title: Gull

text: Clutch size is typically three eggs, although it is two in some of the smaller species and only one egg for the swallow-tailed gull. Within colonies, birds synchronise their laying, with synchronisation being higher in larger colonies, although after a certain point, this levels off. The eggs of gulls are usually dark tan to brown or dark olive with dark splotches and scrawl markings, and are well camouflaged. Both sexes incubate the eggs, with incubation bouts lasting between one and four hours during the day and one parent incubating through the night. Research on various bird species including the gull suggests that females form pair bonds with other females to obtain alloparental care for their dependent offspring, a behavior seen in other animal species, like the elephants, wolves, and the fathead minnow.


title: Gull

text: Incubation lasts between 22 and 26 days, and begins after laying the first egg, although it is discontinuous until the second egg is laid. This means the first two chicks are born close together, and the third chick some time later. Young chicks are brooded by their parents for about one or two weeks, and often at least one parent remains with them, until they fledge, to guard them. Both parents feed the chicks, although early on in the rearing period, the male does most of the feeding and the female most of the brooding and guarding.


title: Gull

text: The family Laridae was introduced (as Laridia) by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. The taxonomy of gulls is confused by their widespread distribution zones of hybridization leading to geneflow. Some have traditionally been considered ring species, but recent evidence suggests that this assumption is questionable. Until recently, most gulls were placed in the genus "Larus", but this arrangement is now known to be polyphyletic, leading to the resurrection of the genera "Ichthyaetus", "Chroicocephalus", "Leucophaeus", "Saundersilarus", and "Hydrocoloeus". Some English names refer to species complexes within the group:


title: Gull

text: In common usage, members of various gull species are often referred to as sea gulls or seagulls; however, "seagull" is a layperson's term that is not used by most ornithologists and biologists. This name is used informally to refer to a common local species or all gulls in general, and has no fixed taxonomic meaning. In common usage, gull-like seabirds that are not technically gulls (e.g. albatrosses, fulmars, terns, and skuas) may also be referred to as seagulls by the layperson.


title: Gull

text: The American Ornithologists' Union combines the Sternidae, Stercorariidae, and Rhynchopidae as subfamilies in the family Laridae, but recent research indicates this is incorrect.


title: Gull

text: A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2022 found the following relationships between the genera. Some authorities place the Saunders's gull in its own genus "Saundersilarus".


title: Gull

text: The Laridae are known from not-yet-published fossil evidence since the Early Oligocene, some 30–33 million years ago. Three gull-like species were described by Alphonse Milne-Edwards from the early Miocene of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, France. A fossil gull from the Middle to Late Miocene of Cherry County, Nebraska, USA, is placed in the prehistoric genus "Gaviota"; apart from this and the undescribed Early Oligocene fossil, all prehistoric species were tentatively assigned to the modern genus "Larus". Among those of them that have been confirmed as gulls, Milne-Edwards' ""Larus" elegans" and ""L." totanoides" from the Late Oligocene/Early Miocene of southeast France have since been separated in "Laricola".


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: Andreessen Horowitz invests in both early-stage start-ups and established growth companies. Its investments span the mobile, cryptocurrency, gaming, social, e-commerce, education and enterprise IT (including cloud computing, security, and software as a service) industries.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: Between 2006 and 2010, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz actively invested in technology companies. Separately, and together, they invested $4 million in 45 start-ups including Twitter. During this time, the two became known as "super angel" investors.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: On July 6, 2009, Andreessen and Horowitz launched their venture capital fund with an initial capitalization of $300 million. In November 2010, at a time when the field of venture capitalism was contracting, the company raised another $650 million for a second venture fund. In less than two years, the firm was managing a total of $1.2 billion under the two funds.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In May 2011, Andreessen ranked number 10 on the 2011 Forbes Midas List of Tech's Top Investors while he and Horowitz ranked number 6 on Vanity Fair's 2011 New Establishment List and number 1 on CNET's 2011 most influential investors list.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: As of March 27, 2014, the firm managed $4 billion in assets after the closing of its fourth fund at $1.5 billion.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In addition to Andreessen and Horowitz, the firm's general partners include John O'Farrell, Scott Weiss, Jeff Jordan, Peter Levine, Chris Dixon, Vijay Pande, Katie Haun, Alex Rampell, Martin Casado, Connie Chan, Andrew Chen, and Sriram Krishnan. In March 2019, it was reported that Andreessen Horowitz was opening an office in San Francisco.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In January 2022, Andreessen Horowitz raised $9 billion for its venture capital, growth-stage and biotech-focused vehicles.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2009, Andreessen Horowitz made its two first investments: one in business management SaaS developer Apptio and the other in Skype stock. According to Horowitz, the investment was seen as risky by other experts in the field who believed the company would be crippled by ongoing intellectual property litigation and direct competitive attacks from Google and Apple. The company's founders viewed the investment as a success following Skype's sale to Microsoft in May 2011 for $8.5 billion.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2010, Andreessen Horowitz invested $10 million in cloud company Okta while leading its Series A Round.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2011, Andreessen Horowitz invested $80 million in Twitter, becoming the first venture firm that held stock in all four of the highest-valued, privately held social media companies at the time: Facebook, Groupon, Twitter, and Zynga. Andreessen Horowitz has also invested in Airbnb, Lytro, Jawbone, Belly, Foursquare, Stripe and other high-tech companies.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2012, Andreessen Horowitz invested in 156 companies, including the 90 companies in its portfolio, and 66 start-ups through its funding of Y Combinator's Start Fund. The company invested $100 million in GitHub, which netted over $1 billion for the fund when GitHub was acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion. In 2013, Andreessen Horowitz invested in Clinkle, Coinbase, Databricks, Lyft, Oculus VR, PagerDuty, Pixlee, Ripple, Soylent, Swiftype and uBiome.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2014, the firm led a $57 million Series B round in the A/B testing startup Optimizely. That same year the company invested in several more companies, including Tanium for $90 million, BuzzFeed, and Forward Networks. In 2015, the firm invested $40 million in Stack Exchange, $2.8 million in Distelli, and $80 million in cloud-based CAD software company Onshape. Also in 2015 Andreessen Horowitz invested in the blogging platform Medium, Samsara, Improbable, Honor, Inc., OpenBazaar, a blockchain startup, and nootropics and biohacking company Nootrobox.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2016, the firm led an $8.1 million Series A round in Everlaw, a legal technology company, and led a $3.5 million Series Seed round in RapidAPI, an API connection platform for developers. Also in 2016, the firm invested $2 million in Cardiogram, a digital health company, and Apeel Sciences, a food science business.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2018, the firm raised $300 million for a dedicated cryptocurrency fund. It has also invested in Imply, Smartcar, PeerStreet, CryptoKitties, Dfinity, Earnin, Pindrop, Tenfold, and Very Good Security.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2019 the firm provided $15.3 million in Series A funding to Substack, some of which went to bringing high-profile writers into that network.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2020, the firm led a $150 million Series G round in Roblox, a social video game platform for children.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In April 2020, the firm led a $50 million Series D round in Figma, a vector graphics editor and prototyping tool.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In May 2020, the firm made a $12 million Series A investment in Clubhouse ($10 million in primary capital plus $2 million toward purchasing shares), an audio-chat social networking app valued at nearly $100 million as of December 2020.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In January 2021, the firm led a $100 million Series B for the audio-chat social networking app Clubhouse, reportedly valuing it at $1 billion. In April 2021, it led a $220 million Series D for mobile banking and fintech company Current.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In July 2021, the firm led a $100 million Series A for the NFT marketplace OpenSea, reportedly valuing it at $1.5 billion.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In September 2021, the firm led an $18 million Series A fundraise in Pearl Health, a healthcare technology company.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In October 2021, A16z led the round to Raise $150M Series B at $3B Valuation in Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, the developer of crypto-based online game Axie Infinity.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In March 2022, Andreessen Horowitz led the round to raise $450 million at a $4B Valuation in Yuga Labs. In October 2022, it was reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission were investigating Yuga Labs, due to concerns that sales of their digital assess violated US investment laws.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In March 2022, A16z with Lux Capital co-led an $90 million round of Los Angeles-based machine-parts start-up Hadrian Automation.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In May 2022, the firm announced the launch of its largest fund to date at $4.5 billion. The fund is set to focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. The firm stated that $1.5 billion was allocated to seed investments while the remaining $3 billion would be earmarked for venture investments.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In August 2022, the firm announced it would be investing about $350 million in Flow, the latest organization begun by WeWork founder Adam Neumann. The purported aim of Flow is to create a branded product in the housing market with consistent community features, reimagining how real estate works in the US. The decision was met with some criticism due to Neumann's previous business issues in his time at WeWork.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: The firm committed to $400 million in equity investment towards acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk that completed in October 2022.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: Andreessen Horowitz partners work on behalf of all its portfolio companies, an approach modeled after the Hollywood talent agency, Creative Artists Agency. In 2010, the company hired Margit Wennmachers, a marketing executive at the partner level.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: As of 2011, the firm had maintained a database of designers, coders, and executives and used it to help fill positions at its start-ups. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers became a special advisor to Andreessen Horowitz in June 2011.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In September 2012, former Washington D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty was appointed Andreessen Horowitz's second special advisor. Fenty was hired to advise the firm's portfolio companies on working with local, state, and federal governments.


title: Andreessen Horowitz

text: In 2019, the firm applied to restructure as a registered investment adviser in order to have more freedom to take up riskier bets like cryptocurrency.


title: Rob Hall

text: Robert Edwin Hall (14 January 1961 – 11 May 1996) was a New Zealand mountaineer. He was the head guide of a 1996 Mount Everest expedition during which he, a fellow guide, and two clients died. A best-selling account of the expedition was given in Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air", and the expedition has been dramatised in the 2015 film "Everest". At the time of his death, Hall had just completed his fifth ascent to the summit of Everest, more at that time than any other non-Sherpa mountaineer.


