Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

<p>Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born Sayyid Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed on November 11, 1888, in Mecca (then part of the Ottoman Empire). A child prodigy home-schooled in Islamic theology, mathematics, philosophy, Persian, Arabic, and Urdu, Azad mastered classical texts by age twelve and began editing literary journals as a teenager, adopting the pen name 'Azad' (The Free).</p>
<p>In 1912, Azad founded the groundbreaking Urdu weekly newspaper <em>Al-Hilal</em> in Calcutta, using brilliant prose to galvanize Muslims to join the secular Indian nationalist movement against the British Raj. Jailed repeatedly by the colonial authorities, Azad became the youngest President of the Indian National Congress in 1923 at age 35, and led the Congress during the crucial Quit India Movement (1942–1945), spending nearly three years imprisoned in Ahmednagar Fort.</p>
<p>A fierce champion of composite Indian nationalism, Azad passionately opposed the partition of India, arguing that Hindu-Muslim unity was essential to the nation's spiritual soul. Serving as independent India's first Minister of Education (1947–1958), Azad built the infrastructure of modern higher learning: establishing the first Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in 1951, founding the University Grants Commission in 1953, and establishing the Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi. He was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1992.</p>