Asaf Ali was, along with such illustrious personalities as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr. M.A. Ansari and Hakim Ajmal Khan, among the patrionic Indian Muslims prominent in public life, who rejected the concept of nationhood based on religion and thus helped in laying the foundation of the secular democratic Republic of India. Born on 11th May, 1888, Asaf Ali, who studied law in London, was a sucessful barrister. He gave up his practice during the first non-cooperation movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in the early twenties. When he and Aruna Ganguly married in 1928, the event with its symbolic significant caused a stir and drew wide public notice. The last of the several spells of imprisonment which Asaf Ali courted during the freedom movement was in the wake of the 'Quit India' resolution adopted by the All India Cingress Committee in August 1942.

He was detained at Ahmednagar Fort jail along with Jawaharlal Nehru and other members of the Congress Working Committee. On the formation of the Interim Govt. in August, 1946, Asaf Ali served as Railway Minister. One of his first actions in this capacity was abolition of the separate provision of drinking water on railway station platforms as Hindu Pani and Muslim Pani. Asaf Ali served subsequently as India's first Ambassador to U.S.A., Governor of Orissa and Ambassador to Swetzerland where he died on 2nd April, 1953. Asaf Ali's was a many-sided personality-- scholar, lawyer, nationalist, writer and connoisseur of music and te arts.

He was a remarkable product of the encounter between, and synthesis of, Hindu and Islamic culture, and of the best in Indian and Western values.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India