Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad is one of those rare personalities through whom the distinctions
of the 20th century can be recognized and possibilities of the 21st century
determined. He stood for a learning society through liberal, modern and
universal education combining the humanism of Indian arts and the rationalism
of western sciences, a society where the strong are just and the weak secure,
where the youth is disciplined and the women lead a life of dignity – a
non-violent, non-exploiting social and economic order. He was free India’s
first Education Minister and guided the destinies of the Nation for eleven
years.
He was the first to raise the
issue of the National System of Education which is today the bed-rock of the
National Policy on Education (1986) updated in 1992. The concept implies that,
upto a given level, all students, irrespective of caste, creed, location or sex
have access to education of a comparable quality. All educational programmes,
he said, must be carried out in strict conformity with secular values and
constitutional framework. He stood for a common educational structure of 10+2+3
throughout India. If Maulana Azad were alive today he would have been the
happiest to see the Right to Free Education Bill getting cabinet approval for
the approval of Parliament. The Right to Education Bill seeks to make free and
compulsory education a fundamental right. The wealth of the nation, according
to Maulana Azad, was not in the country’s banks but in primary schools. The
Maulana was also a great votary of the concept of Neighbourhood schools and the
Common School System.
Born in Mecca on
November 11, 1888, his father Maulana Khairuddin was a noted
scholar, his mother Alia was an Arab, niece of Shaikh Mohammad Zahir Vatri of
Madina. His father gave him the name of Feroze Bakht but he became Abul Kalam
and the name stayed. At 10 he was well-versed in Quran. At 17 Abul Kalam was a
trained theologian recognized in the Islamic world. His studies at Al Azhar
University Cairo further deepened his knowledge. At Calcutta where his family
had settled he started a magazine called ‘Lisan-ul-Sidq’. His early influences
were Maulana Shibli Naomani and Altaf Hussain Haali, the two great Urdu
critics.
Azad made a debut in politics
when the British Government partitioned Bengal in 1905 on religious grounds.
The Muslim middle classes supported the partition but Azad rejected it
outright. He took active part in the agitation, joined the secret societies and
revolutionary organization, came in contact with Sri Aurobindo Ghosh and Shyam
Sundar Chakravarty. He stood for a unified India and never deviated from his
stand. He writes in his famous book ‘India Wins Freedom’ : ‘It is one of the
greatest frauds on the people to suggest that religious affinity can unite
areas which are geographically, economically and culturally different’. It is a
fact of history that while other Congress leaders accepted the partition in
1947, Maulana stood steadfast. His famous statement on Hindu-Muslim unity
stands out as Magna Carta of his faith : “If an angel were to descend from the
heavens and proclaim from the heights of Qutab Minar: Discard Hindu-Muslim
unity and within 24 hours Swaraj is yours, I will refuse the preferred Swaraj
but shall not budge an inch from my stand. The refusal of Swaraj will affect
only India while the end of our unity will be the loss of our entire human
world.”
At the age of 20 he went on a
tour of Iraq, Syria and Egypt and met the young Turks and Arab nationalists
including Christians. The tour proved very useful to Azad to crystallize his
thoughts on the neo-colonialists who were exploiting those countries and how
India could help them. On return he started a journal in Urdu named ‘Al Hilal’
in 1912. It was this journal where he aired his liberal views, ‘Rationalist in
outlook and profoundly versed in Islamic lore and history’. Writes Nehru in his
‘Discovery of India’. The Maulana interpreted scriptures from the rationalist
point of view. Soaked in Islamic tradition and with many personal contacts with
prominent Muslim leaders of Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Iran, he
was profoundly affected by political and cultural developments in these
countries. He was known in Islamic countries probably more than any other
Indian Muslim.
The journal ‘Al-Hilal’ became
extremely popular and in two years its circulation rose to 30,000. The
inevitable happened when in 1914 the British Government confiscated the press
and banned the journal under the Defence of India Act. Azad was arrested and
sent to Ranchi jail where he suffered untold hardships.
