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Choudhary Rahmat Ali
‐
Lawyer and a leader in the movement for an independent Muslim state, who famously coined ‘PAKSTAN’
Other names
Choudhry Rehmat Ali
Place of birth
Date of arrival to Britain
Location(s)
Cambridge
CB4 1BX
United Kingdom 10 Albert Road (now Prince Albert Road)
London
NW1 7SS
United Kingdom Humberstone Road
Cambridge
CB4 1JG
United Kingdom
Place of death
Cambridge, England
Date of time spent in Britain
1930–40, 1943–8, 1948–51
About
Choudhary Rahmat Ali was born in Balachaur, Punjab, India. After taking his anglo-vernacular middle school certificate from the Municipal Board Middle School of Rahon in 1910, he moved to the Saindas Anglo-Sanskrit High School, Jalandhar, where he passed his finals in 1912. In 1918 he received his BA degree from Islamia College, Lahore. He moved to England in November 1930.
On 18 November he joined one of the Inns of Court, Middle Temple, but due to complications he was not called to the Bar until 26 January 1943. On 26 January 1931 he was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he passed the law tripos examination in June 1932, receiving his BB degree on 29 April 1933 and his MA degree on 18 October 1940.
Although Rahmat Ali had already voiced his idea for an independent Muslim state on the subcontinent before he moved to Britain, it was here that he would publish his pamphlet 'Now or Never: Are We to Live or Perish for Ever?' (1933). In this pamphlet, issued on 28 January 1933, he made an appeal
on behalf of the thirty million Muslims of PAKSTAN, who live in the five Northern Units of India – Punjab, N. W. F. P. (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan, embodying their inexorable demand for the recognition of their separate national status, as distinct from the rest of India, by the grant of a separate Federal Constitution on social, religious, political and historical grounds.
According to one source, Rahmat Ali had already coined the word in late 1932, while travelling on top of a bus (route 11) in London (see Aziz, Rahmat Ali, p. 89).
Rahmat Ali was dissatisfied with the outcome of the Round Table Conferences (1930–2) and felt that the nation was being sacrificed. His declaration was co-signed by Khan Muhammad Aslam Khan Khattak, Sahibzada Sheikh Muhammad Sadiq and Khan Inayat Ullah Khan in order to make it more representative. Given that he was just a student, his declaration was dismissed by politicians on all sides, Muslim, Hindu and British. In order to gain more political weight, he founded the Pakistan National Movement in 1933. The Movement fought against 'Indianism', and from his Cambridge address Rahmat Ali published a series of pamphlets over the following years.
In 1942 he published the pamphlet 'The Millat and the Mission: Seve Commandments of Destiny for the "Seventh" Continent of Dinia', in which he called for two further independent Muslim states, Bangistan (an abbreviation of Bang-i-Islamistan) and Osmanistan. This grandiose scheme represented Rahmat Ali's utmost dedication to the creation of a new Muslim Asia with seven Muslim strongholds surrounded by Hindu regions.
Rahmat Ali's declaration was too radical for the Jinnah-led All-India Muslim League, which had seized upon the possibility of an independent Muslim state and garnered public support in the 1940s. When Jinnah and the Muslim League accepted the British plan in June 1947, Rahmat Ali was furious. The concessions made by the League prompted Rahmat Ali to publish a leaflet entitled 'The Greatest Betrayal: How to Redeem the Millat?' (1947) and later that year the book Pakistan: The Fatherland of the Pak Nation.
In the summer of 1948 he made a trip to his hometown, which was now part of India, and returned to England in October 1948. Upon return to Cambridge his health started to deteriorate. He fell ill in late January 1951 and was admitted to the Evelyn Nursing Home where he died on 3 February 1951.
Nawab Sir Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana
What Does the Pakistan National Movement Stand For? (Cambridge: Pakistan National Movement, 1933)
Now or Never: Are We to Live or Perish for Ever? (Cambridge: University of Openness Press, [1933] 2005)
Letters to the Members of the British Parliament (Cambridge, 8 July 1935)
Islamic Fatherland and the Indian Federation: The Fight Will Go On for Pakistan (Cambridge: Pakistan National Movement, 1935)
Letter to The Times (8 December 1938)
The Millat of Islam and the Menace of Indianism (Cambridge: Pakistan National Movement, n.d.)