title: Rob Hall

text: Hall met his future wife, physician Jan Arnold, during his Everest summit attempt in 1990. Hall and Arnold climbed Denali for their first date and later married. In 1993, Hall and Arnold climbed to the summit of Everest together. In the catastrophic 1996 season, Arnold would have accompanied Hall on his Everest expedition, but she was pregnant.


title: Rob Hall

text: Hall grew up in New Zealand where he climbed extensively in the Southern Alps. In 1989, Rob Hall met Gary Ball, who became his climbing partner and close friend. As with most other mountain climbers, Hall and Gary Ball sought corporate sponsorships to fund their expeditions. The partners decided to climb the Seven Summits, but upped the ante by ascending to the summits of all seven in seven months. They started with Everest in May, and climbed the last mountain, Antarctica's Vinson Massif, on 12 December 1990, hours before the deadline. After this success they realised that to retain their sponsorships, each successive climb would have to be ever riskier and more spectacular, increasing the chances of an accident. Hall and Ball therefore decided to quit professional climbing and form a high-altitude guiding business.


title: Rob Hall

text: Their company, Adventure Consultants, was incorporated in 1992 and quickly became a premier expedition guiding company. That year they guided six clients to the top of Everest. In October 1993, Gary Ball died of pulmonary edema, leaving Hall to run Adventure Consultants on his own. By 1996, Hall had guided thirty-nine climbers up to the top of Everest. Although the price of a guided summit attempt – US$65,000 – was considerably higher than that of other expeditions, Hall's reputation for reliability and safety attracted clients from all over the world. Rob Hall was well known in the mountaineering world as the "mountain goat" or the "show".


title: Rob Hall

text: In the 1994 Queen's Birthday Honours, Hall was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to mountaineering.


title: Rob Hall

text: Adventure Consultants' 1996 Everest expedition consisted of eight clients and three guides (Hall, Mike Groom and Andy Harris). Among the clients was Jon Krakauer, a journalist on assignment from "Outside" magazine. Hall had brokered a deal with "Outside"; he would guide one of their writers to the summit in exchange for advertising space and a story about the growing popularity of commercial expeditions to Everest.


title: Rob Hall

text: Shortly after midnight on 10 May 1996, the Adventure Consultants expedition began a summit attempt from Camp IV, atop the South Col. They were joined by climbers from Scott Fischer's Mountain Madness company, as well as expeditions sponsored by the governments of Taiwan and India.


title: Rob Hall

text: The expeditions quickly encountered delays. Upon reaching the Hillary Step, the climbers discovered that no fixed line had been placed, and they were forced to wait for an hour while the guides installed the ropes (Rob nonetheless "fixed most of the mountain in 1996"). Since some 33 climbers were attempting to reach the summit on the same day, and Hall and Fischer had asked their climbers to stay within 150 m of each other, there were bottlenecks at the single fixed line at the Hillary Step. Many of the climbers had not yet reached the summit by 2:00 pm, the last safe time to turn around to reach Camp IV before nightfall.


title: Rob Hall

text: Hall's Sardar, Ang Dorje Sherpa, and other climbing Sherpas waited at the summit for the clients. Near 3:00 pm, they began their descent. On the way down, Ang Dorje encountered client Doug Hansen above the Hillary Step, and ordered him to descend. Hansen refused. When Hall arrived at the scene, he sent the Sherpas down to assist the other clients, and stated that he would remain to help Hansen, who had run out of supplementary oxygen.


title: Rob Hall

text: At 5:00 pm, a blizzard struck the Southwest Face of Everest, diminishing visibility and obliterating the trail back to Camp IV. Shortly afterward, Hall radioed for help, saying that Hansen had fallen unconscious but was still alive. Adventure Consultants guide Andy Harris began climbing to the Hillary Step at 5:30 pm with water and supplementary oxygen.


title: Rob Hall

text: On 11 May, at 4:43 am, close to twelve hours after the blizzard had started, Hall radioed down and said that he was on the South Summit. He reported that Harris had reached the two men, but that Hansen had died sometime during the night and that Harris was missing as well. Hall was not breathing bottled oxygen, because his regulator was too choked with ice. By 9:00 am, Hall had fixed his oxygen mask, but indicated that his frostbitten hands and feet were making it difficult to traverse the fixed ropes. Later in the afternoon, he radioed to Base Camp, asking them to call his wife, Jan Arnold, on the satellite phone. During this last communication, he reassured her that he was reasonably comfortable and told her, "Sleep well my sweetheart. Please don't worry too much." He died shortly thereafter. His body was found on 23 May by mountaineers from the IMAX expedition, and still remains just below the South Summit. In the 1999 New Zealand bravery awards, Hall was posthumously awarded the New Zealand Bravery Star for his actions.


title: Sinaloa

text: Sinaloa (), officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales.


title: Sinaloa

text: It is located in Northwestern Mexico, and is bordered by the states of Sonora to the north, Chihuahua and Durango to the east (separated from them by the Sierra Madre Occidental) and Nayarit to the south. To the west, Sinaloa faces Baja California Sur across the Gulf of California. The state covers an area of , and includes the Islands of Palmito Verde, Palmito de la Virgen, Altamura, Santa María, Saliaca, Macapule and San Ignacio. In addition to the capital city, the state's important cities include Mazatlán and Los Mochis.


title: Sinaloa

text: Sinaloa belongs to the northern limit of Mesoamerica. From the Fuerte River to the north is the region known as Aridoamerica, which includes the desert and arid places of northern Mexico. Before European contact, the territory of Sinaloa was inhabited by groups such as the Cahitas, the Tahues, the Acaxees, the Xiximes, the Totorames, the Achires and the Guasaves.


title: Sinaloa

text: In 1531, Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, with a force of over 10,000 men, established a Spanish and allied Indian outpost at San Miguel de Culiacán. Over the next decade, the Cahíta suffered severe depopulation from conquest, smallpox and other diseases brought by Europeans.


title: Sinaloa

text: The Spanish organized Sinaloa as part of the "gobierno" of Nueva Galicia. In 1564, the area was realigned: the area of Culiacán and Cosalá remained in control of Nueva Galicia, while the areas to the north, south and west were made part of the newly formed Nueva Vizcaya province, making the Culiacán area an exclave of Nueva Galicia. The first capital of Nueva Vizcaya was located in San Sebastián, near Copala, but was moved to Durango in 1583.


title: Sinaloa

text: Starting in 1599, Jesuit missionaries spread out from a base at what is now Sinaloa de Leyva and by 1610, the Spanish influence had been extended to the northern edge of Sinaloa. In 1601, the Jesuits' movement into the eastern part of Sinaloa led to the Acaxee going to war. The Spanish eventually managed to reassert authority in the Sierra Madre Occidental region and executed 48 Acaxee leaders.


title: Sinaloa

text: After the Mexican War of independence, Sinaloa was joined with Sonora as Estado de Occidente, but became a separate, sovereign state in 1830. The Porfiriato era was marked by the administration of Francisco Cañedo, who served multiple non-consecutive terms from 1877 to 1909. After the Mexican Revolultion, infrastructure projects and land reform consolidated the agrarian sector, which led to the state being named "the granary of Mexico".


title: Sinaloa

text: The coastal plain is a narrow strip of land that stretches along the length of the state and lies between the Gulf of California and the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, which dominates the eastern part of the state. Sinaloa is traversed by many rivers, which carve broad valleys into the foothills. The largest of these rivers are the Culiacán, Fuerte, and Sinaloa.


title: Sinaloa

text: Sinaloa has a warm climate on the coast; moderately warm climate in the valleys and foothills; moderately cold in the lower mountains, and cold in the higher elevations. Its weather characteristics vary from subtropical and tropical, found on coastal plains, to cold in the nearby mountains. Temperatures range from to with rain and thunderstorms during the rainy season (June to October) and dry conditions throughout most of the year. Its average annual precipitation is 790 millimetres.


title: Sinaloa

text: Numerous species of plants and animals are found within Sinaloa. Notable among the tree species is the elephant tree, "Bursera microphylla".


title: Sinaloa

text: According to the 2020 census, Sinaloa is home to 3,026,943 inhabitants, 60% of whom reside in the capital city of Culiacán and the municipalities of Mazatlán and Ahome. It is a young state in terms of population, 56% of which is younger than 30 years of age.


title: Sinaloa

text: Other demographic particulars report 87% of the state practices the Catholic faith. Also, 1% of those over five years of age speak an indigenous language alongside Spanish; the main indigenous ethnic group still residing in the state is the Mayo or "Yoreme" (Cáhita language) people. Life expectancy in the state follows the national tendency of higher rates for women than men, a difference of almost five years in the case of Sinaloa, at 72.5 and 77.4 years respectively.


title: Sinaloa

text: In ethnic composition, Sinaloa has received large historic waves of immigration from Europe (mainly Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Russia) and Asia (namely China, Japan, the Philippines, Lebanon and Syria). The latter two countries also make up most of the Arab Mexican community in the state. In recent years, retirees from the U.S., Canada and South America have arrived and made Sinaloa their home.


title: Sinaloa

text: There was also a sizable influx of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews in the first decades of the twentieth century.


title: Sinaloa

text: Greeks form a notable presence in Sinaloa, where one can find local cuisine with kalamari and a few Greek Orthodox churches along the state's coast.


title: Sinaloa

text: According to the 2020 Census, 1.39% of Sinaloa's population identified as Black, Afro-Mexican, or having African descent.


title: Sinaloa

text: Sinaloenses have moved to the United States in large numbers since 1970; a large community lives in the twin towns of Indio, California and Coachella, California about 25 miles east of the resort city of Palm Springs, California in the Colorado Desert of Southern California.


