Book excerpt: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, commonly remembered as Maulana Azad, was a powerful writer and an equally stimulating orator, whose sway over the Muslim communities was considered a threat by the government which looked for every opportunity to clip his wings and restrain his activities. But Azad took these tribulations gracefully and came to play a very decisive role as a senior leader of the Independence movement. Like his pen-name Azad, which meant free, here was a man who relentlessly strove to remove the shackles of incapacious thinking.