Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Born Sept. 11, 1888; died Feb. 22, 1958. Indian political figure and scholar. One of the leaders of the national liberation movement; a consistent advocate of unity between Hindus and Muslims. Descended from an old family of Delhi Muslim ulamas.

From 1912, Azad was a member of the Indian National Congress Party. During 1912–14 he published in Urdu the newspaper Al-Hilal (Fortnight), an organ of anti-English propaganda for the most radical segment of the Muslim bourgeois intelligentsia. Azad was one of the leaders of the campaigns of civil disobedience in 1919–22 and 1930. He headed Indian delegations in conducting negotiations with England in 1942, 1945, and 1946. He was the author of commentaries on the Koran and works on the philosophy and history of Urdu literature. In August 1947 he became minister of education in independent India.