section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The name Pakistan was coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan Movement activist, who in January 1933 first published it (originally as "Pakstan") in a pamphlet Now or Never, using it as an acronym. Rahmat Ali explained: "It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our homelands, Indian and Asian, P anjab, A fghania, K ashmir, S indh, and Baluchis tan." He added, "Pakistan is both a Persian and Urdu word... It means the land of the Paks, the spiritually pure and clean." Etymologists note that پاک pāk, is 'pure' in Persian and Pashto and the Persian suffix ـستان -stan means 'land' or 'place of'.
  
  Rahmat Ali's concept of Pakistan only related to the northwestern area of the Indian subcontinent. He also proposed the name "Banglastan" for the Muslim areas of Bengal and "Osmanistan" for Hyderabad State, as well as a political federation between the three.