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Maulana Azad wrote an essay on the great Persian mystic and poet, Sarmad, at the age of twenty-three; it was instantly hailed as a masterpiece. Scholars have traced in this essay the genesis and growth of Azad’s own religious thought and political life. In this definitive book, noted historian and scholar V.N. Datta demonstrates how Azad’s essay on Sarmad was, in fact, a reflection of his own life and experiences. He examines why Azad wrote this essay, the impulse that lay behind his thoughts, as well as its key ideas which were to subsequently sustain Azad’s intellectual and political life. About the Author V.N. Datta is Emeritus Professor of Modern History, Kurukshetra University, and formerly general president of the Indian History Congress, the Resident of fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and Visiting Professor to a number of universities including Moscow, Leningrad and Berlin. Among his much acclaimed publications are Jallianwalla Bagh (translated into Hindi and Punjabi);Sati: A Historical, Social and Philosophical Enquiry into the Hindu Rite of Widow-Burning, and Maulana Azad. He regularly contributes to journals and the popular press and is currently writing a book, Ghalib’s Dilli.