The birth anniversary of Sir Sultan Mohammad Shah Aga Khan is being marked on November 2. He was born in Karachi on November 2, 1877 and became the spiritual head of the Ismaili Muslim community at the age of eight following the demise of his father, Ali Shah Aga Khan II.
Sir Aga Khan, even at this tender age, was able to manage the affairs of his followers with great wisdom and was bestowed with the title of His Highness at the age of nine.
Right from his adolescent years, Sultan Mohammad Shah was imparted with excellent knowledge in various disciplines under the strict care of his beloved mother. He was able to read and write with perfect ease in the languages he was learning and made remarkable progress in both Eastern and Western Literature with in-depth knowledge of ancient and modern history.
The languages specially studied by him included Persian, Arabic, English and French. He also acquired proficiency in Philosophy and Theology.
At the age of 18, he was able to speak in public on religious philosophy and politics. Through his intimate knowledge of Eastern as well as Western cultures, he was uniquely placed to play a significant role in the international affairs of his time.
Sultan Mohammad Shah Aga Khan- III was a social reformer whose concerns included the alleviation of poverty and uplift of women in the society. An advocate of modern education, he became an ardent supporter of male and female educational advancement in the Sub-continent and East Africa.
A keen connoisseur of culture, he advocated a truly multicultural education, blending the best and highest of Western and Eastern literary classics.
In 1902, at the age of 25, he was appointed as member of the Imperial Legislative Council by Viceroy Lord Curzon, for his contribution towards education, thus, becoming the youngest member of the Council.
Aga Khan- III realised that the main cause of Muslim backwardness was their negligence towards education. He had established a network of educational institutions throughout the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. In 1905 he opened a school in Gwadar which in those days was a small village of fishermen.
Health was also one of the subjects which received his attention and he had opened health institutions like Maternity Homes, Dispensaries etc in the sub-continent, Africa and other countries wherever he had influence.
When Sir Syed Ahmad Khan started the great Aligarh Movement, the Aga Khan- III believed that in it lied the salvation and the future of Muslims. In 1911, the Aga Khan took upon himself the task of collecting funds to start the Aligarh University.
A year earlier in reply to an address of welcome by the trustee of the Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College (M.A.O), he said that he would undertake the responsibility to "build a mighty university worthy of Islam in India." He increased the annual grant that he had been giving to the college for the last many years and promised to contribute a substantial amount to the University funds. He donated money in cash for scholarships to the most deserving students for foreign studies, which the trustees named the "Aga Khan Foreign Scholarship."
This era also gave birth to the Diamond Jubilee schools in 1946, having major focus on female education. In addition, scholarship programmes, established at the time of the Golden Jubilee, for giving assistance to the needy students, were progressively expanded.
It was mainly due to his efforts that the All India Muslim League came into existence in 1906. He was voted permanent president of the Muslim League and occupied this post for seven years from 1906 to 1913. The main objective for the formation of the Muslim League was to safeguard and advance the rights and welfare of the Muslim community and to convey their needs and problems to the government.
The Muslims had realised that it was important for them to have a platform to voice their demands; their meeting with the Viceroy at Simla had already proved productive and fruitful. Another reason for the formation of the Muslim League was to prevent the rise of any kind of hostility among the Muslims towards other communities.
The Aga Khan III was also chosen as the President of the All Parties Muslim Conference held in 1928-29. In 1930-33, he went as the Chairman of the Muslim delegation to the Round Table Conferences. There, the Aga Khan III performed his duty remarkably well, and with his suavity of manners and tact, and general attitude of helpfulness, kept the Muslim team solidly together, which was an invisible contrast to the many discordant voices. He was an excellent statesman and was elected President of the League of Nations in July 1937.
He was the only Asian to have been appointed to this high office. During the World War- II, Aga Khan was forced to live in Switzerland and was unable to actively participate in the affairs of the Muslims of India. The Aga Khan III played a pivotal role in making the Pakistan Movement a success by inculcating political awareness among the Muslims of the sub-continent. He strived hard for cultural renaissance, social regeneration and political rehabilitation of the Muslims.
After the creation of Pakistan, Aga Khan remained a friend and a well-wisher of Pakistan. Aga Khan-III fell ill in 1954 during his visit to Dhaka and from then on struggling with ill health, passed away on July 11, 1957, in Switzerland and was buried in Aswan, Egypt.