In news– The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.
About Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University-
- The University is being established by the State Government in the memory and honour of the great freedom fighter, educationist and social reformer, Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh ji.
- The University is being set up in a total area of over 92 acres at village Lodha and village Musepur Kareem Jarouli of Aligarh’s Kol tehsil.
- It will provide affiliation to 395 colleges of the Aligarh Division.
A brief note on Maharaja Mahendra Pratap Singh(1886-1979)-
- He was an Indian freedom fighter, journalist, writer, revolutionary and social reformist.
- He was born on December 1 1886 in the Hathras District of Uttar Pradesh.
- He was popularly known as “Aryan Peshwa”.
- Belonging to the royal family of Mursan, he had left his home and family in Aligarh in December 1914 and escaped to Germany and remained in exile for about 33 years as he was wanted by the British authorities.
- He attended the 1906 Congress session in Kolkata and met several leaders involved in the Swadeshi movement, deciding to promote small industries with indigenous goods and local artisans.
- He was influenced by the speeches of Dadabhai Naoroji, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Maharaja Baroda, and Bipin Chandra Pal, helping to make him a patriot who turned Swadeshi.
- He was the President of the Provisional Government of India, which served as the Indian Government in exile ( India’s first provisional government-in-exile) during World War I from Kaabul in 1915.
- This government in exile had Maulavi Barkatullah as Prime Minister, and Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi as Home Minister.
- On the request of Chatto alias Virendranath Chattopadhyay of the newly founded Berlin Committee, he was invited to Berlin.
- He was an alumnus of the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College, which later became the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), who donated land for AMU.
- He returned in 1947 only after India gained independence.
- He was elected to Lok Sabha from Mathura in 1957, defeating the then Jan Sangh candidate Atal Bihari Vajpayee, contesting as an Independent.
Source: PIB
