2018-02-08 Thu

The third president of India Dr. Zakir Husain was born on today’s date, February 8th, in the year 1897 at Hyderabad. Known for his outstanding work as an educationalist, Dr. Hussain was born to a Pathan family and then settled in Qaimganj in the district of Farukhabad.

At the tender age of 9, his father passed away and was then raised by his relatives. He met Gandhiji when he was pursuing his M.A at M.A.O college in Aligarh. Gandhiji had come down there as a part of the non-cooperation movement campaign. He was inspired by Gandhiji’s vision to establish centers of national education. He then went to Berlin and returned back to India with a Ph.D. degree in economics.

After his return, Zakir Husain founded Jamia Milia Islamia and was made its vice chancellor in 1926. He spent the next 22 years working relentlessly to build the institution which advocated more work-centered rather than book-centered education. After partition he was requested to take up vice chancellorship of Aligarh Muslim University by Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad. He served his position for 8 years till 1956 as the university education commission and subsequently the Press commission. For his remarkable work in the field of education, the government of India awarded him the 'Padma Vibhushan' in 1954. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1956 and later became the Governor of Bihar. In 1962 he was elected to the office of the Vice president of India. In 1963 he was awarded the 'Bharat Ratna' for his great service to the nation.

Two commemorative stamps have been issued featuring this great educationalist, one on 11th June 1969 and the other on 3rd May 1998.

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