Choudhary Rahmat Ali
Date of birth:16th of November 1897
Place of birth: Balachaur, Nawanshahr District,British India Place of death: Cambridge, England,United Kingdom Movement: Pakistan Movement Major organizations: Pakistan Muslim League Chaudhary Rahmat Ali (November 16, 1897 - February 3, 1951) was an Indian Muslim nationalist who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate Muslim homeland on the Indian subcontinent.
Education and careerRehmat Ali was born in the town of Balachaur in Hoshiarpur District of Punjab (now Nawanshahr District). After graduating from Islamia Madrassa Lahore in 1918, he taught at Aitchison College Lahore before continuing Law studies at Punjab University. In 1930 he moved to England to join Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1931. In 1933, he published a pamphlet, Now or Never, coining the word Pakistan for the first time. Subsequently, he obtained a BA degree in 1933 and MA in 1940 from University of Cambridge. In 1943, he was called to the Bar, Middle Temple Inn, London. Until 1947 he continued publishing various booklets about his vision of the subcontinent. The partition process disillusioned him due to the mass killings and mass migrations. He was also dissatisfied with the distribution of areas among the two countries and considered it a major reason for disturbances. He died on 3 February 1951 and was buried on 20 February at Newmarket Road Cemetery, Cambridge, UK.
Conception of 'Pakistan'There are several accounts to the conceptualising of the name. According to a friend (Abdul Kareem Jabbar) the name came up when Rehmat Ali was walking along the banks of the Thames in 1932 with his friends Pir Ahsan-ud-Din and Khawja Abdul Rahim. According to Rehmat Ali's secretary Miss Frost, he came up with the idea of the name ‘Pakistan’ while riding on the top of a London bus.
The front page of Now or Never pamphletIn the early 1930s, Ali began writing about the formation of a Muslim nation in India. On January 28, 1933, he voiced his ideas in the pamphlet entitled "Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?". The word 'Pakstan' referred to "the five Northern units of India, Viz: Punjab, (Afghanistan Province), Kashmir, Sind, Baluchistan and one North East unit of India Viz: Bengal ". By the end of 1933, 'Pakistan' become common vocabulary where an i was added to ease pronouncement (as in Afghan-i-stan). In a subsequent book Rehmat Ali discussed the etymology in further detail.
'Pakistan' is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our Indian Sub-continent homelands; that is, Panjab, Afghanistan (Pashtunistan), Kashmir, Sindh (including Kach and Kathiawar), Tukharistan, Afghanistan, and Balochistan. It means the land of the Paks- the spiritually pure and clean. It symbolizes the religious beliefs and ethnical stocks of our people; and it stands for all the territorial constituents of our original Fatherland. It has no other origin and no other meaning; and it does not admit of any other interpretation. Those writers who have tried to interpret it in more than way have done so either through the love of casuistry, or through ignorance of its inspiration, origin and composition.
Philosophy Headstone of Ali's GraveLike Allama Iqbal, Ali believed that the Muslims of India had to undergo a reformation politically in order to remain a viable, and independent community there. Ali noted that the Islamic prophet Muhammad had succeeded in uniting fractured Arab tribes and that this example was to again be used by Muslims of India to pool together in order to survive in what he perceived to be an increasingly hostile India.
As such, Chaudhary Rahmat Ali's writings, in addition to those of Iqbal and others were major catalysts for the formation of Pakistan. He oferred "Bang-i-Islam" for a Muslim homeland in the Bengal, and "Usmanistan" for a Muslim homeland in the Deccan. He also suggested "Dinia" as a name for a subcontinent for various religions.
Ali dedicated a lot of time and energy to the idea of Pakistan, and after its formation in 1947, he argued on its behalf at the United Nations over the issue of Kashmir.
Post-independenceWhile Chaudhary Rahmat Ali was a leading figure for the conception of Pakistan, he lived most of his adult life in England. The Cambridge-based pamphleteer had been voicing his dissatisfaction with the creation of Pakistan ever since his arrival in Lahore on April 6 1948. He was unhappy over a Smaller Pakistan than the one he had conceived in his 1933 pamphlet Now Or Never.
Consequently, Rahmat Ali died in 1951, buried in Cambridge City graveyard.