title: Sinaloa

text: The main economic activities of Sinaloa are agriculture, fishing, livestock breeding, tourism and food processing. Sinaloa has on its license plates the image of a tomato, as the state is widely recognized for harvesting this particular fruit in great abundance from Los Mochis in the North to Culiacán in the central region of the state. Agriculture produce aside from tomatoes include cotton, beans, corn, wheat, sorghum, potatoes, soybeans, mangos, sugarcane, peanuts and squash. Sinaloa is the most prominent state in Mexico in terms of agriculture and is known as "Mexico's breadbasket". Additionally, Sinaloa has the second largest fishing fleet in the country. Livestock produces meat, sausages, cheese, milk as well as sour cream.


title: Sinaloa

text: In terms of education, average schooling reaches 8.27 years; 4.2% of those over 15 years of age are illiterate, and 3.18% of children under 14 years of age do not attend school.


title: Sinaloa

text: Institutions of higher education include Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, TecMilenio University, Universidad Politécnica de Sinaloa, Universidad Politécnica del Mar y la Sierra, Universidad Politécnica del Valle del Evora, Universidad Autónoma de Durango, Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Sinaloa, Universidad Autónoma de Occidente and Universidad Casa Blanca.


title: Sinaloa

text: The current governor of Sinaloa is Rubén Rocha Moya. The state is represented in the Mexican Congress by three Senators in the upper house and fourteen federal deputies in the lower house.


title: Sinaloa

text: Sinaloa is divided into 18 municipalities. Each municipality has a city council, headed by the municipal president. The aforementioned positions have a duration of three years.


title: Sinaloa

text: The state's major cities include the capital and largest city, Culiacán, Mazatlán, a famous tourist resort and destination, and Los Mochis, an agricultural hub in Northwestern Mexico. Other cities include Guasave, Guamúchil, Escuinapa, El Fuerte, Sinaloa de Leyva, El Rosario, San Ignacio de Piaxtla and Choix.


title: Sinaloa

text: Culturally, Sinaloa is part of Northern Mexico. Famous entertainers from the state include actor Pedro Infante, born in Mazatlán; singer Ana Gabriel, born in Guamúchil; singer and actress Lola Beltrán from Rosario; Cruz Lizárraga, the founder of Banda el Recodo; baseball player Jorge Orta, from Mazatlán; actress/comedian/singer Sheyla Tadeo, born in Culiacán; actress Sabine Moussier; actress/singer Lorena Herrera, from Mazatlán; and singer-songwriter Chalino Sánchez, from Las Flechas, Culiacán.


title: Sinaloa

text: The state is known for its popular styles of music banda and norteño. Banda was established in the early 1920s, influenced by the organological style of the European fanfare, and incorporating traditional sones, ranchera, corrido, polka, waltz, mazurka and schottische predominate, as well as more contemporary genres such as cumbia.


title: Sinaloa

text: The first bandas were formed by members of military and municipal bands who settled in the Sierra Madre Occidental during the Mexican Revolution, and were influenced by traditional Yoreme music.


title: Sinaloa

text: Its rich cuisine is well known for its variety particularly in regard to "mariscos" (seafood) and vegetables. Famous dishes include "aguachile". Sinaloan sushi is a popular dish.


title: Sinaloa

text: Newspapers of Sinaloa include: "El Debate de Culiacán", "El Debate de Guamúchil", "El Debate de Guasave", "El Debate de los Mochis", "El Debate de Mazatlán", "El Sol de Culiacán", "El Sol de Sinaloa", "La I Noticias para Mí Culiacán", "Noroeste (Culiacán)", "Noroeste de Mazatlán", and "Primera Hora."


title: Sinaloa

text: Sinaloa is one of the few places where the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame is still played, in a handful of small, rural communities not far from Mazatlán. The ritual ballgame was central in the society, religion and cosmology of all the great Mesoamerican cultures including the Mixtecs, Aztecs, and Maya. The Sinaloa version of the game is called "ulama" and is very similar to the original. There are efforts to preserve this 3500-year-old unique tradition by supporting the communities and children who play it.


title: Sinaloa

text: The state is home to several baseball teams such as Tomateros de Culiacán, Venados de Mazatlán, Cañeros de Los Mochis and Algodoneros de Guasave which take part in the Mexican Pacific League.


title: Sinaloa

text: The Sinaloa Cartel ("Cártel de Sinaloa" or "CDS") has significantly influenced the culture of Sinaloa. The cartel is reportedly the largest drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime syndicate in the Americas; it is based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa.


title: Burqa

text: A burqa or a burka () is an enveloping outer garment worn by women which fully covers the body and the face in some Islamic traditions. Also known as a chadaree () or chaadar (Urdu, ) in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, or a "paranja" (; ) in Central Asia, the Arab version of the burqa is called the "boshiya" and is usually black. The term "burqa" is sometimes conflated with the "niqāb" even though, in more precise usage, the niqab is a face veil that leaves the eyes uncovered, while a burqa covers the entire body from the top of the head to the ground, with a mesh screen which only allows the wearer to see in front of her. The burqa should also not be confused with the "hijab", a garment which covers the hair, neck and all or part of the chest, but does not cover the face.


title: Burqa

text: The wearing of the burqa and other types of face veils have been attested to since pre-Islamic times. Face veiling has not been regarded as a religious requirement by most Islamic scholars, either in the past or the present. A minority of scholars in the Islamic jurisprudence ("fiqh") consider it to be obligatory for Muslim women when they are in the presence of non-related (i.e., non-) males in order to prevent men from thinking about women while not obliging men to wear eye-covering. Women may wear the burqa for a number of reasons, including compulsion, as was the case during the Taliban's first rule of Afghanistan.


title: Burqa

text: The following nations have fully or partially banned burqas: Austria, France, Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, the Netherlands (in public schools, hospitals and on public transport), Germany (partial bans in some states), Italy (in some localities), Spain (in some localities of Catalonia), Russia (in the Stavropol Krai), Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway (in nurseries, public schools and universities), Canada (in the public workplace in Quebec), Gabon, Chad, Senegal, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon (in some localities), Niger (in some localities), Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan (in public schools), Turkey (in the judiciary, military and police), Kosovo (in public schools), Bosnia and Herzegovina (in courts and other legal institutions), Morocco (ban on manufacturing, marketing and sale), Tunisia (in public institutions), Egypt (in universities), Algeria (in the public workplace), and China (in Xinjiang).


title: Burqa

text: The face veil was originally part of women's dress among certain classes in the Byzantine Empire and was adopted into Muslim culture during the Arab conquest of the Middle East.


title: Burqa

text: However, although Byzantine art before Islam commonly depicts women with veiled heads or covered hair, it does not depict women with veiled faces. In addition, the Greek geographer Strabo, writing in the 1st century AD, refers to some Median women veiling their faces; and the early third-century Christian writer Tertullian clearly refers in his treatise "The Veiling of Virgins" to some "pagan" women of "Arabia" wearing a veil that covers not only their head but also the entire face. Clement of Alexandria commends the contemporary use of face coverings. There are also two Biblical references to the employment of covering face veils in Genesis 38:14 and Genesis 24:65, by Tamar and by Rebeccah, Judah and Abraham's daughters-in-law respectively. These primary sources show that some women in Egypt, Arabia, Canaan and Persia veiled their faces long before Islam. In the case of Tamar, the Biblical text, 'When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot; because she had covered her face' indicates customary, if not sacral, use of the face veil to accentuate rather than disguise sexuality.


title: Burqa

text: Coptic Orthodox Christian women historically have worn dark-coloured full garments, along with a Christian head covering that included a veil to wear in public. Women who are unmarried wear white-coloured veils and married women wear black-coloured veils.


title: Burqa

text: Despite legal requirements and prevalence in certain regions, most Islamic scholars and most contemporary Islamic jurists have agreed that Islam does not require women to cover their faces.


title: Burqa

text: Although the Quran commands both men and women to behave modestly and contains no precise prescription for how women should dress, certain Quranic verses have been used in exegetical discussions of face veiling. Coming after a verse which instructs men to lower their gaze and guard their modesty, verse 24:31 instructs women to do the same, providing additional detail:


title: Burqa

text: The verse goes on to list a number of other types of exempted males. Classical Quranic commentators differed in their interpretation of the phrase "except what is apparent outwardly". Some argued that it referred to face and hands, implying that these body parts need not be covered, while others disagreed.


title: Burqa

text: Another passage, known as the "mantle verse" (33:59), has been interpreted as establishing women's security as a rationale for veiling:


title: Burqa

text: Based on the context of the verse and early Islamic literature, this verse has been generally understood as establishing a way to protect the Muslim women from a hostile faction who had molested them on the streets of Medina, claiming that they confused them with slave girls.


title: Burqa

text: The exact nature of garments referred to in these verses, and , has been debated by traditional and modern scholars.


title: Burqa

text: Islamic scholars who hold that face veiling is not obligatory also base this on a narration from one of the canonical hadith collections (sayings attributed to Muhammad), in which he tells Asma', the daughter of Abu Bakr: "O Asmaʿ, when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit her that she displays her parts of body except this and this", pointing to her face and hands (Abū Dawūd, Book 32, Number 4092). According to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, traditional hadith scholars have not viewed this narration as providing proof on its own, because its recorded chain of transmission made them uncertain about its authenticity, but those who argued that face veiling is not required have used it as supporting evidence strengthened by other textual sources, such as those recording customary practice at the time of Muhammad and his companions.