Released from jail he resumed
his educational writings. He spoke in a new language, writes Nehru. It was not
only a new language in thought and approach, even its texture was different,
for Azad’s style was tense and virile though sometimes a little difficult
because of its Persian background. He used new phrases for new ideas and was a
definite influence in giving shape to Urdu language as it is today. The older
conservative Muslims did not react favourably to all this and criticized Azad’s
opinion and approach. Yet not even the most learned of them could meet Azad in
debate and argument, even on the basis of scriptures and tradition, for Azad’s
knowledge of these happened to be greater than theirs. He was a strange mixture
of medieval scholasticism, eighteenth century rationalism and modern outlook.
There were a few among the older generation who approved of Azad’s writings,
among them being Shibli and Sir Sayyaid of Aligarh University.
After the confiscation of
‘Al-Hilal’ Azad brought out a new weekly called ‘Al Balagh’ but this too came
to an end when Azad was interned in 1916. He remained in jail for four years.
When he came out he was an acknowledged leader and took his seat with the great
might of the Indian National Congress. In 1920 he met Tilak and Gandhi which
was the turning point of his life. Gandhi had launched the ‘Khilafat Movement’
under the Deoband School and Firanghi Mahal where Gandhi and Azad were frequent
visitors. But when Muslim League denounced Gandhiji’s Satyagraha, Azad who had
enrolled himself in the League when a boy, left the Muslim League forever. His
popularity was so high that at 35 he became the President of the Indian
National Congress, the youngest ever to hold that office. In 1942 during the Quit
India Movement he was elected as the Chief spokesman of the Congress. This
distinction he also had during the negotiations with the Cabinet Mission in
1946 at Simla.
As Education Minister (15.08.47 to 22.02.1958)
In 1947 when the Interim
Government was formed Maulana Azad was included as Member for Education and
Arts. On August 15, 1947 when India attained Independence he became Free
India’s first Education Minister with a cabinet rank where he achieved a number
of distinctions and established institutions of excellence to promote education
and culture.
Among the new institutions he
established were the three National Academies viz the Sangeet Natak Academy
(1953), Sahitya Academy (1954) and Lalit Kala Academy (1954), the Indian
Council for Cultural Relations having been established by him earlier in 1950.
The Maulana felt that the cultural content in Indian Education was very low
during the British rule and needs to be strengthened through curriculum. As
Chairman of the Central Advisory Board of Education, an apex body to recommend
to the Government educational reform both at the center and the states
including universities, he advocated, in particular, universal primary
education, free and compulsory for all children upto the age of 14, girls
education, vocational training, agricultural education and technical education.
He established University Grants Commission (UGC) in 1956 by an Act of
Parliament for disbursement of grants and maintainence of standards in Indian
universities. He firmly believed with Nehru that if the universities discharged
their functions well, all will be well with the Nation. According to him the
universities have not only academic functions, they have social
responsibilities as well. He was pioneer in the field of adult education. His
greatest contribution, however, is that in spite of being an eminent scholar of
Urdu, Persian and Arabic he stood for the retention of English language for
educational advantages and national and international needs. However primary
education should be imparted in the mother-tongue. On the technical education
side he strengthened All Indian Council for Technical Education. The Indian
Institute of Technology, Kharagpur was established in 1951 followed by a chain
of IIT’s at Bombay, Madras and Kanpur and Delhi. School of Planning and
Architecture came into existence at Delhi in 1955.
Student Unrest
Secular to the marrow of his
bones Maulana’s advice to students was: ‘Bury communalism once for all.’
Student indiscipline, however, continued to worry him. Presiding over the
meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) on February 7, 1954
he said: “What worries me most is that the extent and magnitude of the
student’s unrest is very often without any relation whatsoever to the supposed
cause. Such unrest among the students strikes at the root of our national
culture. The student of today is the potential leader of tomorrow. He will have
to sustain the social, political and economic activities. If he is not properly
trained and does not develop the necessary resources of character and knowledge
he cannot supply the leadership which the national will need”.
As an Author
Maulana Azad was a prolific
writer with books in Urdu, Persian and Arabic notably amongst which is ‘India
Wins Freedom’, his political biography, translated from Urdu to English.