Chaudhary Rahmat AliThe man who conceived the idea of Pakistan
I became interested in the life of Chaudhary Rahmat Ali when I got married to my wife Rizwana, who comes from Pakistan, and found that he had been a member of the same Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where I had been undergraduate, research student, and finally, research fellow. Rahmat Ali conceived the name, Pakistan while on top of a London bus. The name means the land of the Paks. The word Pak stands for all that is noble and sacred in the life of a Muslim. At the same time, it is composed from letters taken from the names of its components: Punjab, North West Frontier of which the inhabitants are mainly Afghan, Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan. I discovered not only his contribution to the birth of a nation, but also the contribution made by two Cambridge women, one, Miss Watson, who was his landlady, and the other, Miss Frost, who was his secretary. They were both very old ladies when I managed to interview them, but they remembered him vividly and gave a unique insight on what the great man was really like.
One of Chaudhary Rahmat's Ali's pamphlets: INDIA The Continent of DINIA or The Country of DOOM
Obituary of Chaudhary Rahmat Ali published in the Emmanuel College magazine
From his early years Chaudhry ~mat Ali was convinced that the destiny of the Indian Muslims lay in carving out a separate independent homeland of their own in North-Western India and he relentlessly pursued this goal throughout his life.
The credit for coining the word "PAKISTAN' (meaning Land of the Pure) goes to him when he first used it in his pamphlet titled "Now or Never" published on January 28, 1933. Each alphabet in the word "Pakistan" stood symbolically for the territories that were later to constitute Pakistan i.e. 'P' for Punjab, ' A' for Afghania (i.e. the NWFP), 'K' for Kashmir, 's.' for Sindh, and 'TAN' for Baluchistan. This name soon caught the imagination of the multitudes and even the foreign newspapers began to call the proposed country by this name.
Chaudhry Rahmat Ali launched the Pakistan National Movement by issuing and distributing pamphlets, tracts, handbills and other literature. A weekly newspaper under the title 'Pakistan' was also started.
Chaudhry Rahmat Ali came to Pakistan on a short visit and then went back to Cambridge (England) where he died on February 3, 1951. He joined the University in 1931, studied
at Emmanuel, settled down to live in the town, wrote all his works
and published them here, fell ill and entered a hospital on the
outskirts of the town, died there in 1951, and is buried in the
town cemetery. He was the first to argue the two-nation theory in
an irrefutable syllogism, to demand a sovereign Muslim state in
South Asia and establish a movement to realize the ideal, to invent
a name for this country which was still in the womb of time, and to
spend all his life, resources and courage in fighting for the
interests of Indian Muslims. When in 1947 the Muslims broke from
their Indian bonds they fully vindicated Rahmat Ali's faith in
their separate destiny. The creation of Pakistan was a tribute as
much to his imagination and foresight as to the labours of the All
India Muslim League...
Endowed with a diamond-hard sense of purpose, Rahmat Ali pursued
his objectives to the total exclusion of all distractions.
Possessed of a mind as lucid as sunlight, he expounded his message
in words as clear as ringing bells. He put forward before his people
an ideal which he believed to be the truth and lit many lanterns on
the way to that truth. With the self-denial and simplicity of the
ancient Sufi he surrendered everything he had for the realization
of his goal. He has many claims on the memory of later ages.HEROES: RAHMAT FOR THE PEOPLE Professor K.K. Aziz, author of Rahmat Ali: A Biography, began by chronologically going through the life of Rahmat Ali "because the dates given by most people are wrong", discussed his contribution to the Pakistan movement, remarked on his individuality, and concluded by making some suggestions. Rahmat Ali was born on 16 November 1897 in Hoshiarpur, now Eastern Punjab to an ordinary village family. He went to a college in Jullunder and was at Islamia College, Lahore between 1915 and 1918 where he got his BA. He was Tutor at Aitchison College, Lahore from 1918 to 1923. Between 1923 and 1930 he was Legal Advisor to the Nawab of Mazari. He won a case for the Nawab and was rewarded handsomely. He used that money to fulfil his dream of education at Cambridge University, which only the well off and well connected 'Indians' could aspire to in those days. He arrived in England in November 1930 and joined Emmanuel College, Cambridge in January 1931, completing his BA degree in April 1933 (MA Oct 1940). On 28 January 1933 he issued his pamphlet Now or Never demanding Pakistan. From henceforth he dedicated his life to Pakistan. In 1940 he returned to the Sub-continent, landing in Karachi and aiming to go to Lahore, but the British did not allow him to travel to Punjab Province (this is when the Lahore Session of the All-India Muslim League was about to take place and Rahmat Ali wanted to influence the Lahore Resolution). He was 'deported' and he returned to England. In January 1943 he was called to the Bar (Middle Temple, London). After the creation of Pakistan he returned back to his homeland in April 1948, planning to stay for good, but he was ordered out of his country, with his belongings confiscated, and he left empty-handed for England in October 1948. He died on 3 February 1951 in Cambridge -- a