Muhammad Ali Jawhar | |
|---|---|
 Jawhar, before 1931 | |
| 10thPresident ofAll-India Muslim League | |
| In office 30 December 1917 – 1 January 1918 | |
| Preceded by | Muhammad Ali Jinnah |
| Succeeded by | Mohammad Ali Mohammad Khan |
| 41stPresident ofIndian National Congress | |
| In office 1923–1923 | |
| Preceded by | Chittaranjan Das |
| Succeeded by | Abul Kalam Azad |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1878-12-10)10 December 1878 |
| Died | 4 January 1931(1931-01-04) (aged 52) |
| Resting place | Jerusalem |
| Political party | All India Muslim League |
| Other political affiliations | Indian National Congress |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | Shaukat Ali (brother) Zulfiqar Ali Khan (brother) Gauhar Ali Khan (brother) |
| Parent(s) | Abdul Ali Khan (father) Abadi Bano Begum (mother) |
| Occupation | Journalist,scholar,political activist, poet |
| Known for | Khilafat movement |
| Religion | Islam |
| Founder of | Jamia Millia Islamia |
Muhammad Ali Jawhar (10 December 1878 – 4 January 1931) was an Indian politician and activist of the Indian independence movement. He was a co-founder of theAll-India Muslim League andJamia Millia Islamia.
Born into an anti-colonial family, Jawhar was a member of theAligarh movement. He was elected to become the president of theIndian National Congress party in 1923 and it lasted only for a few months owing to the differences with the organization, especially Gandhi, on the haphazard ending of Non-cooperation movement. In the following years, he ended up being antithetical to it and accused Gandhi and Motilal Nehru of succumbing to the appeasement of Hindus as they regarded Muslims “the minorities” in India and refused to accommodate Muslim demands in the political representation. Being one of the founders, esteemed member and 10th president of theAll-India Muslim League, he represented the party in the first round-table conference held in London.[1][2][3]
Indian Muslim freedomactivist, one of the founders ofAll-India Muslim League, a pre-eminent member ofIndian National Congress,journalist and a poet, a leading figure of theKhilafat Movement and one of the founders ofJamia Millia Islamia.[4][5][6][7]
Muhammad Ali was born in 1878 atRampur inNorth-Western Provinces,British India.[4][8][9] He was born to a wealthy family with roots in the city ofNajibabad. His father,Abdul Ali Khan, died when he was five years old.[10][11] His brothers wereShaukat Ali, who became a leader of theKhilafat Movement, and Zulfiqar Ali. His motherAbadi Begum (1852 – 1924), affectionately known as 'Bi Amman', inspired her sons to take up the mantle of the struggle for freedom from the British colonial rule. To this end, she was adamant that her sons were properly educated. Due to the efforts, determination and sacrifice of their mother, he and his brothers were able to get a good quality education.[11][4]
Despite the early death of his father, Jawhar attendedAligarh Muslim University and theAllahabad University, eventually moving toEngland in 1898, attendingLincoln College, Oxford to study modern history.[4][6][12]
Upon his return to India, he served as education director for the Rampur state, and later joined theBaroda civil service.[4] He became a writer and an orator of the first magnitude and a farsighted political leader, writing articles in major British and Indian newspapers likeThe Times, London,The Manchester Guardian andThe Observer.[4] He launched theEnglish weeklyThe Comrade in 1911 inCalcutta. It quickly gained circulation and influence internationally. He moved toDelhi in 1912 and there he launched anUrdu-language daily newspaperHamdard in 1913.[2] He marriedAmjadi Bano Begum (c. 1886–1947) in 1902. Amjadi Begum was actively involved in the national and Khilafat movement.[13][14]
Jawhar worked hard to expand the Aligarh Muslim University, then known as theMuhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, and was one of the co-founders of theJamia Millia Islamia in 1920, which was later moved to Delhi.[4]
Jawhar had attended the founding meeting of theAll India Muslim League inDacca in 1906, and served as its president in 1918.[4] He remained active in the League till 1928. Jawhar "had the unique distinction of having directed the affairs of the three most important political parties/movements in the country — TheIndian National Congress, theAll India Muslim League and theKhilafat movement."[8]
He represented theMuslim League delegation that travelled toEngland in 1919 to convince the British government to influence the Turkish nationalistMustafa Kemal not to depose theSultan of Turkey, who was theCaliph of Islam and the presumed leader of all theIslamic nations of that time.[15] British government's rejection of their demands resulted in the formation of theKhilafat committee which directed Muslims all over India to protest and boycott the British government.[15]
In 1921, Jawhar formed a broad coalition with the nationalist leaders likeShaukat Ali,Abul Kalam Azad,Hakim Ajmal Khan,Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari,Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari as well asMahatma Gandhi, who then enlisted the support of theIndian National Congress and many thousands of Hindus, who joined the Muslims in a demonstration of unity against the British government. Jawhar also wholeheartedly supported Gandhi's call for a national civil resistance movement and inspired many hundreds of protests and strikes all over India. He was arrested by British authorities and imprisoned for two years for what was termed as a seditious speech at the meeting of the Khilafat Conference.[6][4]
