Aga Khan III

Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah (Arabic: سلطان محمد شاه, romanized: Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh; 2 November 1877 – 11 July 1957), known as Aga Khan III (Persian: آقا خان سوم, romanized: Āqā Khān Suwwūm), was the 48th imam of the Nizari Ism’aili branch of Shia Islam. He was one of the founders and the first permanent president of the All-India Muslim League (AIML). His goal was the advancement of Muslim agendas and the protection of Muslim rights in British India. The League, until the late 1930s, was not a large organisation but represented landed and commercial Muslim interests as well as advocating for British education during the British Raj. There were similarities in Aga Khan’s views on education with those of other Muslim social reformers, but the scholar Shenila Khoja-Moolji argues that he also expressed a distinct interest in advancing women’s education for women themselves. Aga Khan called on the British Raj to consider Muslims to be a separate nation within India, the famous ‘Two Nation Theory’. Even after he resigned as president of the AIML in 1912, he still exerted a major influence on its policies and agendas. He was nominated to represent India at the League of Nations in 1932 and served as President of the League of Nations from 1937 to 1938.