The discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru

Author:Jawaharlal Nehru [Nehru, Jawaharlal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

attitude was necessary and no truck with nationalism and sedi-

tion. The Aligarh College group had become the leaders of the

new Moslem intelligentsia and influenced sometimes openly,

more often from behind the scenes, almost every Moslem move-

ment. The Moslem League came into existence largely through

their efforts.

Abul Kalam Azad attacked this stronghold of conservatism

and anti-nationalism not directly but by spreading ideas which

undermined the Aligarh tradition. This very youthful writer

and journalist caused a sensation in Moslem intellectual circles

and, though the elders frowned upon him, his words created a

ferment in the minds of the younger generation. That ferment

had already started because of events in Turkey, Egypt, and Iran,

as well as the development of the Indian nationalist movement.

Azad gave a definite trend to it by pointing out that there was

no conflict between Islam and sympathy for Islamic countries

and Indian nationalism. This helped in bringing the Moslem

League nearer to the Congress. Azad had himself joined the

League, whilst yet a boy, at its first session in 1906.

The Al-Hilal was not approved of by the representatives of

the British Government. Securities were demanded from it under

the Press Act and ultimately its press was confiscated in 1914.

348

Thus ended the Al-Hilal after a brief existence of two years.

Azad thereupon brought out another weekly, the Al-Balagh,

but this, too, ended in 1916 when Azad was interned by the

British Government. For nearly four years he was kept in intern-

ment, and when he came out at last he took his place imme-

diately among the leaders of the National Congress. Ever since

then he has been continuously in the highest Congress Execu-

tive, looked upon, in spite of his youthful years, as one of the

elders of the Congress, whose advice both in national and poli-

tical matters as well as in regard to the communal and minority

questions is highly valued. Twice he had been Congress presi-

dent, and repeatedly he has spent long terms in prison.

The other weekly that was started in 1912, some months before

the Al-Hilal was The Comrade. This was in English and it influen-

ced especially the younger English-educated generation of Moslems.

It was edited by Maulana Mohammad Ali, who was an odd

mixture of Islamic tradition and an Oxford education. He began

as an adherent of the Aligarh tradition and was opposed to any

aggressive politics. But he was far too able and dynamic a per-

sonality to remain confined in that static framework, and his

language was always vigorous and striking. The annulment of

the Partition of Bengal in 1911 had given him a shock and his

faith in the bona fides of the British Government had been shaken.

The Balkan Wars moved him and he wrote passionately in

favour of Turkey and the Islamic tradition it represented. Pro-

gressively he grew more anti-British and the entry of Turkey in

World War I completed the process. A famous and enormously

long article of his (his speeches anb writings did not err on the side

of brevity or conciseness) in The Comrade entitled 'The Choice of

the Turks' put an end to The Comrade which was stopped by the

government. Soon after, government arrested him and his brother

Shaukat Ali and interned them for the duration of the war and a

year after.

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