From 50 Years Ago: Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad

Maulana Azad was used to being listened to with respect and to be obeyed...This was a privilege enjoyed fully, though not exclusively, by Pandit Nehru. Now that Maulana Saheb is gone, t here is hardly any one lef t he can talk to; the others, he mostly talks at them. It is a personal tragedy for the Prime Minister; it is also a national tragedy, for the same reason.

The image of Maulana Azad one got from his public appearances is hard to reconcile with his stormy youth and his tremendously active political life. Essentially a man of contemplation, a divine and a profound scholar, yet Maulana Azad had thrown himself into the maelstrom of politics when he was barely a youth of 22...the trials and tribulations which Maulana Azad had to endure were far greater than those of his comrades, who had at least the consolation that whatever their sufferings, they had the unquestioned support and approbation of their own people. For the path of a Muslim nationalist, which Maulana Azad blazed for others, was no easy path. It led him for long periods into the wilderness. He was forsaken by many of his own people, in fact by the bulk of them, and was dubbed a traitor by large sections of the Indian Muslims. Yet he was steadfast, never faltered for a moment and travelled the whole way with comrades in the Congress, if not to the final fruition of his dreams, at least to the fulfilment of what he held most dear.