title: Burqa

text: When veiling was discussed in early Islamic jurisprudence beyond the context of prayer, it was generally considered an "issue of social status and physical safety". Later, during the medieval era, Islamic jurists began to devote more attention to the notion of (intimate parts) and the question of whether women should cover their faces. The majority opinion which emerged during that time, predominant among Maliki and Hanafi jurists, held that women should cover everything except their faces in public. In contrast, most medieval Hanbali and Shafi'i jurists counted a woman's face among the , concluding that it should be veiled, except for the eyes. The Hanbali jurist Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 CE) was an influential proponent of the latter view, while the Hanafi scholar Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani (d. 1197 CE) stressed that it was particularly important for a woman to leave her face and hands uncovered during everyday business dealing with men. There was a difference of opinion on this question within the legal schools. Thus, Yusuf al-Qaradawi quotes classical Shafi'i and Hanbali jurists stating that covering the face is not obligatory.


title: Burqa

text: According to the Salafi point of view, it is obligatory () for a woman to cover her entire body when in public or in presence of non-mahram men. Some interpretations say that a veil is not compulsory in front of blind men.


title: Burqa

text: The Salafi scholar Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani wrote a book expounding his view that the face veil is not a binding obligation upon Muslim women, while he was a teacher at Islamic University of Madinah. His opponents within the Saudi establishment ensured that his contract with the university was allowed to lapse without renewal.


title: Burqa

text: Reasons for wearing a burqa vary. A woman may choose to wear it to express her piety, modesty, rejection of Western culture, political views, and cultural views among other reasons. A woman may also wear a burqa on being forced to do so by law, or protection, as was in the case of Afghanistan during the first Taliban rule.


title: Burqa

text: In July 2015, Cameroon's Far North Region banned Islamic face veils, including the burqa, after two female suicide bombers dressed in Islamic garments detonated themselves in Fotokol, killing 13. The ban is now active in five of country's ten regions.


title: Burqa

text: In June 2015, the full face veil was banned in Chad after veiled Boko Haram members disguised as women committed multiple suicide bombings in N'Djamena.


title: Burqa

text: In May 2015, the Republic of the Congo banned the face veil in order to counter Islamic extremism. The decision was announced by El Hadji Djibril Bopaka, the president of the country's Islamic High Council.


title: Burqa

text: In 2015, Gabon banned the face veil in order to counter Islamic extremism in public and places of work.


title: Burqa

text: The government distributed letters to businesses on 9 January 2017 declaring a ban on the sale, production and importation of burqas. The letters indicated that businesses were expected to clear their stock within 48 hours.


title: Burqa

text: The full Afghan chadaree covers the wearer's entire face except for a small region about the eyes, which is covered by a concealing net or grille. They are usually light blue in the Kabul area, white in the north in Mazar-i-Sharif and brown and green in Kandahar in the south.


title: Burqa

text: Before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the chadaree was rarely worn in cities, especially Kabul. While they were in power, the Taliban required the wearing of a chadaree in public. Officially, it is required under the present Afghan regime, as of May 8, 2022. Chadaree use in the remainder of Afghanistan is variable and was observed to be gradually declining in Kabul, until the city fell to the Taliban on 15 August 2021. Due to political instability in these areas, women who might not otherwise be inclined to wear the chadaree must do so as a matter of personal safety, according to Khalid Hanafi. The Taliban, after taking over Afghanistan, declared that while women may return to work, they must always wear the hijab while outside the house, while burqa was not mandatory. But fear of repression led to a drastic increase in sale of burqas in Kabul, as women purchased the garment for personal safety from Taliban fighters. In May, the Taliban issued a decree that all women in public should wear a burka.


title: Burqa

text: Among the Muslim population in India (about 14.2% as of the 2011 census), the burqa (, ) was formerly common in many areas, such as Old Delhi, for example. In Nizamuddin Basti, the obligation of a woman to wear a burqa is dependent on her age, according to a local informant: young, unmarried women or young, married women in their first years of marriage are required to wear the burqa. However, after this the husband usually decides if his wife should continue to wear a burqa. In addition, the Indian burqa is a slim black cloak different from the style worn in Afghanistan.


title: Burqa

text: A group of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish women in Israel began to don the Burqa as a symbol of piety. Following its adoption by Bruria Keren, an Israeli religious leader who taught a strict interpretation of Jewish scripture to female adherents, an estimated 600 Jewish women started to wear the veil. Keren claimed to have adopted wearing the burqa to "save men from themselves. A man who sees a woman's body parts is sexually aroused, and this might cause him to commit sin. Even if he doesn't actually sin physically, his impure thoughts are sin in themselves." However, a rabbinical authority said "There is a real danger that by exaggerating, you are doing the opposite of what is intended [resulting in] severe transgressions in sexual matters," and issued an edict declaring burqa-wearing a sexual fetish, and as promiscuous as wearing too little.


title: Burqa

text: According to "The Jerusalem Post", in 2010, a Member of the Knesset intended to put forward a bill to "prohibit the wearing of a full-body and face covering for women. [The] bill would not differentiate between Muslims and Jews".


title: Burqa

text: In April 2019, face-covering clothing was banned in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings by jihadists.


title: Burqa

text: Syria is a Baathist state and discourages the wearing of hijab. Ghiyath Barakat, Syria's minister of higher education, announced that the government would ban students, teachers or staff from covering faces at universities, stating that the veils ran counter to "secular and academic principles of the country".


title: Burqa

text: In 2017 the government of Tajikistan passed a law requiring people to "stick to traditional national clothes and culture", which has been widely seen as an attempt to prevent women from wearing Islamic clothing, in particular the style of headscarf wrapped under the chin, in contrast to the traditional Tajik headscarf tied behind the head.


title: Burqa

text: In 2017, a legal ban on face-covering clothing in public spaces was adopted by the Austrian parliament including Islamic face-covering garments. The government stated that accepting and respecting Austrian values is essential to the peaceful co-existence between the Austrian majority population and immigrants. The ban came into force on 1 October 2017 and carried a fine of 150 euros.


title: Burqa

text: On 29 April 2010, the lower house of parliament in Belgium passed a bill banning any clothing that would obscure the identity of the wearer in places like parks and in the street. The proposal was passed without dissent, and was then also passed by the Senate. BBC News estimated that only "around 30 women wear this kind of veil in Belgium, out of a Muslim population of around half a million." The ban came into effect in Belgium in July 2011. On 11 July 2017, the ban was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after having been challenged by two Muslim women who claimed their rights had been infringed.


title: Burqa

text: The Parliament of Bulgaria outlawed the wearing of any clothing "that partially or completely covers the face" in public places such as government offices, educational and cultural institutions, and places of public recreation, except for health or professional reasons from 30 September 2016. Anyone who violates the law is liable to a fine of up to 1,500 levs (US$860). The Muslim community makes up 15% of the Bulgarian population of 7.1 million.


title: Burqa

text: In autumn 2017, the Danish government agreed to adopt a law prohibiting people to wear "attire and clothing masking the face in such a way that it impairs recognizability". A full ban on both niqabs and burqas was announced on 31 May 2018. The ban came into force on 1 August 2018 and carries a fine of 1000 DKK, then about 134 euro; repeat offenses are punishable with fines up to 10,000 DKK. The law targets all garments that cover the face, such as fake beards or balaclavas. Supporters of the ban claim that the ban facilitates integration of Muslims into Danish society, while Amnesty International claimed the ban violated women's rights. On the date the law came into force, a protest numbering 300-400 people was held in Copenhagen's Nørrebro district organised by Socialist Youth Front, and "Party Rebels," with protesters wearing various head coverings including party masks.


title: Burqa

text: Wearing the burqa has not been allowed in French public schools since 2004, when it was judged to be a religious symbol, similar to the Christian cross, and was outlawed for wear within schools as an application of an established 1905 law that prohibits students and staff from wearing any clearly visible religious symbols. The law relates to the time where the secular French state took over control of most schools from the Catholic Church; it does not apply to private or religious schools. This was followed on 22 June 2009, when the then-President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, said that burqas were "not welcome" in France, commenting that "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity". The French National Assembly appointed 32 lawmakers from right- and left-wing parties to a six-month fact-finding mission to look at ways of restricting its use. On 26 January 2010, the commission reported that access to public services and public transport should be barred to those wearing the burqa. On 13 July 2010, the Assembly overwhelmingly approved a bill banning burqas and niqabs.


title: Burqa

text: On 14 September 2010, the French Senate overwhelmingly approved a ban on burqas in public, with the law becoming effective beginning on 11 April 2011. When the measure was sent in May to the parliament, it was stated that "Given the damage it produces on those rules which allow the life in community, ensure the dignity of the person and equality between sexes, this practice, even if it is voluntary, cannot be tolerated in any public place".


title: Burqa

text: The ban is officially called "The bill to forbid concealing one's face in public". "It refers neither to Islam nor to veils. Officials insist the law against face-covering is not discriminatory because it would apply to everyone, not just Muslims. They cite a host of exceptions, including motorcycle helmets, or masks for health reasons, fencing, skiing or carnivals".


title: Burqa

text: In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the French ban on burqa, accepting the argument of the French government that the law was based on "a certain idea of living together".


title: Burqa

text: In 2022, France’s top administrative court ruled against allowing body-covering “burkini” swimwear in public pools for religious reasons, arguing that it violates the principle of government neutrality toward religion.


title: Burqa

text: In a 2016 speech, accepting her nomination for reelection, the German chancellor Angela Merkel called for banning the burqa in Germany "wherever legally possible", which was interpreted as support for the earlier proposal by Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière to outlaw full-face veils in public buildings. The announcement was seen as an attempt to counter public anger at Merkel's handling of the migrant crisis and electoral gains by the anti-immigration AfD party. In 2017, a legal ban on face-covering clothing for soldiers and state workers during work was approved by the German parliament. Also in 2017, a legal ban on face-covering clothing for car and truck drivers was approved by the German Ministry of Traffic. In July 2017 the state of Bavaria approved a ban on face-covering clothing for teachers, state workers and students at university and schools.


