But he failed in his attempt. For his readers soon realized that his was a biased point of view. His preconceived notions, therefore, could not be of much help in a correct evaluation of the religious thought of Azad who had attempted to understand and interpret the Qur'an in the light of the Qur'anic word itself and with an eye on the time (of the Prophet and his companions) when it functioned independently free from the onerous complexities of Medievalism. Douglas also failed in making an objective assessment of Azad's intellectual brilliance which, mingled with his voice of reason, lent unique lustre to his resplendent personality. He does not seem to have had an access to the sources of culture and intellectualism which Azad represented and which he wished to be reflected in the composite cultural and intellectual life of modern India. Unless one is able to reach the very fount of the great Islamic tradition, interwoven with Arab-Iranian-Turkic strands of cultural values and "its interaction with the rich diversity of Indian thought and experience", one should always have the realization of having not satisfactorily succeeded in measuring the cultural and intellectual richness that Azad possessed.

P.N. Chopra's book, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: Unfulfilled Dreams (Delhi, 1990), is a neat but uncritical compilation of selective events concerning Azad's political career. It is not written in a chronological order, and does not inform one of why and how he acted and reacted in a particular way in a given situation. It is, like Arsh Malsiani's Abu'l Kalam Azad (Delhi, 1976) and S.R. Bakshi's Abul Kalam Azad: The Secular Leader (Delhi, 1991) not a biography, political or otherwise, in the real sense of the word.

Among Pakistani writers, Dr, Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, Shaikh Muhammad Ikram, Professor Hafeez Malik and others like them, because of their obsession with the idea of Muslim separatism or the "two-nation theory' could at best be described as Azad's detractors, mainly of his political ideas. Shorish Kashmiri's life of Azad, Abul Kalam Azad(Lahore, 1988), in Urdu is laudatory and is in a style which cannot afford to be objective and analytical. In the same category may be placed Ghulam Rasul Mehr's and Abu Salaman Shahjahanpuri's works which are mainly compilations of diversified writings by Azad himself or by others. These are, however, commendable endeavours and provide valuable material to the writers on Azad's life and achievements. Recently, Muhammad Faruq Qureshi has published his Urdu book, titled as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad aur Qaumparast Muslamanon Ki Siyasat (Lahore, 1991), which is, perhaps, the first attempt, in Pakistan, to understand and evaluate, in a scholarly way, Azad's contribution to India's struggle for freedom. It is based on relevant sources, primary and secondary, as were available to the author.

An Egyptian scholar, Dr. Abdul Mun'im an-Namir, submitted his doctoral thesis on Azad to the Azhar University (Cairo). This is the only work of its kind in Arabic. Its Urdu translation was published in 1989. The biographical contents in it are sketchy. It seems that its author was handicapped by his insufficient knowledge of Urdu, Persian and English. Like most of his counterparts in Urdu, he is simply laudative in his estimate of Azad as an alim and a national leader, which also suggests a lack of his proper initiation in the discipline of research methodology. However, his discovery of the three letters in Arabic (dated: December 1912, May 28, 1913 and July 1924) which Azad wrote to Rashid Rida (Editor, al-Manar) on the subject of Khilafat and the urgent need for a joint Muslim front to protect and preserve it, is undoubtedly an addition to the knowledge in the field of abulkalamiyat (abulkalamics).

In 1990 came out V.N. Datta's book, Maulana Azad, which, despite my disagreement with some of the opinions expressed therein, I would commend as the best of all the biographical writings on Azad. Though not "a comprehensive biography of Azad" and unnecessarily brief in the treatment and discussion of some such events and aspects of Azad's life, which deserved deeper consideration and fuller discussion, the author has definitely made a significant contribution towards understanding Azad and his mind and "the cultural values" as he says, "which sustained Azad throughout his life and gave him strength to wage the political battles despite heavy odds."

I have been greatly benefited by these works and express my gratitude to their authors/compilers/editors.

Now, one may ask what exactly impelled me to undertake this challenging task. I submit that by writing this biography I wished to make an attempt to set right the common error in the tendency to study Azad by dividing his public life into two parts-pre-1920 and post-1920 in sofar as his political-and to some, even his religious-ideas were concerned. I maintain that the political ideals cherished and advocated by him in al-Hilal impeccably remained close to his heart till the last moment of his life. It is a terribly wrong assumption that he changed after 1920 when he first met Gandhiji in Delhi. No, he did not change. He did not grow from being a Muslim leader to become a national leader. He was already an Indian nationalist when he rejoined the Vakil of Amritsar (1907, or early 1908). He had come into contact with the revolutionaries in Bengal even earlier.

I was also impelled to write this by the growing realization, on my part, after the publication of India Wins Freedom (1959) and, then, of its 1988 edition with the 'controversial thirty pages, that a certain group of intellectuals and a section of the national press mistakenly thought it a national duty of theirs to denigrate Azad and disparage his reputation as a great leader and statesman whose sacrifices during the struggle for freedom and whose contribution to India's national life were second to none.

And, yet, another motivation inducing me to write it has been to bring the fact out in sharp relief that it was only Azad who faced and countered resolutely the powerful Hindutva elements in the Congress and outside and the wild forces of Muslim separatism all around, and that particularly during the final phase of the national struggle, in order to save the country from the evil of the Partition which, he believed, would be a disaster for the Muslims and for India as a whole. When all had surrendered, he stood firm and strong and all alone like the ancient oak amidst the stormy winds blowing from all sides. Azad had a high sense of self-respect and 'individualism' which, to some of his critics verged on egotism. There were, however, occasions when he had to suffer humiliation and could justifiably think of resigning from the Congress. But, he did not. He displayed, instead, a remarkable self-restraint and stoically put up with all such situations; and all that just in order to preserve the unity of India and save both the country and his co-religionists from the total ruin which the Partition, according to him, was to entail.

The book is planned in two parts. The first part 'Toward Freedom' covers the years roughly from 1903 when Azad started Lisan al-Sida to 1940 when, during the days of the Individual Satyagrah, he was arrested at Lahore.

I do not claim any total objectivity. I consider it quite appropriate if one tends to be a bit charitable to the person whose biography one has been attracted to write. Azad was one of our most outstanding political leaders. But he was also the most misunderstood leader not only by his own community but also by a great many among the Hindus.

Zakir Nagar, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi

Ziya-ul-Hasan Faruqi