Choudhry Rahmat Ali (Urdu: چودھری رحمت علی) (November 16, 1897 – February 1951) was a Pakistani Muslim nationalist 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. He propagated the Scheme of Pakistan with a missionary zeal since its inception in 1933. He also founded Pakistan National Movement to propagate his ideas. A political thinker and an idealist who wanted to save every Indian Muslim from Hindu domination, he condemned Muhammad Ali Jinnah for accepting a smaller Pakistan in 1947. In 1933, he wrote his ideas in the famous pamphlet entitled "Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever", also known as the Pakistan Declaration. The pamphlet started with this famous sentence:

Choudhry Rahmat 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 Hazrat 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, Choudhry Rahmat Ali's writings, in addition to those of Iqbal and others were major catalysts for the formation of Pakistan. He offered "Bang - i - Islam" for a Muslim homeland in the Bengal, and "Usmanistan" for a Muslim homeland in the Deccan. He also suggested "Dinia" as a name for a South Asia for various religions.

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, and the rights of Muslim minority of India.

In 1932 he moved to House no 3. on Humberstone Road, Cambridge. It was one of the room of this house that he wrote the word PAKSTAN for the first time. There are several accounts to the conceptualization of the name. According to a friend (Abdul Kareem Jabbar) the name came up when Rehmat Ali was walking along the banks of the Thames in 1932 with his friends Pir Ahsan - ud - Din and Khawja Abdul Rahim. According to Rehmat Ali's secretary Miss Frost, he came up with the idea of the name ‘Pakistan’ while riding on the top of a London bus.

In the early 1930s, Ali began writing about the formation of a Muslim nation in India. On January 28, 1933, he voiced his ideas in the pamphlet entitled "Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?". The word 'Pakstan' referred to "the five Northern units of India, viz.: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan"". By the end of 1933, 'Pakistan' become common vocabulary where an i was added to ease pronunciation (as in Afghan - i - stan). In a subsequent book Rehmat Ali discussed the etymology in further detail.

'Pakistan' is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our South Asia homelands; that is, Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan. It means the land of the Pure.

According to Khalid Hasan, the authorship of the name is controversial. The late Mian Abdul Haq from Sahiwal who knew Choudhry Rehmat Ali well wrote in the daily "Nadai Millat, Lahore," in June 1970 that the word Pakistan was invented by Khawaja Abdul Rahim and he obtained Allama Iqbal’s blessings for his coinage. On 21 December 1987, Rahim told a meeting at the Aiwan - e - Nawai Waqt in Rawalpindi that he it was who had invented the word Pakistan and that this name was first announced at a meeting of the Khyber Union of Students over which he was presiding".

But Professor K.K.Aziz writes that "Rahmat Ali alone drafted this declaration (in which the word Pakistan was used for the first time), but in order to make it "representative" he began to look around for people who would sign it along with him. This search did not prove easy for "so firm was the grip of 'Muslim Indian Nationalism' on our young intellectual at English universities that it took me (Rahmat Ali) more than a month to find three young men in London who ........offered to support and sign it ." Later on, his political opponents used the name of these signatories and other friends of Rahmat Ali, as creator of word 'Pakistan'.

One of the analyses of this subject was made by writer and journalist Munir Ahmed Munir and published in Nawai Waqt on 31 August 2004. He writes, “The problem with Choudhry Rehmat Ali’s admirers is that they consider him the inventor of the word ‘Pakistan’, whereas inventing a name and founding a state are two different things. He had no role to play in the creation of the state where we all live. Even the authorship of the name is controversial....... Munir writes: “In every respect, Choudhry Rehmat Ali’s Pakistan was quite different from the Quaid’s Pakistan. The Choudhry himself admitted that Jinnah’s Pakistan was not his Pakistan because there were seven or eight other imaginary and utopian ‘…stans’ linked with his. Behind the Quaid’s demand for Pakistan lay realism, statesmanship, wisdom and the 1,000 year sweep of Muslim history in India

It is better to quote Muhammad Ali Jinnah himself. In his presidential address to the All India Muslim League annual session at Delhi on 24 April 1943, he said:

On Dec. 29, 1930 Sir Muammad Iqbal delivered his monumental address. He said:

It is important to note that Sir Muammad Iqbal did not use the word "Pakistan" in his address. According to some scholars, that Iqbal had not presented the idea of an autonomous Muslim State; rather he wanted a large Muslim province by amalgamating Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Baluchistan into a big North - Western province within India. They argued that "Iqbal never pleaded for any kind of partition of the country. Rather he was an ardent proponent of a 'true' federal setup for India.... And wanted a consolidated Muslim majority within the Indian Federation".

Another Indian historian, Tara Chand. also held that Iqbal was not thinking in terms of partition of India but in terms of a federation of autonomous states within India. Dr. Safdar Mehmood also fell a prey to the same misconception and in a series of articles he asserted that in Allahabad address Iqbal proposed a Muslim majority province within the Indian federation and not an independent state outside the Indian Federation.

According to some scholars, "Rehmat Ali’s concept of Pakistan was nebulous, impractical and fantasy - ridden. It was to include the entire northwest of India, Kashmir, the Kathiawar peninsula, Kutch, and several enclaves deep within UP, including Delhi and Lucknow. There were to be two independent Muslim states besides Pakistan: Bangistan comprising Bengal and Assam in the east and Osmanistan in the south. These two were to form a federation with Pakistan. The 243 principalities or Rajwaras were to be divided among caste Hindus and “others” and then herded together in a ghetto called Hanoodia. As for the Sikhs, they were to be pushed into an enclave called Sikhia. Other races and religions were to inhabit an encampment by the name of Hanadika. Every non - Muslim was to remain subservient to the master race he called “The Paks”. And yes, the subcontinent was to be renamed Dinia. He did not say how he was going to bring all that about."

The British and the Indian Press vehemently criticized these two different schemes and created a confusion about the authorship of the word "Pakistan" to such an extent that even Jawaharlal Nehru had to write: ""Iqbal was one of the early advocates of Pakistan and yet he appears to have realized its inherent danger and absurdity. Edward Thompson has written that in the course of conversation, Iqbal told him that he had advocated Pakistan because of his position as President of Muslim League session, but he felt sure that it would be injurious to India as a whole and to Muslims especially."

Sir Muhammad Iqbal disapproved the scheme of Ali because there were seven or eight other imaginary and utopian "…stans" linked with this scheme. He wrote to Prof. Edward John Thompson of Oxford University, that:

Like Iqbal, Jinnah also disapproved this scheme and considered it;

In 1934, Choudhry Rahmat Ali and his friends met Muhammad Ali Jinnah and appealed for his support of the Pakistan idea. He replied; "My dear boys, don’t be in a hurry; let the waters flow and they will find their own level.”

While Choudhry Rahmat Ali was a leading figure for the conception of Pakistan, he lived most of his adult life in England. He had been voicing his dissatisfaction with the creation of Pakistan ever since his arrival in Lahore on April 6, 1948. He was unhappy over a Smaller Pakistan than the one he had conceived in his 1933 pamphlet Now Or Never.

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 Liaqat 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. Emmanuel College's Master, who had been Rahmat Ali's Tutor, himself arranged the burial in Cambridge on 20 February 1951.