Jauhar was disillusioned by the end of Khilafat movement and Gandhi's suspension ofnon-cooperation movement in 1922, owing to theChauri Chaura incident. This incident, on 4 February 1922, when a large group of protesters, participating in Gandhi's non-cooperation movement clashed with police, who opened fire and killed three protesters. In retaliation, the demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station, killing 22 policemen. TheIndian National Congress suspended the non-cooperation movement on the national level as a direct result of this incident.[16]
He restarted his dailyHamdard and left the Congress Party. He opposed theNehru Report, which was a document proposing constitutional reforms and a dominion status of an independent nation within theBritish Empire, written by a committee ofHindu andMuslim members of the Congress Party headed by PresidentMotilal Nehru. It was a major protest against theSimon Commission which had arrived in India to propose reforms but having no local Indian member nor making any effort to listen to the Indians' voices and aspirations. Mohammad Ali was put in jail.[15] So All Parties Conference on Nehru report was represented by Shaukat Ali, Begum Mohammad Ali and 30 other members of the Central Khilafat Committee which includedAbdul Majid Daryabadi, Azad Subhani,Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi,Abul Muhasin Muhammad Sajjad and others. Mohammad Ali opposed the part of the Nehru Report's 'acception' of separate electorates for Muslims, and supported theFourteen Points ofMuhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League.[4][17] He became a critic of Gandhi, breaking with fellow Muslim leaders like Abul Kalam Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, who continued to support Gandhi and the Indian National Congress.[15]
In 1921, the British government established a court inKhaliqdina Hall inKarachi[18][8] and punished him with two-and-a-half years' imprisonment inKarachi central jail. Besides this jail sentence, he had served many and frequent jail sentences due to his anti-government activities. However, he kept fighting forthe Muslim League.[11]
Ultimately Mohammad Ali's frequent jail sentences, his diabetes and lack of proper nutrition while jailed, made him very sick. Despite his failing health, he wanted to attend the firstRound Table Conference held inLondon in 1930.[11][4][8] Ali attended the 'Conference' inLondon (the chairman beingSir Agha Khan of the Muslim delegation) to show that only the Muslim League spoke for India's Muslims. Reportedly his words to the British government were that he would not return to India alive unless the country was set free, "I would prefer to die in a foreign country so long as it is a free country, and if you do not give us freedom in India, you will have to give me a grave here."[2][8]
He died of a stroke inLondon on 4 January 1931 and was buried inJerusalem by the choice of his relatives, friends and admirers.[4][8] The inscription on his grave in theKhātūniyya Madrasa,[19] which is near theDome of the Rock, says: "Here lies al-Sayyid Muhammad Ali al-Hindi."[2]
Pakistan Postal Services issued a commemorative postage stamp for Muhammad Ali Jawhar in its 'Pioneers of Freedom' series on his birth anniversary in 1978.[8] A number of educational intuitions likeMohammad Ali Jauhar University inRampur, India, Maulana Muhammad Ali Jawhar Academy of International Studies in Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, India,Maulana Mohammad Ali College in Bangladesh and places includingJohar Town,Jauharabad,Gulistan-e-Jauhar in Pakistan are named after Jawhar .
Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar is a 1984documentary film directed by Saiyed Ahmad and produced by theGovernment of India'sFilms Division, it covers his political career and life as anIndian freedom fighter.[20]
"I had long been convinced that here in this Country of hundreds of millions of human beings, intensely attached to religion, and yet infinitely split up into communities, sects and denominations, Providence had created for us the mission of solving a unique problem and working out a new synthesis, which was nothing low than a Federation of Faiths … For more than twenty years I have dreamed the dream of a federation, grander, nobler and infinitely more spiritual than the United States of America, and today when many a political Cassandra prophesies a return to the bad old days of Hindu-Muslim dissensions I still dream that old dream of 'United Faiths of India.'" —Mohammad Ali Jauhar; from the Presidential Address, I.N.C. Session, 1923, Cocanada (now Kakinada).[21]
However later, he started supporting the concept of Pakistan and thePakistan Movement.[4]
المدرسة الخاتونية (مدفن مجموعة من الأعلام، منهم آل الحسيني)[…] وفيها قبر موقفتها أغل خاتون إلى جانب قبور كل من الأمير محمد علي الهندي وهو أمير هندي ناضل في سبيل القضية الفلسطينية[structure number 88 on PDF's p. 40 (= p. 79). Text alsoavailable hereArchived 23 July 2022 at theWayback Machine. ]
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