Dr Zakir Husain

Following the tradition of early marriage, he married at the age of 18 in 1915 to Shah Jahan Begum. The couple was blessed with two daughters, Sayeeda Khan and Safia Rahman.

His grandson, Salman Khurshid, took forward his political legacy by serving as a Congress politician. He even took up the profile of the Foreign Minister of India in the former government.

He breathed his last on May 3, 1969 thus becoming the first Indian President to die in office. He was buried on the campus of Jamia Milia Islamia in New Delhi, alongside his wife.A grand mausoleum was constructed in Jamia Milia Islamia in the honor of his contributions and works. The greatest contribution he made in his life also serves as the biggest example of a legacy of his work which runs till date in the form of Jamia Milia Islamia, which has become one of the most distinguished centres of learning in modern India.

Zakir Husain was born to Fida Husain Khan and Naznin Begum on February 8, 1897, in Kaimganj, Farrukhabad. His family, which originally was based in Hyderabad, had migrated to Kaimganj. He was the third of the seven sons born to the couple.

His early years were full of tragic episodes, as his father died when young Husain was merely ten years of age. Within three years, his mother too passed away leaving Husain and his six siblings orphaned.

He completed his early education from Islamia High School in Etawah after which he enrolled at the Anglo Muhammadan Oriental College, which is now popular by the name of Aligarh Muslim University.

It was while at college that he developed a fascination and bent for politics that shaped the future course of his life. At college, he served as a prominent student leader. In 1918, he passed his B.A. Honors and joined M.A., but the Khilafat and Non-Co-operation Movement led by Mahatama Gandhi, inspired him to leave the government administered college.

In 1920, he led a small group of students and teachers and together they founded the National Muslim University at Aligarh in October 1920. Five years later, they shifted the university to Karol Bagh before finally shifting it to Jamia Nagar in New Delhi, where it eventually was re-christened as Jamia Milia University.

For two years, from 1920 to 1922, he took up the position of a teacher at Jamia Milia University. However, his deep embedded interest in education invoked yet again and he moved to Germany to gain his PhD degree in Economics from the Frederick William University of Berlin, which he eventually bagged in 1926.

It was in Germany that he came out with a collection of the best works of the greatest Urdu poet Mirza Assadullah Khan ‘Ghalib’.

Upon returning to India, while other political bigwigs actively involved themselves in politics and Mahatama Gandhi’s Swaraj and Civil Disobedience Movement, he took a different approach and aimed to contribute in the freedom struggle by using education as the chief tool.

In 1927, He took over as the head of Jamia Milia Islamia University, which had steeply declined in popularity and was facing the threat of closure due to financial constraints. He aimed to revive the university.

He not only founded Jamia Milia Islamia University but served as its Vice Chancellor as well. He has contributed so much to the institution that the history of the two has become inseparable and identical