Choudhary Rahmat Ali
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Choudhary Rahmat Ali (November 16 1897 - February 12, 1951) born in Balachaur in Hoshiarpur (present day India) was the founder of the Pakistan National Movement, and was an early proponent of the formation of Pakistan. He is also credited with coming up with the name "Pakistan" along with Pir Ahsan-ud-Din and Khawja Abdul Rahim. Legend has it that the trio conceptualized the name while walking along the banks of the Thames in 1932 (reported by another friend Abdul Haq).
He completed his early studies in Lahore, and moved to the United Kingdom where he studied at Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge and the University of Dublin, earning MA and LLB degrees.
In the early 1930s, Ali began writing about the formation of a Muslim nation in India, and voiced his ideas in the pamphlet entitled "Now or Never; Are we to live or perish forever?"Now or Never. He also gave birth to the term "Pakistan" to refer to the Muslim homeland that he envisioned in Northern India, as well as "Bang-i-Islam" for a Muslim homeland in the Bengal, and "Usmanistan" for a Muslim homeland in the Deccan.
Like 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 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, Choudhary Rahmat Ali's writings, in addition to those of Iqbal and others were major catalysts for the formation of Pakistan. 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.
Interestingly, while Choudhary Rahmat Ali was a champion for the formation of Pakistan, he lived most of his adult life in the United Kingdom. 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, and his criticisms were beginning to raise alarm while his claims of contribution to the Pakistan Movement were interpreted by his critics as boasting to be the real founder of Pakistan.
- "On his arrival in this country Choudhary Rahmat Ali has expressed his intention of launching a Pakistan National Liberation Movement with the object of securing a repudiation of the June 3 Plan, 'by agreement if possible and without agreement if necessary'..." The Pakistan Times reported on May 22.
Notes
See also
- Now or Never
- [Grave of C. Rahmat Ali in Cambridge]
- [Qawwals 'Sabri Brothers' praying at C. Rahmat Ali's grave]
External links
- Dedicated sites with works
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Creation of Pakistan
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| History: | General History - British East India Company - 1857 War of Independence - Aligarh Movement - Partition of Bengal - Lucknow Pact - Khilafat Movement - Nehru Report - Fourteen Points of Jinnah - Allahabad Address - Now or Never pamphlet - Two-Nation Theory - British East India Company - Indian Round Table Conferences - Pakistan Resolution - Indian Muslim Nationalism - Cabinet Mission - Indian Independence Act - Radcliffe Line - Pakistan - Objectives Resolution - Yaum e Azadi
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| Organisation: | Muslim League
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| Leaders: | Sir Syed - Iqbal - Quaid-i-Azam - Liaquat Ali Khan - Bahadur Yar Jung - Abdur Rab Nishtar - Fatima Jinnah - Choudhary Rahmat Ali - Muhammad Ali Jouhar - Shaukat Ali - Zafar Ali Khan - Khawaja Nazimuddin - Abdul Qayyum Khan - Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy - Ghulam Ahmed Pervez - Shaukat Hayat Khan - Begum Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan -
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| Activists: | ZA Suleri - Hameed Nizami - Altaf Husain - Yusuf Khattak - |
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