Azad was the youngest and the longest serving President of the Congress during the freedom struggle. Azad declared, “I [as a Muslim] am proud of being an Indian. He vigorously challenged the separatist ideology of the Jinnah-led Muslim League, which he termed a “death knell” for Indian Muslims, earning him the derogatory epithet “Congress’s Muslim show boy” from Jinnah. He led the Congress delegation to the failed Shimla Conference, convened to break the impasse between the Congress and the Muslim League. It is unfortunate that Maulana Azad’s legacy, a superb antidote to majoritarian chauvinism so rampant currently, is all but forgotten today.

Source: The Hindu May 24, 2018 18:45 UTC