Moulvi Liaquth Ali Khan

MOULVI LIAQUTH ALI KHAN

Date of Birth: 5^th October, 1817 and Date of Death: 17^th May, 1892

            Moulvi Liaquth Ali Khan through the freedom struggle of 1857, which was started by the sepoys, people from all walks of life took part in the war.  Some scholars bade good bye to their pens and wielded swords to participate in the struggle for the independence of India.  Moulvi Liaquth Ali Khan was one of them.  He was born on 5^th October, 1817 in a weaver’s family in Mahagav village of Chayil Tahsil of Allahabad district, Uttar Pradesh.  His mother was Aminabi and father was Syed Mehar Ali.  He acquired religious knowledge and developed anti-British attitude right from his childhood.  He joined British army and started indoctrinating anti-British ideas into the minds of Indian soldiers.  East India Company officers sensed this and expelled him from the army.  Moulvi Liaquth Ali resumed his activities from his native village Mahagav giving religious guidance to the people on one hand and exhorting them to wage a righteous war against the British to secure our lawful rights and to reinstall natives rule on the other.  He started uniting anti-British groups in Allahabad.  As his efforts yielded some result, he entered with his force into Allahabad town, drove away East India Company force and officers took control of the town.  Moulvi Liaquth declared himself as the representative of Delhi Emperor Bahadur Shah Jafar and ran the administration of the town from Kouserbagh as his head quarters.  His wrote a song ‘Peyam-e-Amal’ exposing the misdeeds of the British rule and seeking Hindu-Muslim-Sikhs unity besides inspiring patriotism among countrymen and particularly Indian soldiers in the British army.  It was published in ‘Payam-e-Azadi’ an Urdu periodical edited by another freedom fighter Azeemullah Khan.  General Neill of East India Company mobilised necessary forces and attacked Liaquth Ali’s head quarters on 11^th June, 1857 Moulvi fought the battle valiantly till the end but left the battle field on 17^th June under adverse circumstances.  The company officers announced huge reward on his head.  Moulvi evaded capture for a period of 14 years.  Later on, on a tip off from a traitor, he was captured by British forces.  In the trial that followed, he categorically declared that he had taken up arms only to emancipate his mother land from yoke of British.  After the trial, Moulvi Liaquth Ali Khan was sentenced to life imprisonment and was extradited to Andamans, where he breathed his last on 17^th May, 1892.