The Dawn of Hope : Selections from the Al Hilal of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Contents: Introduction. 1. The question of Al-Hilal’s objectives. 2. The objective of Al-Hilal and its political teachings. 3. The dawn of hope (I). 4. The dawn of hope (II). 5. The balanced scales (I). 6. The balanced scales (II). 7. The balanced scales (III). 8. The balanced scales (IV). 9. The Muslim University. 10. The Ismaili Hindus of Punjab and the question of Muslim minority and majority. 11. The basic error. 12. Al-Jihad, Al-Jihad. 13. Security from the ‘Urdu Press’, Aligarh. 14. Indian Muslims and the educational policy of the government. 15. Cawnpores "Machhli Bazar" mosque. 16. The painful spectacle of Aderna at Cawnpore. 17. The restoration of lost peace remarkable wisdom of Lord Hardinge. 18. Security demanded from Al-Hilal press. 19. Indian Press Association. 20. A tale of woe. 21. The Mohammadan Educational Conference, Agra. 22. The Muslim League. 23. Indian National Congress, Karachi. 24. Offensive against "The Zamindar Press", Lahore. 25. Zamindar Press and Members of the British Parliament. 26. Voice of protest. 27. Matters of insight and wisdom: some observations. 28. The great calamity. 29. Islam and nationalism (I). 30. Islam and nationalism (II). 31. Islam and nationalism (III). 32. Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das 1925 echoed in 1927. 33. The third phase of Al-Hilal. Index.

"Al-Hilal was an Urdu weekly founded and edited by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in 1912. Much more than a journal, it was a message, a movement, a voice of protest and revolt, which for the first time since 1857 shook the placid Urdu-speaking world of India to political agitation and action. No wonder that in about a couple of years it was suppressed by the colonial administration.

But in the short period of its life, the Al-Hilal had firmly placed Maulana Abul Kalam Azad at the pinnacle of his literary and political fame where he remained throughout the liberation struggle of the country and after.

Abul Kalam Azad was a man of religion, like Gandhiji. He wedded the spirit of Islam with the country’s freedom struggle.

The Al-Hilal is the reflection of the initial stages of this process.

The present selection from Al-Hilal (and its rendering into English) under the title ‘The Dawn of Hope’, is an effort to make it representative of Abul Kalam Azad’s first step on this road, opening them to a wider audience than is provided by Urdu." (jacket)