An adroit translation  

The book is likely to arouse curiosity and interest among the Urdu reading public in the life and work of the man who coined the moniker Pakistan

Title:  Sawaneh Hayat Chaudhry Rahmat Ali (KK Aziz)

Translator: Iqbaluddin Ahmad

Publisher:  Maktaba-e-Jamal, Hassan Market, Urdu Bazaar, Lahore

Pages: 582; Price: Rs.800

‘In 1933, he had published a pamphlet, ‘Now or Never’, coining the word ‘Pakistan’ for the first time. Until 1947, he continued publishing various booklets about his vision of South Asia. The final Partition of India disillusioned him due to the mass killings and migrations that it entailed.’

‘In a way the original biography is intended to rediscover the position of its protagonist in the wake of the apathy meted out to him in the pre- and post-Partition eras of our national history.’

Choudhry Rahmat Ali (1897-1951), pioneer of the Pakistan National Movement (1933) was a staunch Muslim nationalist studying at Cambridge University when he coined the word ‘Pakstan’ envisaging it as a sovereign independent Muslim state in the north-western Muslim majority areas in the Indian sub-continent emanating from the two-nation theory that was earlier espoused by the great poet-philosopher Allama (Dr.) Muhammad Iqbal.

Ch. Rahmat Ali was one of the earliest advocates of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is generally recognized as the creator of the name ‘Pakistan’ for a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia and is known as the founder of the Pakistan National Movement.

From his early childhood, Rahmat Ali showed signs of great promise as a student. He graduated from Islamia College, Lahore. He first taught at Aitchison College Lahore and later joined Punjab University in order to study law. However, in 1930 he moved to England to join Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in the following year. He obtained an MA degree from the University of Cambridge in 1940, and in 1943, he was called to the Bar from Middle Temple, London.

Now or Never

Earlier in 1933, he had published a pamphlet, ‘Now or Never’, coining the word ‘Pakistan’ for the first time. Until 1947, he continued publishing various booklets about his vision of South Asia. The final Partition of India disillusioned him due to the mass killings and migrations that it entailed. He was also dissatisfied with the distribution of areas among the two countries and considered it a major reason for the disturbances.

The pamphlet started with a famous statement: At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN (used as an acronym). By the end of 1933, ‘Pakistan’ had become common vocabulary, and an i was added to ease pronunciation (as in Afghan-i-stan).

In a subsequent book, Ali discussed the etymology in further detail. ‘Pakistan’ is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our South Asia homelands; that is, Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan. It means the land of the Pak – the spiritually pure and clean.

Ali’s biographer, KK Aziz writes that ‘Rahmat Ali alone drafted this declaration (in which the word Pakistan was used for the first time), but in order to make it ‘representative’ he began to look around for people who would sign it along with him. This search did not prove easy, for so firm was the grip of ‘Muslim Indian nationalism’ on our young intellectuals at English universities that it took me (Rahmat Ali) more than a month to find three young men in London who offered to support and sign it’’. Later on, his political opponents used the name of these signatories and other friends of Ali, as creators of word ‘Pakistan’.

Jinnah on the name

Mohammad Ali Jinnah addressed the origins of the moniker in his presidential address to the All India Muslim League annual session at Delhi on 24 April 1943, he said:

‘’I think you will bear me out that when we passed the Lahore resolution we had not used the word ‘Pakistan’. Who gave us this word? Let me tell you it is their fault. They started damning this resolution on the ground that it was Pakistan. They are really ignorant of the Muslim movement. They fathered this word upon us… You know perfectly well that Pakistan is a word which is really foisted upon us and fathered on us by some section of the Hindu press and also by the British press. Now our, resolution was known for a long time as the Lahore resolution popularly known as Pakistan. But how long are we to have this long phrase? Now I say to my Hindu and British friends: We thank you for giving us one word. What is the origin of the word Pakistan? It was not Muslim League or Quaid-i-Azam who coined it. Some young fellows in London, who wanted a particular part of north-west to be separated from the rest of India, coined a name in 1929-30, started the idea and called a zone Pakistan. They picked up the letter Pfor Punjab. A for Afghan, as the NWFP is known even today as Afghan, K for Kashmir. S for Sindh, and Tan for Balochistan.  A name was coined. Thus, whatever may have been the meaning of this word at the time, it is obvious that language of every civilised country invents new words.’’

The condemned hero

Ch. Rahmat Ali’s biographer and renowned historian, Prof. (Dr) Khurshid Kamal Aziz was born in Faisalabad, and educated at Government College, Lahore and Victoria University, Manchester. He taught at his alma mater, the Government College, Lahore, and the Universities of Punjab, London, Khartoum, and Heidelberg. His book titled Ch. Rahmat Ali – A biography was published in the year 1986, and its Urdu version by Iqbaluddin Ahmad – being reviewed here, appeared in 2017.

It is a voluminous publication comprising ten chapters covering Ch. Rahmat Ali’s years in India (1897-1930), his stay at Cambridge, emergence of an idea, publication of the pamphlet Now or Never, realization of a dream, pursuit of an ideal, further expansion of the vision, his return to a home in wilderness, a life of resignation, truth on the gallows, falsehood on the throne, and the condemned hero.  

Translation of a text from one language into another is a tedious exercise. But Iqbaluddin Ahmad has rendered it very adroitly. In a way the original biography is intended to rediscover the position of its protagonist in the wake of the apathy meted out to him in the pre- and post-Partition eras of our national history. The book is likely to arouse curiosity and interest among the Urdu reading public in the life and work of Ch. Rahmat Ali.