AZADI E HIND

1959- For the first time, the short text was published in English under the title "India Wins Freedom" by Orient Living Man Limited from Delhi (India).
1988- The complete text of Humayun Kabir compiled with the addition of thirty pages was published in English by Orient Living Man Limited.
1991- Shamim Hanafi translated the complete text of Humayun Kabir compiled into Urdu, which was published by Orient Living Man Limited under the name "Our Freedom".
2020- Shamim Hanafi's translation was published by Book Corner from Jhelum (Pakistan) under the name "Azadai Hind" with Nastaliq composing, illustrations and modern printing.

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"India Wins Freedom" finally won its own independence. The complete text of this autobiographical narrative was kept under seal in the National Library, Calcutta and the National Archives, New Delhi, for thirty years. In 1958, the “narrator” Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and the “raqam” Humayun Kabir submitted for publication a somewhat shortened and revised draft from which incidents and impressions that were particularly personal in nature were excluded. Three major editions of this draft came out in the first year of publication and it has been published many times since then. Now we have before us the complete text, which was released in September 1988 by a court order. Not only have all the words and phrases of the original text been presented as they are, but the original tone and mood of the text have also been completely restored. This text now reveals that the long-standing rumor about the hitherto unpublished pages was completely correct. Those who have read the old edition will immediately appreciate the points which make this account different from the previous one.

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Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958) was born Firoz Bakht, but in his youth he became known as Muhiuddin Ahmad and later adopted the pen name Abul Kalam Azad. He belonged to a family which had migrated to India from Herat during the time of Babur. His elders included renowned scholars and officials. Two years after his birth in Mecca, where his father Maulana Khairuddin had migrated after the 1857 rebellion, his family settled in Calcutta. Azad received his early education at home from his father and private tutors. His political awakening was stimulated by the partition of Bengal in 1905 (which was later rejected). He travelled widely in Iraq, Egypt, Turkey and France. Maulana Azad launched the Urdu weekly ‘Al-Hilal’ from Calcutta in July 1912. He opposed the separatist attitude of Aligarh in the freedom struggle. When the war broke out in Europe in 1914, his newspaper was closed under the Press Act. After that, in November 1915, he launched another Urdu weekly ‘Al-Balaagh’ from Calcutta itself. It continued to be published until Azad’s exile in March 1916 under the Defence of India Rules. The governments of Bombay, Punjab, Delhi and the United Provinces banned his entry and he went to Bihar. He was under house arrest in Ranchi till 1 January 1920. After his release, Azad was elected President of the All India Khilafat Committee (in the Calcutta session of 1920) and President of the Delhi Unity Conference in 1924. He presided over the Nationalist Muslim Conference in 1928. In 1923, and later in 1940, he was elected President of the Indian National Congress, a position he held until 1946. In 1946, he led the Congress Party's negotiations with the British Cabinet Mission. He then joined the first government of independent India as the Minister of Education, a position he held until his death on 22 February 1958. His other published works include the commentaries "Al-Bayan" (1915) and "Turman-ul-Quran" (1933-1936), "Tazkirah" (1916), an autobiography, and "Ghabbar-e-Khater" (1943), a collection of essays, all in Urdu.

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Humayun Kabir (1906 - 1969) After a distinguished academic career at Calcutta and Oxford University, he worked first at Voltaire's place at Andhra University, and then as a lecturer at Calcutta University from 1933 to 1945. In 1937, he was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council as the leader of the Kisan Party. In 1946, Azad elected him as his secretary. He thus had a close relationship with Azad. He worked as an educational advisor to the Government of India until 1956, when he resigned and in 1957 he was elected to Parliament as a member of the Congress Party. He was appointed Minister for Civil Aviation (1957-1958), Minister for Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs (1958-1963), and Minister for Petroleum and Chemicals (1963-1968). He is the author of over twenty books in English and Bengali on topics of philosophy, literature, politics, and culture. He has also published two novels and three collections of poetry.