By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Yesterday was the 121st birth anniversary of India’s great freedom movement leader Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. To honor country’s first Union Education Minister, the Government of India declared the day as National Education Day. There were different shades of Maulana Azad’s anniversary yesterday.
While Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated the National Education Day celebrations at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, remembering the immense contribution of Maulana Azad in Independent India’s educational progress, Maulana’s open-air mausoleum in the lap of Shahjahani Jama Masjid was garlanded but locked and deserted.
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh lighting the lamp to inaugurate the National Education Day Celebrations, in New Delhi on November 11, 2009. The Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal and the Minister of State of Human Resource Development, Smt. D. Purandeswari is also seen.
While the Central Government issued a half-page advertisement on Maulana’s birthday (11 November 1888-22 February 1958) in all leading English dailies – Urdu newspapers were ignored – Hyderabad-based All India Urdu Education Committee organized an ‘international’ program on Urdu at Andhra Bhawan in New Delhi, attended by Union Ministers in the opening session but for the rest of the day school children were brought in to fill the 200-seat auditorium.
It was a sad coincidence that while Maulana’s birthday was being celebrated Aligarh Muslim University is locked sine die following murder of a student. The fate of minority character of the University is also locked in court. The other great university established by the Muslim community, Jamia Millia Islamia, is also struggling for minority character when efforts are afoot to enforce 27% OBC quota in the university.
“Today we commemorate the memory of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a great visionary, a great freedom fighter, a great scholar, an eminent educationist and the first Education Minister of Independent India,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while inaugurating the National Education Day celebrations.
“Throughout his life, Maulana Azad served the twin causes of freedom and justice. He was a champion of liberal and secular values. He worked for the unity and integrity of India both during the freedom movement and after independence. It was he who laid the foundation of India’s educational policy and planning,” the PM continued.
While describing the contribution of the Maulana in country’s educational progress, the PM said: “Maulana Azad was also a great institution builder. He created the University Grants Commission (UGC), the National Academies – the Sangeet Natak Akademy, Sahitya Akademy, Lalit Kala Akademy, and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. He strengthened the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and oversaw the establishment of a chain of top class technical institutions that now represent the best in the Indian Education System. Under his distinguished leadership, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur was established in 1951, which was followed by a chain of IITs at Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur and Delhi.”
“The celebration of Maulana Azad’s birth anniversary as the National Education Day is a befitting homage to one of our greatest leaders. Today is also an occasion when all of us should re-dedicate ourselves to the cause of education, and through it to building India as a modern, knowledge society,” the PM summed up.
Talking to TwoCircles.net on the sidelines of the 3-day international program on Urdu, Jaleel Pasha Malik, president, All India Urdu Educational Committee, the organizer of the program, demanded constitution of Urdu Language Commission and linking of the language with employment.
On why Urdu fell when it is spoken by hundreds of million people, Jaleel Pasha said: We are to blame for the sordid state of Urdu in India.
Talking about his organization and its purpose, he said: “The All India Urdu Educational Committee was formed 40 years ago for promotion of Urdu language and literature. We have been continuously striving for Urdu education. Maulana Azad Urdu University is the result of our rigorous efforts.”