Historian S. Irfan Habib, while delivering his Maulana Abul Kalam Azad memorial lecture titled "Revisiting Maulana Azad in Contemporary India" on Tuesday, rued how in today's India, anytime he posts anything on social media on the freedom fighter, 80 per cent of the comments comprise hateful abuse.
"Full of abuse... 80 per cent of the comments. And from people who have no idea of who he was, what he stood for, and what he did for India," said Habib, whose lecture on the Maulana on the icon's 137th birth anniversary was organised by the Maulana Azad College alumni association to mark the college's centennial.
Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin (November 11, 1888-February 22, 1958), better known as Maulana Azad, was a writer-activist-statesman.
One of Mahatma Gandhi's most trusted lieutenants and the youngest president of the Indian National Congress, he made crucial contributions to the freedom movement. He was also Independent India's first education minister.
"I will speak about those issues relevant for today's India. What he did for education, how he defined nationalism — today all those who have no idea of what nationalism is are nationalists — and how he defined Islam.... Islam too is in danger when we see what we believers have done to our own faith," said Habib, former Maulana Azad Chair at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi.
Maulana Azad's family moved from Mecca to Calcutta when he was two. He spent several decades of his life in this city, his residence on 5 Ashraf Mistry Lane of Ballygunge now a museum.
November 11 is celebrated as National Education Day to recognise his contribution in establishing the education foundations of India — from the Indian Institutes of Technology, the University Grants Commission, the All India Council for Technical Education, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Indian Institute of Science, and the Sahitya Akademi, the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Lalit Kala Akademi, besides the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
"Patriotism, nationalism and humanism, the difference between them Maulana tried to look at. In this (the belief in the culmination in humanism) he was very close to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, and he actually writes about it, that he believes in the idea of nationalism which was pitched by the idea of Tagore's humanism and universalism," said Habib.
"True relationship is only one, where the entire earth is one's native land. This is necessary is today's India, where we indulge in othering among own citizens, in the name of religion, caste, language, all sorts of issues, all sorts of divisive tools we use to divide Indians, while Maulana says mankind is one family and all humans are brothers, this is the idea of humanity of nationalism which Maulana left behind," he added.
Habib underscored how the Maulana began as a pan-Islamist, speaking against the subjugation of Muslim nations by imperialist powers — a sentiment expressed strongly in his papers Al-Hilal and Al-Balagh, and it was because of his role as a fiercely upright journalist that the British Raj viewed him as one of the most dangerous persons in India.
Habib stated that after the Maulana was released from exile in Ranchi in 1920, he was torn between reading and writing in seclusion, or public life and the freedom struggle. It was soon after coming out of exile that the Maulana met Gandhi on January 18, 1920, for the first time.
"The meeting seemed to have had a profound impact on both... and they remained inseparable for the rest of his (Gandhi's) life," he said.
According to Habib, the Maulana fought on multiple fronts, not only against the British, but also Hindu and Muslim communalists.
"Maulana stressed on indivisible or composite nationalism, where he went back to early Islamic history, when the Prophet (Muhammad) created the first Muslim nation in Medina by aligning with the Yehudis (Jews). He saw no reason why Muslims could not join hands with Hindus and others in nation-forming.... He was appalled with communalists busy with sectarian campaigns when the need was to fight the British as a composite nationalist group," Habib said.
"Maulana stood for a united India and remained steadfast in this resolve till the end. We are amid polarising politics where religion has become a distinct marker of identity.... The majoritarian nationalism being flaunted today runs contrary to the idea of composite nationalism espoused by Maulana all his life," he added. "Maulana found the demand for Pakistan absurd as he was conscious of the fact that religion cannot be a binding factor for a nation."