History : India 2023 - Mind Voice remembers Muslim Freedom Fighters who fought for India`s independence prior to Jan 26th Republic day
Abul Kalam Azad (11th November 1888 – 22ndFebruary 1958) was an Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following India’s independence, he became the First Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning ‘Our Master’ and he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthdav as National Education Dav across India.
As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu, as well as treatises on religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist, publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian nationalism.
Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement, during which he came into close contact with the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. After the failure of the Khilafat Movement, he became closer to the Congress.
Azad became an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi’s ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked to organise the non-co-operation movement in protest of the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad committed himself to Gandhi’s ideals, including promoting Swadeshi (indigenous) products and the cause of Swaraj (Self-rule) for India. In 1923, at an age of 35, he became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress.
Zakir Husain Khan aka Dr. Zakir Hussain Khan is an Indian educationist and politician who served as President of India from 13 May 1967 until his death on 3 May 1969.
Born into an Afridi Pashtun family in Hyderabad, Husain studied in Etawah, the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh and the University of Berlin from where he obtained a doctoral degree in economics. He was a founding member of the Jamia Milia Islamia of which he served as Vice-chancellor during 1926 to 1948. He was closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi and was chairman of the Basic National Education Committee which framed a new educational policy known as Nai Talim with its emphasis on free and compulsory education in the first language. Appointed Vice Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University in 1948, he helped retain it as a national institution of higher learning. For his services to education, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1954 and was a nominated member of the Indian Parliament during 1952 to 1957.
Husain served as Governor of Bihar from 1957 to 1962 and was elected the Vice President of India in 1962. The following year, he was conferred the Bharat Ratna. He was elected president in 1967, succeeding Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, and became the first Muslim to hold the highest constitutional office in India. He was also the first incumbent to die in office in 1969 and has had the shortest tenure of any President.
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai (18 February 1894 – 24 October 1954) was a politician, an Indian independence activist and a socialist. He hailed from Barabanki District of Uttar Pradesh, in north India.
The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award was created in 1956 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to recognize Indian researchers in the agricultural field. Awards are distributed every second year, and take the form of medals, citations, and cash prizes.
In November 2011, the Postal Staff College in Ghaziabad was named as the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National Postal Academy. There is also a street named after him in Kolkata.
The Parliament of India has a portrait of Kidwai in a Committee Room. 15.
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai also played a major role in donating 20 acres of the campus land and Rs. 100,000 for the radiotherapy machine for the establishment of cancer care hospital in Bangalore Karnataka state, India which is named after him – Kidwai memorial institute of oncology.