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Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University in Aligarh, UP.
About Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh:
Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was born in 1886. He was a freedom fighter, social reformer and an internationalist.
What are the contributions Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh?
He gave up his own residence in Mathura, UP to be converted into a technical school named Prem Mahavidyalaya in 1909. It is said to have been the country’s first polytechnic college.
He established a “Provisional Government of India” at Bagh-e-Babur in Kabul in the middle of World War I in 1915. He declared himself president and his fiery fellow revolutionary Maulana Barkatullah of Bhopal, prime minister, of the Provisional Government.
However, as the British government targeted him for his activities, later he based himself in Japan.
In 1929, he launched the World Federation in Berlin. Moreover, he was also nominated for the 1932 Nobel Peace Prize.
He returned to India a year before Independence and immediately began work with Mahatma Gandhi. In free India, he diligently pursued his ideal of Panchayati Raj.
He also won Lok Sabha elections as an Independent candidate from Mathura in 1957.
Connection with Aligarh Muslim University
Raja Mahendra Pratap went to the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh, which later came to be called Aligarh Muslim University.
Although he was unable to complete his graduation from the institution, Raja Mahendra Pratap’s name is counted among the prominent alumni of the university.
Moreover, his family was close to the educationist and reformer Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University. Hence, the family is said to have given land to set up the university.
Source: This post is based on the article “The legacy of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, and his contribution to the building of AMU” published in Indian Express on 15th September 2021.
