Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Born in Mecca in 1888, Maulana came to India in 1890 as a child. The best part of his formative years was spent in Calcutta. In 1916, he was to meet Gandhiji in Calcutta, and was greatly influenced by his speeches.

Azad joined the freedom movement of India, and was arrested by the British for his seditious writings, and detained in jail at Ranchi for four years. On his release in January, 1920 he met Gandhiji in the latter's Sabarmati Ashrama, and became his ardent follower.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was a profound scholar, a great patriot and a veteran statesman. He was an outstanding Muslim whom no provocation and no pressure could deflect from the path of nationalism. He became the symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity, enjoying in a large measure the confi­dence of both the communities even on trying occasions.

Azad was highly respected by the Muslims, even when he was very young, as he was a great scholar of merit. He was a reputed scholar of the Quran. As an orator in Urdu, he was unrivalled. He edited the famous paper Liasanus Side at the age of fifteen. Poet Hali described Azad as 'an old head on young shoulders'.

Azad took part in all the Congress movements launched by Gandhiji, and was jailed number of times as a freedom fighter. Azad became the President of the Congress Party in 1940, as a prominent member of the Congress. But his dream of one composite nation was shattered, when India was divided on the eve of her independence. He became a sad man.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad died on 22 February, 1958.




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A time to recall the stalwarts

The HIndu http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-time-to-recall-

the-stalwarts/article5318102.ece

Narendra Modi: 4-in-One

Narendra Modi: 4-in-One
By
Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam

We are told Narendrabhai Modi, who is a 4-in-One product, would be best suited for India’s prime ministership.

The first quality that he has is that he is a liar. He, and people like him, think that lying is an essential “quality” for a successful politician.
We have no opinion on that, but every time he tells a lie he is caught. That means he is not good at even lying.Recently, he said that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru did not attend Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s funeral. Soon people came out with the fact that Pandit Nehru was very much there at his colleague’s funeral.
The elaborate falsehood that he resorted to about Uttarakhand disaster evacuation was another example of his lying.

His second quality is that he is a miniature-sized Hitler, a good consolation for the contemporary Hitler lovers in India. He has all the hatred for Muslims that Hitler had for Jews. He also shares Hitler’s hatred for Leftists and liberals.

His third feature is that he destroys his patrons like he did with L K Advani and other senior BJP leaders. A day may come when he would cut the RSS to size the way the offspring of crabs eat away the mother.

The fourth characteristic is that he can hold on tenaciously to his goal. The hate he has created has been spread by his friends to other states. His friend Amit Shah has brought it to UP. The fruit is being reaped in Muzaffarnagar.

Faced with the threat to constitutional order and national integrity from this four-headed monster 17 political parties are coming together to thwart him. That is a good beginning if it is not allowed to break down under the heavy weight of personal ambitions of leaders. The only guarantee of its success will be the leaders rising above personal considerations to uphold a constitutional order and a democratic dispensation.