Every Pakistani knows the name of their country. Far fewer know the name of the man who invented it: Chaudhry Rahmat Ali — a Cambridge law student who, in January 1933, published a four-page pamphlet that gave a nation its name fourteen years before the nation existed.
Quick answer: The name “Pakistan” was coined by Chaudhry Rahmat Ali (born 16 November 1895, Balachaur, Punjab) in his pamphlet Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?, published 28 January 1933 in Cambridge. He built it from Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan — and meant it as the “Land of the Pure.”
The man
Chaudhry Rahmat Ali was born on 16 November 1895 in Balachaur, Hoshiarpur district, Punjab. Educated at Islamia College Lahore, he reached Cambridge in the early 1930s to study law — and found himself at the centre of the Round Table Conference debates on India’s future. Friends recall the name coming to him on a London bus, or walking the Thames with companions; his secretary said the word “flashed on the screen of his mind.” He wrote it down at his lodgings at 3 Humberstone Road, Cambridge.
The pamphlet
Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever? — published 28 January 1933 and circulated at the Third Round Table Conference — demanded separate nationhood for the 30 million Muslims of India’s north-western units. Its core proposal: Pakstan — Punjab, Afghania (NWFP), Kashmir, Sindh, Balochistan. The “i” followed within months for pronunciation. The Muslim League’s leadership first dismissed it as a student’s fantasy; by the end of 1933 the word was everywhere, and by 1940 it was the movement’s banner.
After 1933: quarrels and exile
Rahmat Ali never stopped writing — founding the Pakistan National Movement, drafting and redrafting schemes (he later proposed “Bangistan” for Bengal’s Muslims and a wider “Dinia”). But he quarrelled with almost everyone, including Jinnah and the League leadership, over the shape of the Pakistan that emerged. Disillusioned, he settled back in England, where he died in Cambridge in 1951 — and is buried there, the man who named a country he barely lived to see. Pakistan has since honoured him on stamps and in textbooks, but his grave remains in Cambridge.
More on the name: Pakistan full form and Pakistan short form.
Frequently asked questions
Who coined the name Pakistan?
Chaudhry Rahmat Ali, in January 1933, in his Cambridge pamphlet Now or Never.
Where is Chaudhry Rahmat Ali buried?
In Cambridge, England, where he died in 1951 — he never settled in the Pakistan he named.
Did Jinnah know Rahmat Ali?
They corresponded and clashed; Rahmat Ali admired Jinnah’s leadership but criticised the Lahore Resolution’s “states” (plural) formula and later broke with the League entirely.
