Choudhry Rahmat Ali was a Muslim Punjabi, Gujjar by the cast, who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia and is generally known as the founder of the movement for its creation. He is best known as the author of a famous 1933 pamphlet titled "Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever", also known as the Pakistan Declaration. The pamphlet started with a famous statement:
"At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN – by which we mean the five Northern units of India, Viz: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan."
While Choudhry Rahmat Ali was a leading figure for the conception of Pakistan, he lived most of his adult life in England. Due to the division of Punjab and excluding Kashmir, he was more unhappy over a Smaller Pakistan than the one he had conceived in his 1933 pamphlet Now Or Never. He had been voicing his dissatisfaction with the creation of Pakistan.
After the creation of Pakistan, he returned to Pakistan in April 1948, planning to stay in this country, but he was ordered by the then Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to leave the country. His belongings were confiscated, and he left empty-handed for England in October 1948.
He died in February 1951 and was buried on 20 February at Newmarket Road Cemetery, Cambridge, UK.
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