In news– Every year since 2008, November 11 is celebrated as the National Education Day to mark the birth anniversary of India’s first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin.
About Maulana Abul Kalam–
- Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin known as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1888.
- He was a journalist, freedom fighter, politician, and educationist.
- He was the first education minister of independent India and served from 1947 to 1958 in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet.
- Azad pursued traditional Islamic education.
- He started a weekly journal in Urdu called Al-Hilal in 1912 to increase the revolutionary recruits amongst the Muslims.
- This journal played an important role in forging Hindu-Muslim unity.
- The government regarded Al- Hilal as a propagator of secessionist views and banned it in 1914.
- Maulana then started another weekly called Al-Balagh with the same mission of propagating Indian nationalism and revolutionary ideas based on Hindu-Muslim unity.
- In 1916, the government banned this paper too and expelled Maulana Azad from Calcutta and exiled him to Bihar from where he was released after the First World War 1920.
- He was one of the founding members of the Jamia Milia Islamia University, originally established at Aligarh in the United Provinces, India in 1920.
- He supported the Non-Cooperation Movement started by Gandhiji and entered the Indian National Congress in 1920.
- He was elected as the president of the special session of the Congress in Delhi (1923) and at an age of 35, he became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress.
- He was arrested in 1930 for violation of the salt laws as part of Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha.
- After his release, he again became the president of Congress in 1940 (Ramgarh) and remained in the post till 1946.
- Azad strongly advocated for women’s education.
- Though he stressed on the English language, he believed that primary education should be imparted in the mother-tongue.
- The first IIT, IISc, School of Planning and Architecture and the University Grants Commission were established under his tenure as the education minister.
- The most prominent cultural, literary academies were also built including the Sangeet Natak Academy, Lalit Kala Academy, Sahitya Academy as well as the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
- He was posthumously honoured with India’s highest civilian award – Bharat Ratna in 1992.
Source: The Indian Express