lonely man in a state of poverty, and with no one to take responsibility for his burial, Emmanuel College's Master, who had been Rahmat Ali's Tutor, himself arranged the burial in Cambridge on 20 February 1951. (Being in Cambridge, I'm fortunate that I've had many a occasion to visit the grave for fatiha prayer, and I can tell you that it is a sight which brings tears to the eyes.) Rahmat Ali was a prophetic and a tragic figure in the history of the Sub-continent. His worth was not recognised in his life, he was not recognised when he died, and he has not been recognised after all these years. It may be noted that from 1933, when he first proposed Pakistan, right up to his death in 1951, he consistently and continuously did nothing but campaign for his Pakistan demand against all odds, for example initial opposition from the All-India Muslim League and later their enmity. Still, he succeeded in creating a large public opinion in favour of Pakistan and the proof is that between 1935 and early 1939 about 300 articles appeared in the Punjab/Urdu press supporting Pakistan. Professor Aziz asserted that Rahmat Ali moulded the opinion of the Muslims and forced the Muslim League to follow suit when it hadn't even begun to consider the idea of Pakistan. Although the idea of the Two Nation Theory (TNT) was not new as such, nobody had put it forward so precisely as Rahmat Ali had. His is the earliest and finest elaboration of the case that Muslims are a distinct and separate nation, and, therefore, deserved a separate home. Earlier historic mentions of the TNT were vague and brief references only. It was Rahmat Ali who argued and defined the ideal of Pakistan on the philosophical concept of the TNT. Some of his ideas, such as, demand for numerous small Muslim states in India may have been impracticable, but they highlighted his burning desire to save every Muslim from Hindu domination. Much of his post-1947 efforts were for the Muslim minority in India and he took up the matter at the level of the UN. He was also concerned about other, non-Muslim minorities in the region. Rahmat Ali's efforts knew no bounds. Professor Aziz stated that he did not know of any other leader in the history of the Sub-continent Muslims who was committed to a particular cause so consistently and who was almost 'mad' in the pursuit of his goals. He spent a life in exile, with the latter years in agony, but he was not acknowledged by the people or by the party that created Pakistan, the Muslim League. In spite of the frustrations and disappointments, he was not bitter towards his beloved Pakistan and the heartache did not diminish his ideal and his spirit of self-sacrifice. His power of endeavour was truly immense and he was entirely committed to Pakistan. When asked why he did not marry, he replied that he was married to the cause of Pakistan. All who knew him, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, agreed that he was a perfect gentleman who did not lie or break promises. How is it, then, that a person of such heroic proportions is not acknowledged. History textbooks mention that he "coined" or "invented" the name of Pakistan, but fail to provide further accurate information on his life and his ideas. The Muslim League, the founding party of Pakistan, borrowed his idea but did not acknowledge his contribution and influence. Professor Aziz related that when his biography on Rahmat Ali was published there was a lack of adequate response from scholars ("a species extinct in Pakistan") book reviewers, the media, concerned officials and the public at large. What is more is that no British university has seemed fit that a student writes a dissertation on Rahmat Ali. After all, Rahmat Ali's writings are in English and he lived, and is buried, in this country. The silence is, therefore, on all sides. The Professor made some suggestions as to what needs to be done. He would like to see wider circulation of material of and on Rahmat Ali, that he would be happy to see his biography reprinted here along with The Complete Works of Rahmat Ali. The Pakistanis in Britain should approach the authorities in Cambridge to put up a plaque at 3 Humberstone Road with an inscription saying something like "Pakistan was born here. The word Pakistan was invented here on 28 January 1933 by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, student of Emmanuel College". Plaques should be put up at all the Cambridge addresses where Rahmat Ali lived, mainly 16 Montague Road. The tombstone at Rahmat Ali's grave in Newmarket Road Cemetery, Cambridge needs to be changed because it is "false history carved in stone" -- the date of death is given wrongly, Feb 12, 1951 instead of the actual date Feb 3, 1951. (I may add that an additional stone with the correct date was placed two years ago.) 16 Montague Road should be purchased and turned into a Rahmat Ali Museum to house everything of, and on, Rahmat Ali. Also, funds should be raised for a Scholarship or Fellowship to objectively work on Rahmat Ali. Professor Aziz concluded that he was saddened by the treatment meted out to Rahmat Ali and hoped that such things would not happen again. It was irrational and difficult to explain. His final words were that a nation which forgets its heroes forgets to produce heroes. PAKISTAN DECLARATION, 1933
Full text of Rahmat Ali's Pakistan Declaration (Now or Never). Rahmat Ali issued this document on January 28, 1933 from his student address in Cambridge. This Declaration comprised the first part of his Pak Plan, and only dealt with the area of Pakistan. NOW OR NEVER: ARE WE TO LIVE OR PERISH FOR EVER?
