Abul Kalam Azad

Indian politician and writer (1888-1958) · India · Politicians · Died at 69

Abul Kalam Azad is read about 660 times a day, in 52 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 September 2026

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India remembers him as the youngest president of the Indian National Congress and the architect of its education system after independence.

Politicians Politician Politics Journalism Literature 20th Century

A life in dates

1992Bharat RatnaAward1958Died22 February 19581940“I am a Musalman and proud of the fact. Islam’s splendid traditions of thirteen hundred years are my inheritance. I am unwilling to lose even the smallest part of this inheritance.”In their wordsIn his Presidential Adress of 1940, as quoted in Religions of South Asia An Introduction (2006), p. 239.Read the whole statement

1913“Islam does not command narrowmindedness and racial and religious prejudice.”In their wordsAl-Hilal, Nos. 14-15, Vol. II, April 9-16, 1913, as quoted in Rajmohan Gandhi, Eight Lives: A Study of the Hindu-Muslim Encounter (1986),Read the whole statement

1888Born11 November 1888

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Abul Kalam Azad 1

Abul Kalam Azad At MA Jinnah's Grave

Congressmen

Gandhi addressing AICC in Bombay 1946

Gandhi with Maulana Azad and Acharya Kripalani 1942

India Wins Freedom by Maulana Azad

Jawaharlal Nehru with Mahatma Gandhi and Abul Kalam Azad, Wardha, August 1935

Jawaharlal Nehru with Sir Stafford Cripps and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

In their own words 4

Abul Kalam Azad

4 statements, newest first

I am a Musalman and proud of the fact. Islam’s splendid traditions of thirteen hundred years are my inheritance. I am unwilling to lose even the smallest part of this inheritance.
1940, In his Presidential Adress of 1940, as quoted in Religions of South Asia An Introduction (2006), p. 239., Own words
Islam does not command narrowmindedness and racial and religious prejudice.
1913, Al-Hilal, Nos. 14-15, Vol. II, April 9-16, 1913, as quoted in Rajmohan Gandhi, Eight Lives: A Study of the Hindu-Muslim Encounter (1986),, Own words
... Full eleven centuries have passed by since then. Islam has now as great a claim on the soil of India as Hinduism.
Archived from the original, 23 July 2006, Own words

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Awards

Bharat Ratna1992

Family

Father Maulana Khairuddin

Abul Kalam Azad

Partners

Spouse Zulekha Begum

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About this person

Born in 1888, Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin wrote poetry and religious treatises before turning to journalism that attacked colonial rule and caught Mahatma Gandhi's attention during the Khilafat Movement. He threw himself into non-violent resistance after the 1919 Rowlatt Acts, promoted Swadeshi products and Swaraj, and in 1923 became Congress president at 35 - the youngest ever. He helped found Jamia Millia Islamia in 1920 and moved it to New Delhi in 1934, organized the Dharasana Satyagraha in 1931, and spent the war years imprisoned with the Congress leadership after the Quit India rebellion. When independence came in 1947 he became India's first Minister of Education, building the foundation the country still teaches on. He died in 1958; his birthday is now National Education Day.

Country

India

Politicians from India 6

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee57.3

Khaleda Zia57.1

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