Choudhary Rahmat Ali (1895 - February 12, 1951) was the founder of the Pakistan National Movement, and was an early proponent of the formation of Pakistan. He is also credited with coming up with the name by which that nation is now known.
He completed his early studies in Lahore, and moved to the United Kingdom where he studied at Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge and the University of Dublin, earning MA and LLB degrees.
In the early 1930s, Ali began writing about the formation of a Muslim nation in India, and voiced his ideas in the pamphlet entitled "Now or Never; Are we to live or perish forever?". He also gave birth to the term "Pakistan" to refer to the Muslim homeland that he envisioned in Northern India, as well as "Bang-i-Islam" for a Muslim homeland in the Bengal, and "Usmanistan" for a Muslim homeland in the Deccan.
Like Allama Iqbal, Ali believed that the Muslims of India had to undergo a reformation politically in order to remain a viable, and independent community there. Ali noted that Muhammad had succeeded in uniting fractured Arab tribes, and that this example was to again be used by Muslims of India to pool together in order to survive in what he perceived to be an increasingly hostile India.
As such, Choudhary Rahmat Ali's writings, in addition to those of Iqbal and others were major catalysts for the formation of Pakistan. Ali dedicated a lot of time and energy to the idea of Pakistan, and after its formation in 1947, he argued on its behalf at the United Nations over the issue of Kashmir.
While Choudhary Rahmat Ali was a champion for the formation of Pakistan, he lived most of his adult life in the United Kingdom, and he died in 1953, buried at Cambridge.
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