 M.Phil.and Ph.D. level students of the University of Calcutta, Jadavpur University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi are also associated with it.With the start of the birth centenary celebrations of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in 1989, the need for a research institute devoted to the study of his life and writings as well as area studies, especially to the research in secular Islam in Asian countries was felt by the Governor of West Bengal, Prof. Nurul Hasan, who took the main initiative in founding this institute in Calcutta.