Moulana Abdul Kalam Azad

Moulana Abdul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed :
(Birth:11th Nov.1888- Death:22nd Feb.1958)

Moulana Abdul Kalam Azad is remembered as an enthusiastic leader of the freedom struggle of India, a great politician, a scholar and an orator. He was scholar of Urdu, Persian and Arabic languages. He was born in the family of a Muslim preacher in Mecca. Two years after the birth their family came to Calcutta. Abdul Kalam was trained according to olden methods and started studying Koran at the early age of fourteen. He received the title of 'Moulana' in his youth and changed his original name 'Muhiyuddin' to 'Azad' (free).

Abdul Kalam Azad came into contact with Shyamsunder Chakraborty and Aurobindo Ghose and became person of revolutionary thoughts. He entered politics and started a revolutionary nationalist Urdu weekly ' Al Halal' from Calcutta at the age of twenty-four only. He started criticizing the British and the sale of his weekly shots up to 25,000 copies per issue. The Government demanded bail from him and compelled to stop ' Al Halal'. After this, he started another periodic called ' Alba lag' and he was detained at Ranchi in 1916.
After Abdul Kalam Azad was freed from Ranchi in Jan. of 1920, he joined Mahatma Gandhi and Indian National Congress (I. N. C.). Since then, Abdul Kalam participated in every movement against British government. He participated in the movements like non-cooperation, Khilafat, the 1942 movement and suffered eleven years imprisonment.

Abdul Kalam was elected as president of the 1923 special session of the Congress and at 35 years of age, was the youngest man to be elected the President of the Congress. He became President of the Ramgadh Congress in 1940 and held the post for two years. In the meantime, he was imprisoned in the Ahmednagar fort for three years.

Abdul Kalam was included in the first cabinet of the Free India. He was minister of education for eleven years. Abdul Kalam's commentary on the Koran is famous as well as his book ' Ghubar-e-Khatir' is famous in Urdu literature.

The great leader of Nationalist Indian Muslims and a freedom lover Abdul Kalam Azad died at the age of seventy.