Maulana Abul Kalam Azad ranks together with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru as one of the foremost leaders of the Indian National Movement. An erudite scholar of Islamic theology, he had a strong intellectual bent of mind and an inborn flair for literary writing. Making his debut on the Indian political scene as a young journalist with strong Pan-Islamist views, Azad grew over the years into a front-rank Indian nationalist who steered the destiny of the Indian National Congress as its President twice, first 1923 and from 1940 to 1946 subsequently. Like Bal Gangadhar Tilak earlier and Mahatma Gandhi who was his contemporary, Azad was a firm believer in the inseparability of politics from religion. All these three leaders used religion to galvanize the socially and economically backward Indian masses for struggle against foreign colonial rule. Maulana Azad made an outstanding contribution to induction of Muslim masses into the mainstream of national struggle for independence in opposition to the Aligarh School, led by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. He also stood firmly committed to the cause of united India in the face of strong opposition by the Muslim League, led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Papers included in this volume will help a wide circle of readers in our country in forming an objective estimate of the role of Maulana Azad in the national movement and the relevance of his ideas in the present-day situation.
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