Mohammad Ali Jouhar - Birth Centenary 10.12.1978

Mohammad Ali Jouhar (10 December 1878 – 4 January 1931), also known asMaulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, was an Indian Muslim leader, activist, scholar, journalist and poet, and was among the leading figures of the Khilafat Movement. He was the sixth Muslim to become the President of Indian National Congress and it lasted only for few months. He was one of the founders of the All-India Muslim League and he was also the former president of the All India Muslim League.

Jouhar was however, disillusioned by the failure of the Khilafat movement and Gandhi's suspension of non-cooperation in 1922, owing to the Chauri Chaura incident.

He restarted his weekly Hamdard, and left the Congress Party. He opposed the Nehru Report, which was a document proposing constitutional reforms and a dominion status of an independent nation within the British Empire, written by a committee of Hindu and Muslim members of the Congress Party headed by President Motilal Nehru. It was a major protest against the Simon Commission which had arrived in India to propose reforms but containing no Indian nor making any effort to listen to Indian voices. Mohammad Ali was in jail. So All Parties Conference on Nehru report was represented by Shaukat Ali, Begum Mohammad Ali and 30 other members of Central Khilafat Committee which included Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Azad Subhani, Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi, Abul Mohasin Mohammad Sajjad and others. Mohammad Ali opposed the Nehru Report's rejection of separate electorates for Muslims, and supported the Fourteen Points of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the League. He became a critic of Gandhi, breaking with fellow Muslim leaders like Maulana Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, who continued to support Gandhi and the Indian National Congress.

Ali attended the Round Table Conference (The chairman being Sir Agha Khan of the Muslim delegation) to show that only the Muslim League spoke for India's Muslims. In 1921, British Government established the Court in Khaliqdina Hall in Karachi and punished him with two and half years imprisonment in Karachi Central Jail. He died on 4 January 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."