Chuhdary Rahmat Ali

Choudhry Rahmat Ali was a Muslim nationalist activist who is credited with coining the name "Pakistan" for a separate Muslim homeland in British India. He is sometimes regarded as the originator of the Pakistan Movement.

Early life and education

Rahmat Ali was born on 16 November 1897 in the village of Balachaur within the Hoshiarpur District of the Punjab Province. He belonged to a Punjabi Muslim family and was the son of Haji Shah Muhammad. Because his mother died when he was very young, a stepmother raised him. The historian K. K. Aziz, who knew Ali personally, reported that he was from the Gorsi clan of the Gujjar tribe.

His early schooling began in the town of Rahon at a local middle school. In 1910, he traveled to Jalandhar to enroll in the Saindas Anglo Sanskrit High School. After completing his matriculation in 1912, he joined Islamia College Lahore later that same year. He passed his intermediate examination in 1915 with subjects including English, history, maths and Persian. Ali earned a BA degree from Islamia College in 1918, where he studied English, economics and Persian.

During his college years, he held several leadership positions. He served as the secretary of the college debating union and acted as the editor of the college magazine, Crescent. He also functioned as the secretary and vice president of his tutorial group.

Career

Ali worked as an assistant editor for the newspaper Kashmir, which was founded by Munshi Muhammad Din Fauq Kashmiri. He wrote various articles regarding Indian history and politics to argue that northwestern India was the rightful homeland for Muslims. One specific article titled "Maghrib ky Korana Taqlid" caused him to lose his job after British authorities issued a reprimand to his editor. Following his graduation in 1918, he taught at Aitchison College Lahore.

He later served as the Chief Advisor to Sir Nawab Murad Buksh Khan Mazari for six years. During this tenure, he also taught the children of Mazari, including Mir Balakh Sher Mazari and Sardar Sherbaz Khan Mazari. In 1930, he moved to England to study law at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He joined the college in 1931 and obtained a BA degree in 1933 along with an MA in 1940. He was eventually called to the Bar from Middle Temple, London, in 1943.

His most significant contribution occurred in 1933 when he published a pamphlet titled "Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?". This document, also known as the "Pakistan Declaration," was addressed to British and Indian delegates at the Third Round Table Conference. While his ideas were initially dismissed by politicians like Muhammad Ali Jinnah, they gained acceptance by 1940. This shift led to the Lahore Resolution of the All-India Muslim League, which the press immediately called the "Pakistan Resolution."

In 1946, he established the Pakistan National Movement in England. Although he helped shape the name of the nation, he felt disillusioned by the Partition of India due to the resulting mass killings and migrations. He expressed dissatisfaction with how territories were distributed in his writing, The Greatest Betrayal. In this work, he described six "deadly blows" that he believed Jinnah dealt against Muslims by accepting a smaller state than Ali had envisioned.

Personal life

Ali returned to Pakistan from England in April 1948 with plans to remain in the country. However, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan expelled him and confiscated his belongings. He left the country empty-handed in October 1948. Ali died on 3 February 1951 in Cambridge while living in a state described as destitute, forlorn and lonely.

Emmanuel College, Cambridge, covered his funeral expenses following instructions from its Master, Edward Welbourne. He was buried at the Cambridge City Cemetery on 20 February 1951. Some accounts suggest he conceived the idea for the name "Pakistan" while riding a London bus, though another friend, Abdul Kareem Jabbar, claimed the name arose during a walk along the Thames in 1932.