India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Paying rich tributes to India’s first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad here on Thursday, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’s (JIH) education board chairman Mujtaba Farooq said that Maulana Azad laid India’s education policy on strong foundations.
He said that Maulana Azad was a great intellectual, thinker, author of several books, and edited newspapers and journals that played a vital role in the freedom movement.
However, Mr Farooq, himself a journalist, lamented that there was no enthusiasm in some quarters to remember the contributions of Maulana Azad, a leading freedom fighter who also headed the Indian National Congress.
“Unfortunately, some people consider disrespecting Maulana Azad as a symbol of patriotism,” he pointed out.
“The same people with a biased mindset argue that it was wrong to appoint Maulana Azad, a cleric, as education minister because he was neither an educationist nor familiar with modern education,” Mr Farooq said. But Maulana Azad was fluent in many languages, including Arabic, English, Urdu, Hindi, Persian, and Bengali.
Mr. Farooq said that by using such arguments, “attempts are being made to belittle great freedom fighters and undermine their contributions to the building of modern India.”
He said that “efforts are also made to confine India’s tallest leaders just to their respective communities, and not as national leaders.” Thus, for example, Dr. B R Ambedkar, architect of India’s Constitution, is projected as a mere Dalit leader and Maulana Azad, a great defender of united India and a champion of Hindu-Muslim unity merely as representative of Muslims in post-independent India.
“This is unfortunate because no leader was confined to his community alone. They made sacrifices for the country,” he elaborated.
He said that the first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kharagpur was established during Maulana Azad as the education minister.
Later on, the University Education Commission, renamed University Grants Commission, was set up in 1953 under Maulana Azad to promote higher education.
Under Maulana Azad, the education ministry set up the All India Council for Technical Education and secondary education commission. Jamia Millia Islamia, established at Aligarh, was shifted to Delhi under his tenure as education minister. He also encouraged the compilation of technical terms in the Hindi language.
Recollecting Maulana Azad’s journalistic career and participation in the freedom struggle, Mr. Farooq said, “Maulana Azad published a journal Nairang-e-Aalam. He was editor of a weekly Al-Misbah in 1900 at the early age of 12. In 1903, he brought out a monthly journal, Lissan-us-Sidq. He launched the Al-Hilal newspaper at the age of 20. When the paper’s popularity gained ground as a voice of the Indian independence movement, the British government banned it. Later, Maulana Azad started a new journal, the Al-Balagh, which also got banned in 1916. Maulana Azad was imprisoned several times for actively participating in the freedom struggle.”
“If targeting such a personality is not ignorance and narrow-mindedness, what else could it be?” Mr Farooq asked.
Calling education one of the biggest challenges for the country today, Mr Farooq pointed out that the government was still unable to establish justice and equality in education, despite 75 years of independence.
Considering the contribution of Maulana Azad to the educational growth of the country, Mr Farooq suggested researching the educational services and ideas of Maulana Azad in Indian universities.
“Today, we need to revive the ideas of Maulana for raising the moral standards of our students and making them good members of the society. However, it is unfortunate that education is nowadays used to create communal hatred. This is a big challenge. Besides, commercialization of education is restricting the educational opportunities for poor but intelligent students of the country,” he added.
Mr Farooq urged the government to formulate policies and schemes providing equal educational opportunities to poor and rural students.
Mr Farooq also advised the Muslim community to examine the Muslims’ position in the field of education individually as well as collectively.
He also suggested that every educated person, who holds high positions and is affluent, should sponsor one or two poor students.