title: Burqa

text: In August 2017, the state of Lower Saxony banned the burqa along with the niqab in public schools. This change in the law was prompted by a Muslim pupil in Osnabrück who wore the garment to school for years and refused to take it off. The law was instituted to prevent similar cases in the future following the completion of her schooling.


title: Burqa

text: In July 2020, the state of Baden-Württemberg banned face-covering veils for pupils, an extension of the ban already in force for school staff.


title: Burqa

text: In Italy, by an anti-terrorism law passed in 1975, it is forbidden to wear any dress that hides the face of a person. At that time, Italy was facing domestic (not Islam-related) terrorism. In May 2010, it was reported that a Tunisian woman was fined €500 for this offence.


title: Burqa

text: In 2016, it was wrongly claimed in foreign media that a legal ban of face-covering Islamic clothing was adopted by the Latvian parliament. After long public discussions draft legislation was approved by Latvian government on 22 August 2017; however, it was never adopted by the parliament as a law.


title: Burqa

text: Malta has no restrictions on Islamic dressing such as the veil (hijab) nor the full face veil (burqa and/or niqab) but strictly speaking face covering is illegal. An official ban on face covering for religious reasons is ambiguous. It is guaranteed that individuals are allowed to wear as they wish at their private homes and at the Mosque. Imam El Sadi stated his belief that banning of the niqab and the burka "offends Muslim women". Elsadi said that the Malteses' attitude towards Muslim women is positive and, despite cultural clashes, they tolerate the dressing. Some Muslim women share the belief that it is sinful to be seen in public without veiling themselves; however, they are legally required to remove it when needed.


title: Burqa

text: On 27 January 2012, a bill was agreed upon by the Dutch cabinet, banning any clothing that would hide the wearer's identity, with potential fines for wearing a burqa in public going up to 380 euros. However, it did not pass in Parliament. In October 2012, this law was mitigated by the succeeding cabinet to pertain only to public transport, health care, education and government buildings, rather than all public spaces.


title: Burqa

text: On 22 May 2015, a bill was agreed upon by the Dutch cabinet, banning wearing a burqa in public places. Public places would have included public transportation, educational institutes, public health institutes, and government buildings. In the courtroom, a burqa or a niqab could not be worn, with both allowed in public spaces. Police officers could have requested one to remove face-covering clothing for identification purposes. There were exceptions, such as during carnival or other festivities, and when face-covering clothing was necessary as a sports or job requirement. Opposition party D66 commented on the burqa abolishment as tokenism, while PVV labelled the ban unsatisfactory. Minister of Internal Affairs, Plasterk, has stated that setting a norm is important.


title: Burqa

text: The May 2015 bill did not pass either, but a new bill was proposed in November 2015, which was eventually made into law. On 26 June 2018, a partial ban on face covering (including burqas) on public transport and in buildings and associated yards of educational institutions, governmental institutions and healthcare institutions was enacted, with a number of exceptions. From 1 August 2019 a national burka ban was introduced in the Netherlands.


title: Burqa

text: In June 2018, the parliament of Norway passed a bill banning clothing covering the face at educational institutions as well as daycare centres, which included face-covering Islamic veils. The prohibition applies to pupils and staff alike.


title: Burqa

text: In 2012, a poll by Uppsala University found that Swedes responded that face-covering Islamic veils are either completely unacceptable or fairly unacceptable, 85% for the burqa and 81% for the niqab. The researchers noted these figures represented a compact resistance to the face-covering veil by the population of Sweden.


title: Burqa

text: In December 2019, the municipality of Skurup banned Islamic veils in educational institutions. Earlier, the municipality of Staffanstorp approved a similar ban.


title: Burqa

text: The burqa was outlawed in the canton of Ticino after a citizen initiative to hold a referendum. With 65% in favour of a ban, it was ruled that the ban was constitutional, and took effect in July 2016. Those who violate the law face a fine of up to CHF 10,000.


title: Burqa

text: In September 2018, a ban on face-covering veils was approved with a 67% vote in favour in the canton of St. Gallen. The largest Islamic community organisation in Switzerland, the Islamic Central Council, recommended that Muslim women continue to cover their faces.


title: Burqa

text: During the federal votation of the 7 March 2021 regarding the prohibition of face-covering, the Swiss people voted for the prohibition. The question submitted for the referendum was initiated from a right-wing political group affiliated with the Swiss People's Party. Although very few women in Switzerland actually wear a burqa or niqab, the proposition has been made with the intention to forbid these outfits in public spaces. 51.4% of the population participated in the vote, 51.2% of them agreed with the initiative.


title: Burqa

text: Face veils have caused debate in the United Kingdom. Former Labour party MP for Blackburn Jack Straw attracted controversy in 2006 after asking Muslim women from his constituency to remove any veils covering their faces during face-to-face constituency surgeries. Despite explaining to the media that a female staffer would remain in the room during any potential meeting, reaction was varied, with some Muslim groups saying that they understood his concerns, and others rejecting his request as prejudicial. A poll in 2011 indicated that 66 per cent of British people supported banning the burqa in all public places. However, a ban on burqas was ruled out by the Conservative government, and in 2018 Theresa May stated "we do not support a ban on the wearing of the veil in public".


title: Burqa

text: In 2010, Australian Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi called for the burqa to be banned in Australia, branding it "un-Australian". The ban did not go ahead, but the debate about the burqa continues.


title: Burqa

text: In 2011, Carnita Matthews of Sydney was sentenced to six months jail for making a statement accusing a police officer of attempting to forcibly lift her niqab, which news sources initially referred to incorrectly as a burqa. The officer had pulled her over for a random breath test and then ticketed her for a licence infringement. Matthews allegedly then submitted a signed complaint to a police station while wearing a niqab. Judge Clive Jeffreys overturned the conviction in June 2011, citing what he thought were differences between the signature on her license and that on the complaint. She then proceeded to seek legal costs. Matthews was subsequently revealed to have a considerable record of unpaid fines and licence revocations that cast doubt on her character.


title: Burqa

text: On 4 July 2011, New South Wales became the first Australian state to pass laws allowing police to demand that burqas (and other headgear such as motorcycle helmets) be removed when asking for identification.


title: Burqa

text: In October 2014, the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra decreed that female visitors wearing a face covering would have to sit in the separated glassed-in areas of the public gallery normally reserved for schoolchildren. This was in response to a planned disruptive action by a political activist group. Prime Minister Tony Abbott stated that he opposed this restriction. The decision was subsequently reversed.


title: Burqa

text: In August 2017, Senator Pauline Hanson arrived at the Senate wearing a burqa in protest, calling for the garment to be banned. Following the incident, ReachTEL polled 2,832 Australians and found that 56.3% supported banning the wearing of the burqa in public places.


title: Burqa

text: On June 16, 2019, Bill 21 was passed which banned all religious symbols in the public sector for those in a position of authority i.e teachers, police officers, judges and lawyers amongst others. It also banned the face veil (niqab, burqa) when receiving public services. It has so far been upheld by the courts due to the passing of the notwithstanding clause.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following India's independence, he became the First Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning 'Our Master' and he had adopted "Azad" ("Free") as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as National Education Day across India.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu, as well as treatises on religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist, publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian nationalism. Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement, during which he came into close contact with the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. After the failure of the Khilafat Movement, he became closer to the Congress. Azad became an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi's ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked to organise the non-co-operation movement in protest of the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad committed himself to Gandhi's ideals, including promoting "Swadeshi" (indigenous) products and the cause of "Swaraj" ("Self-rule") for India. In 1923, at an age of 35, he became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: In October 1920, Azad was elected as a member of foundation committee to establish Jamia Millia Islamia at Aligarh in U. P. without taking help from British colonial government. He assisted in shifting the campus of the university from Aligarh to New Delhi in 1934. The main gate (Gate No. 7) to the main campus of the university is named after him.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad was one of the main organizers of the Dharasana Satyagraha in 1931, and emerged as one of the most important national leaders of the time, prominently leading the causes of Hindu–Muslim unity as well as espousing secularism and socialism. He served as Congress president from 1940 to 1945, during which the "Quit India" rebellion was launched. Azad was imprisoned, together with the entire Congress leadership. He also worked for Hindu–Muslim unity through the "Al-Hilal" newspaper.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad was born on 11 November 1888 in Mecca, then a part of the Ottoman Empire, now a part of Saudi Arabia. His real name was Sayyid Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al Hussaini, but he eventually became known as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Azad's father was a Muslim scholar of Afghan ancestry, who lived in Delhi with his maternal grandfather, as his father had died at a very young age. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, he left India and settled in Mecca. His father Muhammad Khairuddin bin Ahmed Al Hussaini wrote twelve books, had thousands of disciples, and claimed noble ancestry, while his mother was Sheikha Alia bint Mohammad, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammad bin Zaher AlWatri, himself a reputed scholar from Medina who had a reputation that extended even outside of Arabia.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad was home-schooled and self-taught. Following fluency in Arabic as a first language, Azad began to master several other languages including Bengali, Hindustani, Persian, and English. He was also trained in the Mazahibs of Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali fiqh, Shariat, mathematics, philosophy, world history, and science by tutors hired by his family. An avid and determined student, the precocious Azad was running a library, a reading room, and a debating society before he was twelve; wanted to write on the life of Al-Ghazali at twelve; was contributing learned articles to "Makhzan" (a literary magazine) at fourteen; was teaching a class of students, most of whom were twice his age, when he was fifteen; and completed the traditional course of study at the age of sixteen, nine years ahead of his contemporaries, and brought out a magazine at the same age. At the age of thirteen, he was married to a young Muslim girl, Zulaikha Begum. Azad compiled many treatises interpreting the Qur'an, the "Hadis", and the principles of "Fiqh" and "Kalam".