Document is headed by Arabic script from the Qur'an, 13:11: "Verily, Allah does not change the condition of a people unless they change their inner selves".
At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN - by which we mean the five Northern units of India, Viz: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan - for your sympathy and support in our grim and fateful struggle against political crucifixion and complete annihilation.
Our brave but voiceless nation is being sacrificed on the altar of Hindu Nationalism not only by the non-Muslims, but to the lasting disgrace of Islam, by our own so-called leaders, with reckless disregard to our guture and in utter contempt of the teachings of history. The Indian Muslim Delegation at the Round Table Conference have committed an inexcusable and prodigious blunder. They have submitted, in the name of Hindu Nationalism, to the perpetual subjection of the ill-starred Muslim nation. These leaders have already agreed, without any protest or demur and without any reservation, to a Constitution based on the principle of an All-India Federation. This, in essence, amounts to nothing less than signing the death-warrant of Islam and its future in India. In doing so, they have taken shelter behind the so-called Mandate from the community.
But they forgot that that suicial Mandate was framed and formulated by their own hands. That Mandate was not the Mandate of the Muslims of India. Nations never give Mandates to their representatives to barter away their very souls; and men of conscience never accept such self-anhilating Mandates, if given - much less execute them. At a time of crisis of this magnitude, the foremost duty of saving statemanship is to give a fair, firm and fearless lead, which, alas, has been persistently denied to eighty millions of our co-religionists in India by our leaders during the last seventy-five years. These have been the years of false issues, of lost opportunities and of utter blindness to the most essential and urgent needs of the Muslim interests. Their policy has throughout been nerveless in action and subservient in attitude. They have all along been paralysed with fear and doubt, and have deliberately, time and again, sacrificed their political principles for the sake of opportunism and expediency. To do so even at this momentous juncture of Bedlam. It is idle for us not to look this tragic truth in the face. The tighter we shut our eyes, the harder the truth will hit us.
At this critical moment, when this tragedy is being enacted, permit us to appeal to you for your practical sympathy and active support for the demand of a separate Federation - a matter of life and death for the Muslims of India - as outlined and explained below.
India, constituted as it is at the present moment, is not the name of one single country; nor the home of one single nation. It is, in fact, the designation of a State created for the first time in history, by the British. It includes peoples who have never previously formed part of India at any period in its history; but who have, on the other hand, from the dawn of history till the advent of the British, possessed and retained distinct nationalities of their own.
In the five Northern Provinces of India, out of a total population of about forty millions, we, the Muslims, contribute about 30 millions. Our religion, culture, history, tradition, economic system, laws of inheritance, succession and marriage are basically and fundamentally different from those of the people living in the rest of India. The ideals which move our thirty million brethren-in-fath living in these provinces to make the highest sacrifices are fundamentally different from those which inspire the Hindus. These differences are not confined to the broad basic principles - far from it. They extend to the minutest details of our lives. We do not inter-dine; we do not inter-marry. Our national customs, calendars, even our diet and dress are different.
It is preposterous to compare, as some superficial observers do, the differences between Muslims and Hindus with those between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Both the Catholics and Protestants are part and parcel of one religious system - Christianity; while the Hindus and Muslims are the followers of two essentially and fundamentally different religious systems. Religion in the case of Muslims and Hindus is not a matter of private opinion as it is in the case of Christians; but on the other hand constitutes a Civic Church which lays down a code of conduct to be observed by their adherents from birth to death.
If we, the Muslims of Pakstan, with our distinct marks of nationality, are deluded into the proposed Indian Federation by friends or foes, we are reduced to a minority of one to four. It is this which sounds the death-knell of the Muslim nation in India for ever. To realise the full magnitude of this impending catastrophe, let us remind you that we thirty millions constitute about one-tenth of whole Muslim world. The total area of the five units comprising PAKSTAN, which are our homelands, is four times that of Italy, three times that of Germany and twice that of France; and our population seven times that of the Commonwealth of Australia, four times that of the Dominion of Canada, twice that of Spain, and equal to France and Italy considered individually.
These are facts - hard facts and realities - which we challenge anybody to contradict. It is on the basis of these facts that we make bold to assert without the least fear of contradiction that we, Muslims of PAKSTAN, do possess a separate and distinct nationality from the rest of India, where the Hindu nation lives and has every right to live. We, therefore, deserve and must demand the recognition of a separate national status by the grant of a separate Federal Constitution from the rest of India.
