In the words of young Zakir Husain: “It was the first conscious decision of my life. Perhaps the only one I have ever taken. The rest of my life has but flowed from it.” What the new lecturer at Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh referred to was his crucial decision in 1919- 20 to respond to Mahatma Gandhi’s appeal for non-cooperation. When Gandhiji exhorted students to leave institutions controlled by the government and help establish national educational institutions, youthful teachers like Zakir Husain took up the challenge. “For Zakir, the call of the motherland held a greater charm than the temptation of a prized government post.

He left the Muhammadan AngloOriental College with nearly three hundred students who formed the National Muslim University christened as the Jamia Millia Islamia. It was inaugurated on 29 October 1920 in Aligarh by Shaikh-ul-Hind Maulana Mahmud Hasan of Deoband. Hakim Ajmal Khan was appointed the first Amir-i-Jamia (Chancellor) of the Jamia Millia Islamia, a position he held until his death in 1927,” states a biography of Dr Zakir Husain, published by the National Museum. Fifty-five years after his passing away in 1969, the life and times of India’s committed educationist has lessons for our globalized world. Barely 23 years old when Jamia was founded, Zakir Husain took on teaching responsibilities besides being on its Executive Committee and Academic Council.

In these capacities he worked till he left for Germany in 1922 for higher studies. These were years of tremendous political upheaval across India with the British unleashing an era of repression after the war. For the entire generation of Zakir Husain and peers, there was a die-hard commitment to work for India’s freedom. In Germany, Zakir Husain developed a life-long friendship with Muhammad Mujeeb and Abid Husain and persuaded them to serve Jamia on their return to India. When informed that Jamia was facing a financial crisis threatening its closure, Zakir Husain telegraphically informed Chancellor Hakim Ajmal Khan: “I and some of my friends are prepared to dedicate our lives to the Jamia. Jamia should not be allowed to be closed till our return.” Jamia did not close its doors. Hakim Ajmal Khan shifted the institution from Aligarh to Delhi.

In Germany, the scholar and educationist Zakir Husain was born. For three years, he studied the German language, acquiring a deeper understanding of Germany’s history, literature and culture. As head of The Association of Indians in Central Europe, he mobilized public opinion in favour of India’s freedom struggle. A book in German titled ‘The Message of Mahatma Gandhi’ was published, with selected articles from Gandhiji’s Young India. Few would be aware that Zakir Husain was conducting his research on ‘The Agrarian Policy of the British in India’, based on documents from the India Office Library and British Museum, London. His thesis analysed causes of poverty in India, surmising that India would experience a new capitalist development and a new exploiting class would emerge to replace colonial rulers. He concluded: “One recognised the subconscious attempt of a privileged class to push aside another one, to replace white bureaucracy by a brown bureaucracy.

A free India could not tolerate the existence of a class living on the work of others and at the cost of society without any contribution from their side.” His thesis received universal acclaim. Berlin University awarded him a doctorate on 15 January 1926. He remained connected with German scholars Werner Sombar, Max Seyring, George Kerschensteiner and Edward Spranger who shaped his ideas about education and economics. Not yet 30, Dr Zakir Husain was now set to write a new chapter of his life in India. He took over as the Shaikhul-Jamia (Vice-chancellor) with Dr. Abid Husain as Registrar, and M. Mujeeb as Professor. With this dedicated trio, Jamia got a new lease of life: their enthusiasm changed the environment in Jamia, receiving appreciation from national leaders.

In November 1927, Mahatma Gandhi said, “Your number is small but the world never overflowed with good and true men. I ask you not to worry yourselves about the smallness of the number but to remember that the freedom of the country depends upon you… If you have not the things essential for the freedom of India, I do not know who else has them. Those things are fear of God and freedom from fear of any man or a combination of men called an empire. If training in these two essentials cannot be had in your institution, I do not know where else it can be had…” At Jamia through the 1930s, Dr Zakir Husain demonstrated his ability to build financially stable institutions. The Anjuman-iTaleem-i- Milli (National Education Society) was formed with Dr. M.A. Ansari and Seth Jamnalal Bajaj as president and treasurer. Dr Zakir, as secretary, pledged he and his colleagues would work for the next two decades on a paltry salary; this continued till 1948 when he took charge as ViceChancellor, Aligarh Muslim University. As an educationist, Dr Zakir Husain was aware of limitations of traditional education.

At Jamia, he introduced a new pattern of education rooted in India’s cultural heritage. In his welcome address at the All-India Educational Conference at Delhi in 1934, he said: “…two changes will have to be introduced in the entire system of education. The first of these is the change in the whole orientation of our education …It is essential to Indianise our whole educational system. It is essential to put an end to the recruitment of young men to the ranks of the so-called educated who are blind to the beauties of their own art, deaf to the harmonies of their own music, ashamed of their own language and literature, to whom all that is theirs is mean and ignoble, all that is foreign is, as such, noble and sublime. It is essential so to change education as to render it impossible that young men should be condemned to live as foreigners in their own land, unable to speak in their own tongue and incapable of thinking their own thoughts; with borrowed speech, as the poet has said, on their lips, with borrowed desires in their hearts.

The second thing that will have to be done is to do everything to make the school an instrument of character formation…” Dr Zakir’s versatility as an educationist was universally recognised when Mahatma Gandhi invited him to the Wardha Conference in 1937 to frame the basic education scheme. The four resolutions he drafted stood the test of time: 1. Free and compulsory education should be imparted for seven years on a nationwide scale; 2. Mother-tongue should be the medium of instruction; 3. Process of education should centre round manual and productive work; and 4. System of education was expected to cover the remuneration of teachers. Gandhiji appointed Dr Zakir as the Chairman of the Committee entrusted to prepare the syllabus; the Basic National Education Scheme was thus formalized. The 1940s were challenging years for Dr Zakir with the call for Pakistan and recurring communal riots. In November 1946 he organised the Silver Jubilee celebrations of Jamia Millia Islamia, bringing together leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League, along with religious leaders. He said, “You are all stars of the political firmament; there is love and respect for you in millions of hearts.

I wish to convey to you with the deepest sorrow the sentiments of those engaged in educational work. The fire of mutual hatred which is ablaze in this country makes our work of laying out and tending gardens appear as sheer madness. This fire is scorching the very earth in which nobility and humanity are bred; how can the flowers of virtuous and balanced personalities be made to grow on it? How can we provide adornment for the moral nature of man when the level of conduct is lower than that of beasts? How shall we save culture when barbarism holds sway everywhere, how shall we train men for its services? How shall we safeguard human values in a world of wild beasts?

These words might appear harsh to you, but the harshest words would be too mild to describe the conditions that prevail around us.” Relevant till date, these words of anguish sprang from the heart of Bharat Ratna Dr Zakir Husain, India’s third President from 1967 to 1969, Vice President from 1962 to 1967, Governor of Bihar from 1957 to 1962, and vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University from 1948 to 1956.

(The writer is a researcherauthor on history and heritage issues, and a former deputy curator of Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya)