Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, First Education Minister in India

Born in Mecca (now in Saudi Arabia) in 1888, Abul Kalam Azad was an Islamic theologian and a great scholar of Arabic, Persian and Urdu. He adopted the pen-name of Azad at the age of 16. He published a number of papers such as Al-Nadwah, the Vakil, Al-Hilal (“The Crescent”) and Al-Balagh.

He was 35 when he was elected President of the INC in its Delhi session in 1923, becoming the youngest to hold that office. He was again elected to the presidentship of Congress in 1940 and continued to hold that position until 1946.

After Indian independence in 1947, he became the Education Minister in Jawahar Lal Nehru’s cabinet. He had written autobiographical narrative, 'India Wins Freedom' which holds that religion politics was responsible for the partition of the country.

Azad died in 1958. In 1992, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award.

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Matangini Hazra

Matangini Hazra was a woman revolutionary and brave freedom fighter who fought for the independence of India from the British and laid down her life for it. She was from a small village called Hogla located near Tamluk, the headquarters of the Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal. Hazra was born on October 19, 1870. Matangini Hazra was one of the protagonists of the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (Tamralipta National Government), a parallel government established during the Quit India Movement. Matangini Hazra was shot dead by the police in front of the Tamluk Police Station on 29 September 1942. Matangini Hazra was affectionately known as Gandhi buri, Bengali for old lady Gandhi. The famed Hazra Road in Kolkata is also named after her.

Muhammad Shah Rangila

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Minhaj-us-Siraj: Author of Tabaqat-i-Nasiri

Minhaj-ud-din Abu Uraar bin Siraj-ud-din al-Juzjani, popularly known as Minhaj-us-Siraj, was a medieval historian who was patronized by Slave Sultan Nasir-ud-din Mahmud to whom he had dedicated his magnum opus Tabaqat-i-Nasiri . Since Siraj held the high office of the Chief Qazi of Delhi to which he was appointed by Nasir-ud-din Mahmud, it is natural that Tabaqat-i-Nasiri gives a first hand account of the historical events from the conquest of Delhi by Muhammad of Ghur up to the year 1260 AD. Siraj was temporarily removed from the post of Chief Qazi from 1253 to 1255 when a section of nobles induced the Sultan to send his prime minister Balban into exile. Tabaqat-i-Nasiri has been translated into English by Raverty . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This page was last edited on 24 July 2021

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