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad began his journalistic endeavours at an early age. In 1899 at the age of eleven he started publishing a poetical journal "Nairang-e-Aalam" at Calcutta and was already an editor of a weekly "Al-Misbah" in 1900. He contributed articles to Urdu magazines and journals such as "Makhzan", "Ahsanul Akhbar", and "Khadang e Nazar".


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: In 1903, he brought out a monthly journal, "Lissan-us-Sidq". It was published between December 1903 to May 1905 until its closure due to shortage of funds. He then joined "Al Nadwa", the Islamic theological journal of the Nadwatu l-Ulama on Shibli Nomani's invitation. He worked as editor of "Vakil", a newspaper from Amritsar from April 1906 to November 1906. He shifted to Calcutta for a brief period where he was associated with "Dar-ul-Saltunat". He returned to Amritsar after few months and resumed the editorship of Vakil, continuing to work there until July 1908.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: In 1908, he took a trip of Egypt, Syria, Turkey and France where he came into contact with several revolutionaries such as followers of Kamal Mustafa Pasha, members of Young Turk Movement and Iranian revolutionaries. Azad developed political views considered radical for most Muslims of the time and became a full-fledged Indian nationalist. In his writing, Azad proved to be a fierce critic of both the British government and Muslim politicians; the former for its racial discrimination and refusal to provide for the needs of the Indian public, and the later for focusing on communal issues before matter of common-self interest (Azad pointedly rejected the All-India Muslim League's communal separatism). However, his views changed considerably when he met ethnically oriented Sunni revolutionary activists in Iraq and was influenced by their fervent anti-imperialism and Arab nationalism. Against common Muslim opinion of the time, Azad opposed the partition of Bengal in 1905 and became increasingly active in revolutionary activities, to which he was introduced by the prominent Hindu revolutionaries Aurobindo Ghosh and Shyam Sundar Chakravarty. Azad initially evoked surprise from other revolutionaries, but Azad won their praise and confidence by working secretly to organise revolutionaries activities and meetings in Bengal, Bihar and Bombay (now called Mumbai).


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: He established an Urdu weekly newspaper in 1912 called "Al-Hilal" from Calcutta, and openly attacked British policies while exploring the challenges facing common people. Espousing the ideals of Indian nationalism, Azad's publications were aimed at encouraging young Muslims into fighting for independence and Hindu-Muslim unity. With the onset of World War I, the British stiffened censorship and restrictions on political activity. Azad's "Al-Hilal" was consequently banned in 1914 under the "Press Act".


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: In 1913, he was founding member of the Anjuman-i-Ulama-i-Bangala, which would become the Jamiat Ulema-e-Bangala branch of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind in 1921. His work helped improve the relationship between Hindus and Muslims in Bengal, which had been soured by the controversy surrounding the partition of Bengal and the issue of separate communal electorates.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: In this period Azad also became active in his support for the Khilafat agitation to protect the position of the Sultan of Ottoman Turkey, who was considered the Caliph or Khalifa for Muslims worldwide. The Sultan had sided against the British in the war and the continuity of his rule came under serious threat, causing distress amongst Muslim conservatives. Azad saw an opportunity to energise Indian Muslims and achieve major political and social reform through the struggle.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad started a new journal, the "Al-Balagh", which also got banned in 1916 under the "Defence of India Regulations Act" and he was arrested. The governments of the Bombay Presidency, United Provinces, Punjab and Delhi prohibited his entry into the provinces and Azad was moved to a jail in Ranchi, where he was incarcerated until 1 January 1920.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Upon his release, Azad returned to a political atmosphere charged with sentiments of outrage and rebellion against British rule. The Indian public had been angered by the passage of the Rowlatt Acts in 1919, which severely restricted civil liberties and individual rights. Consequently, thousands of political activists had been arrested and many publications banned. The killing of unarmed civilians at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on 13 April 1919 had provoked intense outrage all over India, alienating most Indians, including long-time British supporters, from the authorities. The Khilafat struggle had also peaked with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the raging Turkish War of Independence, which had made the caliphate's position precarious. India's main political party, the Indian National Congress came under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, who had aroused excitement all over India when he led the farmers of Champaran and Kheda in a successful revolt against British authorities in 1918. Gandhi organised the people of the region and pioneered the art of "Satyagraha"— combining mass civil disobedience with complete non-violence and self-reliance.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Taking charge of the Congress, Gandhi also reached out to support the Khilafat struggle, helping to bridge Hindu-Muslim political divides. Azad and the Ali brothers – Maulana Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali – warmly welcomed Congress support and began working together on a programme of "non-co-operation" by asking all Indians to boycott British-run schools, colleges, courts, public services, the civil service, police and military. Non-violence and Hindu-Muslim unity were universally emphasised, while the boycott of foreign goods, especially clothes were organised. Azad joined the Congress and was also elected president of the All India Khilafat Committee. Although Azad and other leaders were soon arrested, the movement drew out millions of people in peaceful processions, strikes and protests.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: This period marked a transformation in Azad's own life. Along with fellow Khilafat leaders Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan and others, Azad grew personally close to Gandhi and his philosophy. The three men founded the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi as an institution of higher education managed entirely by Indians without any British support or control. Both Azad and Gandhi shared a deep passion for religion and Azad developed a close friendship with him. He adopted the Islamic prophet Muhammad's ideas by living simply, rejecting material possessions and pleasures. He began to spin his own clothes using "khadi" on the "charkha", and began frequently living and participating in the ashrams organised by Gandhi. Becoming deeply committed to "ahimsa" ("non-violence") himself, Azad grew close to fellow nationalists like Jawaharlal Nehru, Chittaranjan Das and Subhas Chandra Bose. He strongly criticised the continuing suspicion of the Congress amongst the Muslim intellectuals from the Aligarh Muslim University and the Muslim League.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: In 1921, he started the weekly "Paigham" which was also banned by December 1921. He along with the editor of "Paigham", Abdul Razzak Mahilabadi was arrested by the government and sentenced to one year imprisonment.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: During the course of 1922, both the Khilafat and the non cooperation movement suffered blow while Azad and other leaders like the Ali brothers were in jail. The movement had a sudden decline with rising incidences of violence; a nationalist mob killed 22 policemen in Chauri Chaura in 1922. Fearing degeneration into violence, Gandhi asked Indians to suspend the revolt and undertook a five-day fast to repent and encourage others to stop the rebellion. Although the movement stopped all over India, several Congress leaders and activists were disillusioned with Gandhi. The following year, the caliphate was overthrown by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Ali brothers grew distant and critical of Gandhi and the Congress. Azad's close friend Chittaranjan Das co-founded the Swaraj Party, breaking from Gandhi's leadership. Despite the circumstances, Azad remained firmly committed to Gandhi's ideals and leadership.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: In 1923, he became the youngest man to be elected Congress president. Azad led efforts to organise the Flag Satyagraha in Nagpur. Azad served as president of the 1924 Unity Conference in Delhi, using his position to work to re-unite the Swarajists and the Khilafat leaders under the common banner of the Congress. In the years following the movement, Azad travelled across India, working extensively to promote Gandhi's vision, education and social reform.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad served on the Congress Working Committee and in the offices of general secretary and president many times. The political environment in India re-energised in 1928 with nationalist outrage against the Simon Commission appointed to propose constitutional reforms. The commission included no Indian members and did not even consult Indian leaders and experts. In response, the Congress and other political parties appointed a commission under Motilal Nehru to propose constitutional reforms from Indian opinions. In 1928, Azad endorsed the Nehru Report, which was criticised by the Ali brothers and Muslim League politician Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Azad endorsed the ending of separate electorates based on religion, and called for an independent India to be committed to secularism. At the 1928 Congress session in Guwahati, Azad endorsed Gandhi's call for dominion status for India within a year. If not granted, the Congress would adopt the goal of complete political independence for India. Despite his affinity for Gandhi, Azad also drew close to the young radical leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Bose, who had criticised the delay in demanding full independence. Azad developed a close friendship with Nehru and began espousing socialism as the means to fight inequality, poverty and other national challenges. Azad decided the name of Muslim political party Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam. He was also a friend of Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari, founder of All India Majlis-e-Ahrar. When Gandhi embarked on the Dandi Salt March that inaugurated the Salt Satyagraha in 1930, Azad organised and led the nationalist raid, albeit non-violent on the Dharasana salt works to protest the salt tax and restriction of its production and sale. The biggest nationalist upheaval in a decade, Azad was imprisoned along with millions of people, and would frequently be jailed from 1930 to 1934 for long periods of time. Following the Gandhi–Irwin Pact in 1931, Azad was amongst millions of political prisoners released. When elections were called under the Government of India Act 1935, Azad was appointed to organise the Congress election campaign, raising funds, selecting candidates and organising volunteers and rallies across India. Azad had criticised the Act for including a high proportion of un-elected members in the central legislature, and did not himself contest a seat. He again declined to contest elections in 1937, and helped head the party's efforts to organise elections and preserve co-ordination and unity amongst the Congress governments elected in different provinces.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: At the 1936 Congress session in Lucknow, Azad was drawn into a dispute with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and C. Rajagopalachari regarding the espousal of socialism as the Congress goal. Azad had backed the election of Nehru as Congress president, and supported the resolution endorsing socialism. In doing so, he aligned with Congress socialists like Nehru, Subhash Bose and Jayaprakash Narayan. Azad also supported Nehru's re-election in 1937, at the consternation of many conservative Congressmen. Azad supported dialogue with Jinnah and the Muslim League between 1935 and 1937 over a Congress-League coalition and broader political co-operation. Less inclined to brand the League as obstructive, Azad nevertheless joined the Congress's vehement rejection of Jinnah's demand that the League be seen exclusively as the representative of Indian Muslims.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: In 1938, Azad served as an intermediary between the supporters of and the Congress faction led by Congress president Subhash Bose, who criticised Gandhi for not launching another rebellion against the British and sought to move the Congress away from Gandhi's leadership. Azad stood by Gandhi with most other Congress leaders, but reluctantly endorsed the Congress's exit from the assemblies in 1939 following the inclusion of India in World War II. Nationalists were infuriated that Viceroy Lord Linlithgow had entered India into the war without consulting national leaders. Although willing to support the British effort in return for independence, Azad sided with Gandhi when the British ignored the Congress overtures. Azad's criticism of Jinnah and the League intensified as Jinnah called Congress rule in the provinces as "Hindu Raj", calling the resignation of the Congress ministries as a "Day of Deliverance" for Muslims. Jinnah and the League's separatist agenda was gaining popular support amongst Muslims. Muslim religious and political leaders criticised Azad as being too close to the Congress and placing politics before Muslim welfare. As the Muslim League adopted a resolution calling for a separate Muslim state (Pakistan) in its session in Lahore in 1940, Azad was elected Congress president in its session in Ramgarh. Speaking vehemently against Jinnah's "Two-Nation Theory"—the notion that Hindus and Muslims were distinct nations—Azad lambasted religious separatism and exhorted all Muslims to preserve a united India, as all Hindus and Muslims were Indians who shared deep bonds of brotherhood and nationhood. In his presidential address, Azad said:


