Rahmat Ali: A Biography

Description

Rahmat Ali was the first Indian Muslim to argue the 2-nation theory in irrefutable syllogism, to demand a sovereign Muslim state in the sub-continent, and to establish a movement to realize the ideal, and to invent a beautiful and apt name for the country which was still in the womb of time.

What he said and did between 1933 and 1947 grants him a pivotal position in the origin, evolution and consummation of the idea of Pakistan, and makes him one of the truest founding-fathers of the state of Pakistan. Hounded out of Pakistan when he came to live here, betrayed by his friends, ignored by the leaders of the Pakistan movement, neglected by scholars and historians, and libelled by the Establishment, he yet lives in our history as a figure of heroic proportions.

It has taken Prof. Aziz 15 years to draw this portrait. Using all the Rahmat Ali papers within his reach, interviews with his contemporaries, newspaper reports of that period and a vast amount of other sources, he has written a book which fits the importance of the subject. Immaculate documentation, a graceful style, and unaffected erudition combine to make it probably the finest biography ever published in Pakistan. It is a daring and memorable piece of historical scholarship.

Author Biography

Professor Khursheed Kamal Aziz (K. K. Aziz) was born in December 1927, in village Ballamabad near Faisalabad. He was educated at the M. B. High School Batala, Forman Christian College and the Government College, Lahore, and the Victoria University of Manchester. He has been on the academic staff of the Government College, Lahore, and of the Universities of the Punjab, London, Cambridge, Khartoum and Heidelberg, and has delivered occasional lectures at the Universities of Karachi, Peshawar, Dacca, Islamabad, Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Geneva, Oxford and Bergen.

During intervals snatched from teaching abroad he has served at home as Deputy Official Historian to the Government of Pakistan, Chairman of the National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research, and Special Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister (Z. A. Bhutto). Author of over a dozen books, he is a historian of rank with an international reputation.