The first time I met Maulana Abul Kalam Azad as a small girl when my father took me to his King Edward Road home in Delhi to wish him for E...
The first time I met Maulana Abul Kalam Azad as a small girl when my father took me to his King Edward Road home in Delhi to wish him for Eid, he left a deep impact on my childish mind. I can still remember him reclining on a sofa with a slim cigarette case on the table, his gentle smile and his reserved manner. I never imagined that I would one day become his biographer and spend almost half my life studying his life and his works.
As his 63rd death anniversary was observed earlier this week, I began to think about his urgent relevance in the 21st year of the 21st century. The fact that he was the tallest leaders of the freedom movement, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Mahatma, is not enough. The fact that he was Nehru’s mentor – India’s first prime minister referred to him as Amir e Karvaan, the leader of the group – is also not enough.
What matters is that Azad holds the cure to the biggest scourge India faces today: the communal virus that has seeped into the vital organs of my country. This slow poison today is more lethal than the great pandemic that...