Maulana’s translation of Quran from Arabic into Urdu in six volumes published
by Sahitya Akademy in 1977 is indeed his ‘Magnum Opus”. Since then several
editions of ‘Tarjaman-e-Quran’ have come out. His other books include
‘Gubar-e-Khatir’, ‘Hijr-o-Vasal’, ‘Khatbat-I-Azad’, ‘Hamari Azadi’, ‘Tazkara’.
He gave a new life to Anjamane-Tarrqui-e-Urdu-e-Hind’. During the partition
riots when the ‘Anjamane-Tarrqui-Urdu suffered, its Secretary Maulvi Abdul Haqq
decided to leave for Pakistan alongwith the books of the Anjaman. Abdul Haqq
had packed the books but Maulana Azad got them retrieved and thus saved a
national treasure being lost to Pakistan. He also helped the Anjaman to revive
by sanctioning a grant of Rs. 48,000 per month from the Ministry of Education.
Likewise he increased the grants of Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim
University in their days of financial crisis. He paid particular attention to
the Archaeological Survey of India’s efforts to repair and maintain the
protected monuments.
Throughout his life he stood
for the chords of cordiality between Hindus and Muslims and the composite
culture of India. He stood for modern India with secular credentials, a
cosmopolitan character and international outlook.
As an orator Azad had no equal
among his contemporaries. When he spoke the audience listened to him
spell-bound. Recalling the memories of the Roman and the Greek orators, there
was magic in his words, his language was chaste, civilized, his speech was dramatic.
In October 1947 when the Delhi Muslims were leaving for Pakistan tens of
thousands of them, he spoke from the ramparts of Jama Masjid, like an ancient
oracle: “Behold, the high towers of Jama Masjid are asking you: where have you
lost the pages of your history. Only yesterday your caravans had performed
‘Wazu; (Ablutions) on the banks of Jamuna. And today you are afraid to live
here. Remember that you have nourished Delhi with your blood. You are afraid of
tremors, time was when you yourself were an earthquake. You fear darkness when
you yourself symbolized light only recently. The clouds have only poured dirty
water and you have raised your trousers for fear of being drenched. They were
your forefathers who had dived deep into the seas, cut across the mighty
mountains, laughed away the lightnings, answered the thunder of the skies with
the velocity of your laughter, changed the direction of the winds and turned
the typhoons that they have been misled to a wrong destination. It is an irony
of faith that those who played with the destinies of the kings are victims of
their own destiny today. And in doing so they have become so forgetful of their
God as if it never existed. Go back it is your home, your country….”
The effect of his speech was
dramatic. Those who packed up their baggages to migrate to Pakistan returned
home filled with a new sense of freedom and patriotism. There was no mass
migration thereafter. In the history of international oratory Maulana Azad’s
Jama Masjid speech can only be compared with the Gettysburg address of Abraham
Lincoln, Birla House speech of Nehru on Gandhi’s assassination and recently of
Martin Luther’s speech: ‘I have a dream’.
As a man Maulana was even
greater, he led an austere life. He had the madness of a Spinoza, the courage
of Prometheus Unbound, the humility of a Dervesh. At the time of his death he
had neither any property nor any bank account. In his personal almirah were
found some cotton ‘Achkans’. A dozen ‘Khadi Kurtas’ and ‘pyjama’, two pairs of
sandals, an old dressing gown and a used brush. But there were lots of rare
books which are now a property of the Nation.
A man like Maulana Azad is born
rarely. Throughout his life he stood for the unity of India and its composite
culture. His opposition to partition of India has created a niche in the hearts
of all patriotic Indians.There he stands with Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, his
senior an Ashfaqullah his junior. In the words of Iqbal : Hazaron sall Nargis
apni benoori par roti hai, Bari Mushkil sey hota hai chaman mein deeda var
paida. ( For a thousand years the Narcissus weeps for her blindness, With great
difficulty is born in the garden a man with vision). Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s Birthday 11th November has been
declared as National Education Da y.
