Hostel Legacy: Maulana Jauhar (Muhammad Mujeeb)

Quick Sketch

Full Name: Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar
Birth: 10 December 1878, Rampur, Uttar Pradesh
Death: 4 January 1931
Siblings: Shaukat Ali, Zulfiqar Ali with three more brothers and one sister
Services: Indian Muslim Leader, Activist, Scholar, Journalist and Poet.
Alma-Mater: Darul Uloom, Deoband, Aligarh Muslim University, Lincoln College of Oxford University

Career Highlights:

Among the leading figures of the Khilafat Movement
6th Muslim to become the President of Indian National Congress at Kakinada (1923)
One of the founders of the All-India Muslim League
Former president of the All India Muslim League.
On return from Oxford, served as Education Director for the Rampur state, and later joined the Baroda Civil Service. Launched the Urdu weekly Hamdard and English The Comrade
Jouhar worked hard to expand the AMU, then known as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (now AMU)
One of the Founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia in 1920 at AMU, which was later moved to Delhi

Khilafat Movement Activism

Attended the founding meeting of the All India Muslim League in Dhaka in 1906, and served as its President in 1918. He remained active in the League till 1928.
He represented the Muslim delegation that travelled to England in 1919 in order to convince the British government to influence the Turkish nationalist Mustafa Kamal not to depose the Sultan of Turkey, who was the Caliph of Islam. British rejection of their demands resulted in the formation of the Khilafat Committee which directed Muslims all over India to protest and boycott the government.
In 1921, he formed a broad coalition with Muslim nationalists like Shaukat Ali, Maulana Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari and nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi, who enlisted the support of the Indian National Congress and many thousands of Hindus, who joined the Muslims in a demonstration of unity. Jouhar also wholeheartedly supported Gandhi's call for a Civil Disobedience Movement, and inspired many hundreds of protests and strikes all over India. He was arrested by British authorities and imprisoned for two years for what was termed as a seditious speech at the meeting of the Khilafat Conference.
He was elected as President of Indian National Congress in 1923.

He died on January 4, 1931 and was buried in Jerusalem according to his own wish. The inscription written on his grave near the Dome of the Rock says: "Here lies al-Sayyid Muhammad Ali al-Hindi."

Concept of Nationalism

In 1926, he wrote, “Since I have understood religion it is my complete life.” [Hamdard, 3 Dec 1926]. In 1930, during his famous speech at the Round Table Conference, he further elaborates his religiousness, “religion to my mind, means the interpretation of life. I have a culture, a polity, an outlook on life, a complete synthesis which is Islam. Where God commands, I am a Muslim first, a Muslim second, and a Muslim last, and nothing but a Muslim.... My first duty is to my Maker, not to His Majesty the King, nor to my companion Dr. Moonje... He must be a Hindu first and I must be a Muslim first so far as that duty is concerned. But where India is concerned, where India's freedom is concerned, where the welfare of India is concerned, I am an Indian first, an Indian second, an Indian last, and nothing but an Indian.” He doesn't see being Muslim in anyway prevents him from being an Indian and that's why he always mentions community along with the country. (Mulk-o-Millat).

*Muhammad Mujeeb is pursuing Islamic Studies Honors (Part 3) at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.