Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was one of the most influential independence activists during India’s freedom struggle. He was also a noted writer, poet, and journalist.
He was a prominent political leader of the Indian National Congress, and was elected as Congress president in 1923 and 1940.
He was elected as the president of the special session of the Congress in Delhi in 1923. Maulana Azad was arrested in 1930 for the violation of the salt laws as part of Gandhiji’s salt Satyagraha. He was put in Meerut jail for a year and a half.
Maulana Azad became the President of the Congress in 1940, and remained in the post till 1946. Maulana Azad started a weekly called AlBalagh with the same mission of propagating Indian nationalism based on Hindu-Muslim unity. Azad was a staunch opponent of partition, and supported a confederation of autonomous provinces having common defence and economy.
Like Gandhiji, partition hurt him greatly, and shattered his dream of a unified nation. Azad was the first education minister of Independent India.
