TAQSEEM-E-HIND

Abdul Waheed Khan is considered one of the prominent intellectuals, historians and political thinkers of the subcontinent who left a valuable intellectual legacy on the Pakistan Movement, the political struggle of the Muslims of the subcontinent and Islamic political thought. He was a member of the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan and the Punjab Legislative Assembly, while he also played an active role in the central circles of the All India Muslim League and the All Pakistan Muslim League for a long time. His membership in the working committees of the provincial Muslim Leagues of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab gave him direct observation of the political struggle of the subcontinent. Abdul Waheed Khan was born in the Indian city of Meerut in 1915. After his primary education, he obtained a law degree from Lucknow University and began his practical life as a lawyer. “The Sacrifice of Muslims and the War of Independence” and “History of Islamic Thought and Politics” are his well-known works. Several of his books have been translated into various languages of the subcontinent, including Gujarati and Bengali, while his writings have also been published continuously in newspapers and magazines. In response to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s book India Wins Freedom, Abdul Waheed Khan wrote India Wins Freedom – The Other Side in English in 1961, which presented a different historical perspective on the events of the partition of India and the establishment of Pakistan. The Urdu translation of this book was published under the title “Taqseem-e-Hind”, and the book under review is a new publication of this important work. After the establishment of Pakistan, Abdul Waheed Khan migrated to Lahore with his family and successfully contested elections from here. He held the post of Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the government of President Ayub Khan. In 1971, he openly opposed the military operation in East Pakistan and called the establishment of Bangladesh a result of the government policies of that time. The tragedy of the division of Pakistan deeply shocked him, after which he withdrew from practical politics and went into seclusion. He died in 1986.