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: In face of increasing popular disenchantment with the British across India, Gandhi and Patel advocated an all-out rebellion demanding immediate independence. Azad was wary and sceptical of the idea, aware that India's Muslims were increasingly looking to Jinnah and had supported the war. Feeling that a struggle would not force a British exit, Azad and Nehru warned that such a campaign would divide India and make the war situation even more precarious. Intensive and emotional debates took place between Azad, Nehru, Gandhi and Patel in the Congress Working Committee's meetings in May and June 1942. In the end, Azad became convinced that decisive action in one form or another had to be taken, as the Congress had to provide leadership to India's people and would lose its standing if it did not.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Supporting the call for the British to "Quit India", Azad began exhorting thousands of people in rallies across the nation to prepare for a definitive, all-out struggle. As Congress president, Azad travelled across India and met with local and provincial Congress leaders and grass-roots activists, delivering speeches and planning the rebellion. Despite their previous differences, Azad worked closely with Patel and Dr. Rajendra Prasad to make the rebellion as effective as possible. On 7 August 1942 at the Gowalia Tank in Mumbai, Congress president Azad inaugurated the struggle with a vociferous speech exhorting Indians into action. Just two days later, the British arrested Azad and the entire Congress leadership. While Gandhi was incarcerated at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune, Azad and the Congress Working Committee were imprisoned at a fort in Ahmednagar, where they would remain under isolation and intense security for nearly four years. Outside news and communication had been largely prohibited and completely censored. Although frustrated at their incarceration and isolation, Azad and his companions attested to feeling a deep satisfaction at having done their duty to their country and people.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad occupied the time playing bridge and acting as the referee in tennis matches played by his colleagues. In the early mornings, Azad began working on his classic Urdu work, the Ghubhar-i-Khatir. Sharing daily chores, Azad also taught the Persian and Urdu languages, as well as Indian and world history to several of his companions. The leaders would generally avoid talking of politics, unwilling to cause any arguments that could exacerbate the pain of their imprisonment. However, each year on 26 January, which was then considered "Poorna Swaraj" (Complete Independence) Day, the leaders would gather to remember their cause and pray together. Azad, Nehru and Patel would briefly speak about the nation and the future. Azad and Nehru proposed an initiative to forge an agreement with the British in 1943. Arguing that the rebellion had been mistimed, Azad attempted to convince his colleagues that the Congress should agree to negotiate with the British and call for the suspension of disobedience if the British agreed to transfer power. Although his proposal was overwhelmingly rejected, Azad and a few others agreed that Gandhi and the Congress had not done enough. When they learnt of Gandhi holding talks with Jinnah in Mumbai in 1944, Azad criticised Gandhi's move as counter-productive and ill-advised.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: With the end of the war, the British agreed to transfer power to Indian hands. All political prisoners were released in 1946 and Azad led the Congress in the elections for the new Constituent Assembly of India, which would draft India's constitution. He headed the delegation to negotiate with the British Cabinet Mission, in his sixth year as Congress president. While attacking Jinnah's demand for Pakistan and the mission's proposal of 16 June 1946 that envisaged the partition of India, Azad became a strong proponent of the mission's earlier proposal of 16 May. The proposal advocated a federal system with a limited central government and autonomy for the provinces. The central government would have Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communication while the provinces would win all other subjects unless they voluntarily relinquished selected subjects to the Central Government. Additionally, the proposal called for the "grouping" of provinces on religious lines, which would informally band together the Muslim-majority provinces in the West as Group B, Muslim-majority provinces of Bengal and Assam as Group C and the rest of India as Group A. While Gandhi and others expressed scepticism of this clause, Azad argued that Jinnah's demand for Pakistan would be buried and the concerns of the Muslim community would be assuaged. Under Azad and Patel's backing, the Working Committee approved the resolution against Gandhi's advice. Azad also managed to win Jinnah's agreement to the proposal citing the greater good of all Indian Muslims.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad had been the Congress president since 1939, so he volunteered to resign in 1946. He nominated Nehru, who replaced him as Congress president and led the Congress into the interim government. Azad was appointed to head the Department of Education. However, Jinnah's "Direct Action Day" agitation for Pakistan, launched on 16 August sparked communal violence across India. Thousands of people were killed as Azad travelled across Bengal and Bihar to calm the tensions and heal relations between Muslims and Hindus. Despite Azad's call for Hindu-Muslim unity, Jinnah's popularity amongst Muslims soared and the League entered a coalition with the Congress in December, but continued to boycott the constituent assembly. Later in his autobiography, Azad indicated Patel having become more pro-partition than the Muslim League, largely due to the League's not co-operating with the Congress in the provisional government on any issue.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad had grown increasingly hostile to Jinnah, who had described him as the "Muslim Lord Haw-Haw" and a "Congress Showboy." Muslim League politicians accused Azad of allowing Muslims to be culturally and politically dominated by the Hindu community. Azad continued to proclaim his faith in Hindu-Muslim unity:


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Amidst more incidences of violence in early 1947, the Congress-League coalition struggled to function. The provinces of Bengal and Punjab were to be partitioned on religious lines, and on 3 June 1947 the British announced a proposal to partition India on religious lines, with the princely states free to choose between either dominion. The proposal was hotly debated in the All India Congress Committee, with Muslim leaders Saifuddin Kitchlew and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan expressing fierce opposition. Azad privately discussed the proposal with Gandhi, Patel and Nehru, but despite his opposition was unable to deny the popularity of the League and the unworkability of any coalition with the League. Faced with the serious possibility of a civil war, Azad abstained from voting on the resolution, remaining silent and not speaking throughout the AICC session, which ultimately approved the plan.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad, committed to a united India until his last attempt, was condemned by the advocates of Pakistan, especially the Muslim League.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: India's partition and independence on 15 August 1947 brought with it a scourge of violence that swept the Punjab, Bihar, Bengal, Delhi and many other parts of India. Millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled the newly created Pakistan for India, and millions of Muslims fled for West Pakistan and East Pakistan, created out of East Bengal. Violence claimed the lives of an estimated one million people, almost entirely in Punjab. Azad took up responsibility for the safety of Muslims in India, touring affected areas in Bengal, Bihar, Assam and the Punjab, guiding the organisation of refugee camps, supplies and security. Azad gave speeches to large crowds encouraging peace and calm in the border areas and encouraging Muslims across the country to remain in India and not fear for their safety and security. Focusing on bringing the capital of Delhi back to peace, Azad organised security and relief efforts, but was drawn into a dispute with the Deputy prime minister and Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel when he demanded the dismissal of Delhi's police commissioner, who was a Sikh accused by Muslims of overlooking attacks and neglecting their safety. Patel argued that the commissioner was not biased, and if his dismissal was forced it would provoke anger amongst Hindus and Sikhs and divide the city police. In Cabinet meetings and discussions with Gandhi, Patel and Azad clashed over security issues in Delhi and Punjab, as well as the allocation of resources for relief and rehabilitation. Patel opposed Azad and Nehru's proposal to reserve the houses vacated by Muslims who had departed for Pakistan for Muslims in India displaced by the violence. Patel argued that a secular government could not offer preferential treatment for any religious community, while Azad remained anxious to assure the rehabilitation of Muslims in India, secularism, religious freedom and equality for all Indians. He supported provisions for Muslim citizens to make avail of Muslim personal law in courts.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad remained a close confidante, supporter and advisor to prime minister Nehru, and played an important role in framing national policies. Azad masterminded the creation of national programmes of school and college construction and spreading the enrolment of children and young adults into schools, to promote universal primary education. Elected to the lower house of the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha in 1952 from Rampur district cum Bareilly district West Lok Sabha seat and again in 1957, Azad supported Nehru's socialist economic and industrial policies, as well as the advancing social rights and economic opportunities for women and underprivileged Indians. In 1956, he served as president of the UNESCO General Conference held in Delhi. Azad spent the final years of his life focusing on writing his book "India Wins Freedom", an exhaustive account of India's freedom struggle and its leaders, which was published in 1959.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: As India's first Minister of Education, he emphasised on educating the rural poor and girls. As Chairman of the Central Advisory Board of Education, he gave thrust to adult literacy, universal primary education, free and compulsory for all children up to the age of 14, girl's education, and diversification of secondary education and vocational training.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: He oversaw the setting up of the Central Institute of Education, Delhi, which later became the Department of Education of the University of Delhi as "a research centre for solving new educational problems of the country". Under his leadership, the Ministry of Education established the first Indian Institute of Technology in 1951 and the University Grants Commission in 1953., He also laid emphasis on the development of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Faculty of Technology of the Delhi University. He foresaw a great future in the IITs for India:


