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ASAF ALI
Asaf Ali was, along with such illustrious personalities as Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad, Dr. M.A. Ansari and Hakim Ajmal Khan, among the patrionic
Indian Muslims prominent in public life, who rejected the concept of
nationhood based on religion and thus helped in laying the foundation of
the secular democratic Republic of India.
Born on 11th May, 1888, Asaf Ali, who studied law in London, was a
sucessful barrister. He gave up his practice during the first
non-cooperation movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in the early
twenties. When he and Aruna Ganguly married in 1928, the event with its
symbolic significant caused a stir and drew wide public notice.
The last of the several spells of imprisonment which Asaf Ali courted
during the freedom movement was in the wake of the 'Quit India'
resolution adopted by the All India Cingress Committee in August 1942.
He was detained at Ahmednagar Fort jail along with Jawaharlal Nehru and
other members of the Congress Working Committee.
On the formation of the Interim Govt. in August, 1946, Asaf Ali served
as Railway Minister. One of his first actions in this capacity was
abolition of the separate provision of drinking water on railway station
platforms as Hindu Pani and Muslim Pani. Asaf Ali served subsequently
as India's first Ambassador to U.S.A., Governor of Orissa and Ambassador
to Swetzerland where he died on 2nd April, 1953.
Asaf Ali's was a many-sided personality-- scholar, lawyer, nationalist,
writer and connoisseur of music and te arts. He was a remarkable product
of the encounter between, and synthesis of, Hindu and Islamic culture,
and of the best in Indian and Western values.
Text, Courtesy: Shri T.N. Kundra. |
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