Remembering Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India’s first education minister

"We must not for a moment forget, it is a birthright of every individual to receive at least basic education without which they cannot fully discharge their duties as a citizen"

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, independent India’s first education minister, was a man of many professions in his four-decade-long public life. Leaving behind a lasting legacy in the field of education, Maulana Azad was also a freedom fighter, politician and journalist. His day of birth, 11 November, is now celebrated as National Education Day.

Contributions to Constitution

Under British rule, education had been listed as a subject that only provinces could enact legislation on. Maulana stood strongly against the notion of education being left to the states as he believed education was a matter of grave importance and the central government must hold all its authority in order to set a seal on a uniform national standard of education across the country.

Although his stance was embraced by Jawaharlal Nehru and other famed members of the constituent assembly, keeping in mind the diversity that exists in a country like ours, many were against thest and they believed a decentralised approach would work better, for it would enable states to structure laws pertaining to education according to circumstances in their own respective boundaries.

In the end, the issue was resolved by retaining education in the state list but including entries related to higher education under the union list.

Pathway to quality education

Education remained an issue of significance throughout Azad’s life. While speaking at a meeting on 16 January 1948, “We must not for a moment forget, it is a birth right of every individual to receive at least basic education without which they cannot fully discharge their duties as a citizen,” he had said.

Azad was also responsible for establishing the board for adult education to facilitate education among uneducated adults. During his tenure as the first education minister, from 1947 to 1958, he advocated for free and compulsory primary education for all children falling below the age of 14 years.

He was also one of the founding members of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, originally established at Aligarh in the United Provinces. Responsible for shaping the modern education system, the first IIT, IISc, School of Planning and Architecture and the University Grants Commission were established under his tenure.

Most of the prominent cultural, literary academies like the Sahitya Academy and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations were also built then.

Power of his pen

In 1912, Azad started a weekly journal titled Al-Hilal in Urdu, in order to increase revolutionary recruits from the Muslim community. The weekly was used as a weapon of dissent and to question British policies.

The publication reached heights of popularity, to an extent that the British banned it in 1914. It also helped forge Hindu-Muslim unity after the bad blood created between the two communities in the aftermath of Morley-Minto reforms.

Despite the dangers, Azad went on to publish another weekly called Al-Balagh with the mission to propagate Indian nationalism and revolutionary ideas. Al-Balagh ran until he was externed from the governments of Bombay, Punjab, Delhi and United Provinces, and was deported to Bihar until 1920.