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad wrote many books including "India Wins Freedom", Ghubar-e-Khatir, Tazkirah, Tarjumanul Quran (Urdu تذکرہ ترجمان القُران), etc.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Ghubar-e-Khatir ("Sallies of Mind"), () is one of the most important works of Azad, written primarily during 1942 to 1946 when he was imprisoned in Ahmednagar Fort in Maharashtra by British Raj while he was in Bombay (now Mumbai) to preside over the meeting of All India Congress Working Committee.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: The book is basically a collection of 24 letters he wrote addressing his close friend Maulana Habibur Rahman Khan Sherwani. These letters were never sent to him because there was no permission for that during the imprisonment and after the release in 1946, he gave all these letters to his friend Ajmal Khan who let it published for the first time in 1946.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Although the book is a collection of letters but except one or two letters, all other letters are unique and most of the letters deal with complex issues such as existence of God, the origin of religions, the origin of music and its place in religion, etc.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: The book is primarily an Urdu language book; however, there are over five hundred of couplets, mostly in Persian and Arabic languages. It is because, Maulana was born in a family where Arabic and Persian were used more frequently than Urdu. He was born in Mekkah, given formal education in Persian and Arabic languages but he was never taught Urdu.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: It is often said that his book "India Wins Freedom" is about his political life and "Ghubar-e-Khatir" deals with his social and spiritual life.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: The Ministry of Minority Affairs of the central Government of India set up the Maulana Azad Education Foundation in 1989 on the occasion of his birth centenary to promote education amongst educationally backward sections of the Society. The Ministry also provides the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad National Fellowship, an integrated five-year fellowship in the form of financial assistance to students from minority communities to pursue higher studies such as M.Phil. and PhD In 1992 government of India honoured by giving posthumously Bharat Ratna.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Numerous institutions across India have also been named in his honour. Some of them are the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology in Bhopal, the Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad, Maulana Azad Centre for Elementary and Social Education (MACESE Delhi University), the Maulana Azad College, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, in Kolkata, Bab – e – Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Gate No. 7), Jamia Millia Islamia, A Central (Minority) University in New Delhi, the Maulana Azad library in the Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh and Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu. His home housed the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies earlier, and is now the Maulana Azad Museum. National Education Day (India) an annual observance in India to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of independent India, who served from 15 August 1947 until 2 February 1958. National Education Day of India is celebrated on 11 November every year in India.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: He is celebrated as one of the founders and greatest patrons of the Jamia Millia Islamia. Azad's tomb is located next to the Jama Masjid in Delhi. In recent years great concern has been expressed by many in India over the poor maintenance of the tomb. On 16 November 2005 the Delhi High Court ordered that the tomb of Maulana Azad in New Delhi be renovated and restored as a major national monument. Azad's tomb is a major landmark and receives large numbers of visitors annually.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Jawaharlal Nehru referred to him as "Mir-i- Karawan" (the caravan leader), "a very brave and gallant gentleman, a finished product of the culture that, in these days, pertains to few". Mahatma Gandhi remarked about Azad by counting him as "a person of the calibre of Plato, Aristotle and Pythagorus".


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: Azad was portrayed by actor Virendra Razdan in the 1982 biographical film, "Gandhi", directed by Richard Attenborough.


title: Abul Kalam Azad

text: A television series, "Maulana Abul Kalam Azad", aired on DD National in the 1990s and starred Mangal Dhillon in the titular role. DD Urdu aired "Seher Hone Tak", a docudrama television series by Lavlin Thadani based on his life and political career, with Aamir Bashir portraying the role of Azad. It was later shortened and re-released as the film "Aashiq-e-Vatan - Maulana Azad". "Woh Jo Tha Ek Massiah Maulana Azad", a 2019 biographical film about Azad was directed by Rajendra Gupta Sanjay and Sanjay Singh Negi, with Linesh Fanse playing the titular role.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: All the Bright Places is a 2020 American teen romantic drama film, directed by Brett Haley, from a screenplay by Jennifer Niven and Liz Hannah, adapted from the novel of the same name by Niven. It stars Elle Fanning, Justice Smith, Alexandra Shipp, Kelli O'Hara, Lamar Johnson, Virginia Gardner, Felix Mallard, Sofia Hasmik, Keegan-Michael Key, and Luke Wilson.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: Theodore Finch and Violet Markey are two teenagers who live unhappily in a small Indiana town. Violet is quietly dealing with survivor's guilt after the death of her sister Eleanor and Finch is a loner, called a freak by other students. They meet on the bridge where Eleanor died in a car crash nine months earlier. Violet survived the crash, and has not been in a car since. She finds herself standing on the ledge of the bridge on what would have been Eleanor's nineteenth birthday. Finch, out for a run, sees Violet on the ledge and climbs up next to her, talking her down from a possible suicide.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: Finch begins a partnership with Violet for a school project that requires the students to explore Indiana together. He looks up Violet on Facebook, researché her sister's car accident, reads through Violet's old writing, and chats with her online. Finch and Violet travel around Indiana to see sites chosen by him for the project. Violet refuses to travel by car, so they bike to the highest point in Indiana. However, to visit a miniature roller coaster too far away to bike to, Violet agrees to get in his car. She returns to writing, for the first time since Eleanor's death. He helps her talk about her sister, which no one else had managed to do. Violet slowly begins to heal. They fall in love.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: Violet notices Finch's occasionally strange behavior. He sometimes disappears for days. One day, while they are swimming at the Blue Hole, Finch disappears under the water. By the time he resurfaces, Violet is distraught and forces him to tell her more about himself, threatening to leave if he doesn't comply. Finch reveals that he had been physically abused by his father, who sometimes got in the "dark moods."


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: On one occasion, Finch and Violet stay out all night by accident, upsetting Violet's parents. At school that day, Finch loses his temper on Violet's ex-boyfriend after being called "freak." The two boys fight, and Finch leaves in his car. Violet, who broke up the fight, ends up in the principal's office with Finch's closest friend, Charlie, who talks to her about Finch.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: Finch attends a support group session, earlier recommended by the school guidance counselor, but nothing fruitful came about, partly because he cannot describe his problems. He visits the bar where his sister Kate works and prompts her to speculate on why their father was abusive, and whether he could have been helped. Upset, Kate dismisses the topic, saying she doesn't care, and that their father is someone else's problem now. Disappointed, Finch leaves for their house, where Violet is waiting. As she questions him of the post-it notes he put up, he alludes to his episodes of "dark moods" when he fails to "stay awake" - loses control of himself. Eventually Finch is convinced he is beyond help and shouts at her to leave.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: Finch disappears again. Advised by her father, she checks places they had visited together and drives to the Blue Hole. There, she finds Finch's clothes and phone, and correctly infers that he has drowned. Some time later, she attends his funeral.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: While healing from Finch's suicide, Violet finds the map they used for travel around Indiana, and notices the last location they were supposed to visit together marked in red. It's the Travelers' Prayers Chapel, a resting place for travelers and a place of healing for mourners. She finds his signature in the guest book.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: With Finch gone, Violet presents their school project alone. She reads aloud her writing on the lessons Finch taught her. In the last scene, Violet swims by herself in the Blue Hole.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: In July 2015, it was announced that Elle Fanning would star in "All the Bright Places", with author Jennifer Niven writing the adapted screenplay. In July 2015, it was announced that Miguel Arteta would be directing the film. In July 2018, Justice Smith joined the cast of the film, with Brett Haley replacing Arteta as director, and Liz Hannah co-writing the script with Niven. Echo Lake Entertainment and FilmNation Entertainment produced the film, with Fanning, Paula Mazur, Mitchell Kaplan, Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding, and Brittany Kahn serving as producers, while Hannah served as an executive producer.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: In October 2018, Alexandra Shipp, Keegan-Michael Key, Luke Wilson, Kelli O'Hara, Virginia Gardner, Felix Mallard, Lamar Johnson, and Sofia Hasmik joined the cast of the film, with Netflix distributing. Principal photography began on October 4, 2018, in Elyria, Ohio.


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: , "All The Bright Places" holds approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews, with an average of . The website's critics consensus reads: "Though it at times buckles under the emotional weight of its source material, "All The Bright Place" succeeds on the strength of Elle Fanning and Justice Smith's charming and tender performances." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 61 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: All the Bright Places (film)

text: Kimber Myers of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the film a positive review writing: "Though it's not without humor, "All the Bright Places" takes teens' emotions seriously and will move romantics of any age - in possibly unexpected ways". Courtney Howard of "Variety" gave the film a positive review writing: "Its pure beating heart and humanistic undertones make it somewhat of a standout". Candice Frederick of "The New York Times" also gave the film a positive review writing: "Smith and Fanning bring thoughtful performances to this delicate tale." Benjamin Lee of "The Guardian" gave the film 2 out of 5 stars writing: "There's messaging inserted near the start of the end credits for those who might be affected by the themes raised. But it doesn't negate what comes before it: a film that lingers briefly in the deep end but remains disappointingly shallow."


title: Joe Thomas (actor)

text: Joseph Owen Thomas (born 28 October 1983) is an English actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Simon Cooper in the award-winning E4 sitcom "The Inbetweeners" (2008–2010) and its two film adaptions, "The Inbetweeners Movie" (2011) and "The Inbetweeners 2" (2014), both achieving box office success.


title: Joe Thomas (actor)

text: After "The Inbetweeners" concluded, Thomas remained connected to Channel 4, joining the cast of comedy-drama series "Fresh Meat" in 2011, portraying the role of Kingsley Owen until 2016. He was reunited with his "The Inbetweeners" colleague James Buckley when they both joined the cast of BBC Two sitcom "White Gold", with Thomas portraying the role of Martin Lavender. In 2018, he starred in the comedy film "The Festival".