In addressing this appeal to the Muslims of India, we are also addressing it to the two other great interests - British and Hindu - involved in the settlement of India's future. They must understand that in our conviction our body and soul are at stake. Our very being and well-being depends upon it. For our five great Northern states to join an All-India Federation would be disastrous, not only to ourselves, but to every other race and interest in India, including the British and the Hindu.
This is more especially ture when there is just and reasonable alternative to the proposed settlement, which will lay the foundations of a peaceful future for this great continent; and should certainly allow of the highest development of each of these two peoples without one being subject to another. This alternative is a separate Federation of these five predominantly (sic) Muslim units - Punjab, North-West Frontier (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan.
The Muslim Federation of North-West India would provide the bulwark of a buffer state against any invasion either of ideas or arms from outside. The creation of such a Federation would ot materially disturb the ratio of the Muslim and Hindu population in the rest of India. It is wholly to the interest of British and Hindu statesmanship to have an ally a free, powerful and contented Muslim nation having a similar but separate Constitution to that which is being enacted for the rest of India. Nothing but a separate Federation of homelands would satisfy us.
This demand is basically different from the suggestion put forward by Doctor Mohammed Iqbal in his Presidential address to the Al-India Muslim League in 1930. While he proposed the amalgamation of the provinces into a single state forming a unit of the All-India Federation, we propose that these Provinces should have a separate Federation of their own. There can be no peace and tranquility in the land if we, the Muslims, are duped into a Hindu-dominated Federation where we cannot be the masters of our own destiny and captains of our own souls.
Do the safeguards provided for in the Constitution give us any scope to work for our salvation along our own lines ? Not a bit. Safeguard is the magic word which holds our leaders spellbound, and has dulled their consciences. In the ecstasy of their hallucinations they think that the pills of safeguards can cure nation-anhilating earthquakes. Safeguards asked for by these leaders and agreed to by the makers of the Constitution can never be a substitute for the loss of separate nationality. We, the Muslims, shall have to fight the course of suicidal insanity to death.
What safeguards can be devised to prevent our minority of one in four in an All-India Federation from being sacrificed on every vital issue to the aims and interests of the majority race, which differs from us in every essential of individual and corporate life ? What safeguards can prevent the catastrophe of the Muslim nation smarting and suffering eternally at the frustration of its every social and religious ideal ? What safeguards can compensate our nation awakened to its national conscious for the destruction of its distinct national status ? However effective and extensive the safeguards may be, the vital organs and proud symbols of our national life, such as army and navy, foreign relations, trade and commerce, communications, posts and telegraphs, taxation and customs, will not be under our control, but will be in the hands of a Federal Government, which is bound to be overwhelmingly Hindu. With all this, how can we, the Muslims, achieve any of our ideals if those ideals conflict - conflict as they mu
Front of the four-page document, Now or Never, in which the name "Pakstan" was first published by Rahmat Ali while he was a student at Cambridge University. THE WORD 'PAKISTAN'
Rahmat Ali first published the word 'PAKSTAN' on January 28, 1933 in the pamphlet 'Now or Never'. By the end of 1933, the word had become common vocabulary through the efforts of Rahmat Ali's Pakistan National Movement. An ''I' was added to ease pronouncement (like Afghan-i-stan). In his book 'Pakistan: the Fatherland of the Pak Nation', Rahmat Ali gives a fuller explanation of the word.
WORD 'NOW OR NEVER' 'FATHERLAND' URDU LETTER MEANING P Punjab Punjab Pai Pure, clean.
Holy, as in Qur'an-pak. A Afghania (NWFP) Afghania Alif K Kashmir Kashmir Kaf I Iran Vowel 'I' S Sindh Sindh Seen
Land / land of. T
BalochisTAN Tukharistan Thai A Afghanistan Alif N BalochistaN Nun
EXPLANATION
The originator of the name, Rahmat Ali, says:
" 'Pakistan' is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our homelands- 'Indian' and 'Asian'. That is, Panjab, Afghania (North West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Iran, Sindh (including Kach and Kathiawar), Tukharistan, Afghanistan, and Balochistan. It means the land of the Paks- the spiritually pure and clean. It symbolizes the religious beliefs and ethnical stocks of our people; and it stands for all the territorial constituents of our original Fatherland. It has no other origin and no other meaning; and it does not admit of any other interpretation. Those writers who have tried to interpret it in more than way have done so either through the love of casuistry, or through ignorance of its inspiration, origin and composition" (C.R. Ali, 1947, "Pakistan: the Fatherland of the Pak Nation", Cambridge).
Death:He died on 3 February 1951 and was buried on 20 February at Newmarket Road Cemetery, Cambridge, UK.
