On 2 November 1877, we celebrate the birth anniversary of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, III. The celebrations serve to reaffirm Sir Aga Khan's commitment to the improvement of the quality of human life, especially in the developing countries.
On the death of his father, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah became the forty-eighth Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili community, and at the age of eight inherited the title of Aga Khan III. In 1902, at the age of 25 he began his political career and was appointed the youngest member of the Imperial Legislative Council.
Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah's contribution towards promoting political consciousness among the Muslims of the sub-continent is noteworthy, as he led the Muslim delegation to Simla in 1906 when a demand for a separate electorate for Muslims was first put forward. He was President of the All India Muslim League between 1906 and 1912 and served as President of the All Parties Muslim Conference from 1928 to 1929. From 1933 to 1939, he chaired the Muslim delegation at the Round Table Conferences and was elected president of the League of Nations in July 1937.
He was one of those Muslim leaders at the time that realised that the principal cause behind lack of progress among the Muslims of India was their neglect of education. Through his efforts, three million rupees were raised to transform the Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh into the Aligarh Muslim University. He made it possible for accomplished Muslim students to obtain scholarships to study in America, Britain, Europe and Japan. Subsequently he went on to play an important role in the establishment of the Hindu University at Banaras.
Throughout his life, His Highness Sir Aga Khan III took the cause of Islam and Muslims of the world to the forefront and dedicated his life for it. Sir Aga Khan had high hopes from the Aligarh Movement of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan for the deliverance of the future of Muslims. During his presidential address to the Mohammadan Educational Conference in Delhi in 1902, he clearly emphasised that the most important way of preventing the breakdown of Muslim political power of India is by laying the foundation of a great central Muslim University at Aligarh, as he said in his speech, "We want to create for our people an intellectual capital - a city that shall be a home of elevated ideals, a centre from which light and guidance shall be diffused amongst the Muslims of India and out of India too, and shall hold up to the world model standard of justice and virtue and purity of our faith."
Sir Aga Khan took the cause of education forward and took the huge responsibility of collecting funds for building the great Aligarh University, for which he once said that, "We want to build the mighty university worthy of Islam in India." Taking the task forward, he also initiated the Aga Khan Foreign Scholarship.
In 1936, he suggested to establish Engineering and Agriculture College in Aligarh Muslim University. He was a regular and generous donor to support the Aligarh Muslim University where he served as pro-Chancellor till April 1930. Sir Aga Khan was associated with Aligarh Movement till his last breath. He made numerous visits to Aligarh and the University honoured this great patron by naming one of the hostels after him - 'Aga Khan House'.
Sir Aga Khan always believed Pakistan to be a rising star of the Muslim Ummah with a very vivid future of its own. On his birthday on 2nd November, we can pay tribute to this great Muslim leader by making Pakistan a prosperous and onward looking country.
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