'The Millat and the Mission: Seven Commandments of Destiny for the "Seventh" Continent of Dinia' (Cambridge: Pakistan National Movement, 1942)
The Millat and Her Minorities: Foundation of Faruqistan for the Muslims of Bihar and Orissa (Cambridge: The Faruqistan National Movement, 1943)
The Millat and Her Minorities: Foundation of Haideristan for Muslims of Hindoostan (Cambridge: The Haideristan National Movement, 1943)
The Millat and Her Minorities: Foundation of Maplistan for Muslims of South India (Cambridge: The Maplistan National Movement, 1943)
The Millat and Her Minorities: Foundation of Muinistan for Muslims of Rajistan (Cambridge: The Muinistan National Movement, 1943)
The Millat and Her Minorities: Foundation of Siddiqistan for Muslims of Central India (Cambridge: The Siddiqistan National Movement, 1943)
The Millat and Her Minorities: Foundation of Safiistan for Muslims of Western Ceylon (Cambridge: The Safiistan National Movement, 1943)
The Millat and Her Minorities: Foundation of Nasaristan for Muslims of Eastern Ceylon (Cambridge: The Nasaristan National Movement, 1943)
The Millat and Her Ten Nations: Foundation of the All-Dinia Milli Movement (Cambridge: The All-Dinia Milli Movement, 1944)
Dinia: The Seventh Continent of the World (Cambridge: Dinia Continental Movement, 1946)
India: The Continent of Dinia, or the Country of Doom (Cambridge: Dinia Continental Movement, 1946)
The Pakistan National Movement and the British Verdict on India (Cambridge: Pakistan National Movement, 1946)
Pakasia: The Historic Orbit of the Pak Culture (Cambridge: The Pakasia Cultural Movement, 1946)
Bangistan: The Fatherland of the Bang Nation (Cambridge: The Bangistan National Movement, 1946)
Osmanistan: The Fatherland of the Osman Nation (Cambridge: The Osmanistan National Movement, 1946)
The Greatest Betrayal: How to Redeem the Millat? (Cambridge: Pakistan National Movement, 1947)
Pakistan: The Fatherland of the Pak Nation, 3rd edn (Cambridge: Pakistan National Liberation Movement, 1947)
The Muslim Minority in India and the Saving Duty of the U.N.O. (Cambridge: The All-Dinia Milli Liberation Movement, 1948)
The Muslim Minority in India and the Dinian Mission to the U.N.O. (Cambridge: The All-Dinia Milli Liberation Movement, 1949)
Pakistan or Pastan? Destiny or Disintegration? (Cambridge: The Pakistan National Liberation Movement, 1950)
Complete Works of Rahmat Ali, ed. by Khursheed Kamal Aziz (Islamabad: National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research, 1978)
Abdulhamid, Cauhdari Rahmat Ali aur Tahrik-i Pakistan (Lahore: Daruttazkir, 1995)
Ahmad, Khan A., The Founder of Pakistan: Through Trial to Triumph (London: the Author, [1942])
Ahmad, Waheed, Choudhary Rahmat Ali and the Concept of Pakistan (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, 1970)
Allana, G., 'Choudhary Rahmat Ali', in Our Freedom Fighters, 1562–1947: Twenty-One Great Lives (Karachi: Paradise Subscription Agency, [1969])
Anwar, Muhammad, 'The Forgotten Hero: I', Pakistan Times (23 March 1964)
Aziz, Khursheed Kamal, Complete Works of Rahmat Ali, vol. 1, ed. by K. K. Aziz (Islamabad: National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research, 1978)
Aziz, Khursheed Kamal, Rahmat Ali: A Biography (Lahore: Vanguard, 1987)
Baqa, Muhammad Sharif, Cauhdari Rahmat Ali ne Kaha (Lahore: Maktabah-yi Tamir-i Insaniyyat, 1995)
Cauhdari, Muhammad Azam, Zuamae Pakistan (Karachi: Abdullah Akaidimi, 1996)
Edib, Halidé, Inside India (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1937)
Khaliquzzaman, Choudhry, Pathway to Pakistan (Lahore: Longmans, Pakistan Branch, [1961])
Wasti, S. M. Jamil, My Reminiscences of Choudhary Rahmat Ali (Karachi: Royal Book Company, 1982)
Papers and correspondence, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
Tutorial file and other papers, Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Commonplace book, Emmanuel College Library, Cambridge
Image credit
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Choudhry_Rahmat_Ali.jpg
