National Education Day: 10 things to know about Abul Kalam Azad

 Every year, November 11 is celebrated as National education day, which commemorates the birth anniversary of independent India’s first education minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

In 2008, the ministry of human resource development decided to celebrate Azad’s birthday as National Education Day. Educational institutions across India mark the event with seminars, essay-writing, workshops, etc to highlight the importance of education.

However, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had not only been India’s first education minister but also played an important role in the country’s freedom struggle.

Here are 10 things to know about him

1. Abul Kalam Azad was one of the leading organizers of the Dharasana Satyagraha- a protest against the British salt tax in the year 1930.
2. In 1920, Azad, along with two others, became one of the founding members of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, which was originally established in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh. Fourteen years later, Azad helped in shifting the university campus from Aligarh to New Delhi.
3. He was a member of Congress and in 1923, he became the youngest president of the party at the age of 35.
4. Abul Kalam Azad also worked as a journalist and contributed articles to several Urdu publications. He also came up with a monthly journal Lissan-us-Sidq which was in print till 1905. In 1904, he served as the editor of Amritsar-based newspaper Vakil for around eight months. In 1912, Azad published a weekly Urdu newspaper called Al-Hilal.
5. As a journalist, Azad used to publish works that criticized the British Raj and highlighted the problems faced by common people.
6. Azad has been regarded as one of the prominent national political figures of his time, as he led the cause of Hindu-Muslim unity and supported secularism and socialism.
7. Azad was homeschooled and self-taught and was fluent in many languages including Arabic, Bengali and Persian.
8. Under his tenure as the education minister, the ministry established the first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1951 and the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 1953.
9. Azad was the leader of the Khilafat movement from 1919–1924, during which he met Mahatma Gandhi.
10. In 1989, the ministry of minority affairs established the Maulana Azad Education Foundation, to promote education among the educationally backward classes of the society.

Several political leaders paid tributes to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his birth anniversary.

“Tributes to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his Jayanti. A pathbreaking thinker and intellectual, his role in the freedom struggle is inspiring. He was passionate about the education sector and worked to further brotherhood in society,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

Malala Yousafzai Marries Asser Malik

Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Laureate, and activist married Asser Malik, a Pakistani Cricket Board official, in an intimate ceremony in the UK on Tuesday.

Malala Yousafzai posted photos of the ceremony in Birmingham along with her husband Asser Malik and their families.

"Today marks a precious day in my life. Asser and I tied the knot to be partners for life. We celebrated a small nikkah ceremony at home in Birmingham with our families. Please send us your prayers. We are excited to walk together for the journey ahead," the 24-year-old, who is a cricket fan and a supporter of the Pakistan team, posted on Twitter, sharing images.

Some reports referred to her comments earlier this year on marriage. "I still don't understand why people have to get married. If you want to have a person in your life, why do you have to sign marriage papers, why can't it just be a partnership?" – Malala had told Vogue magazine in June.

Asser Malik, who is from Lahore, is an entrepreneur and the general manager of the Pakistan board's High-Performance Centre. He was reportedly also associated with a Pakistani Super League franchise and had a player management agency.

According to reports, he studied at the Atchinson College in Lahore and the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

The two met two years ago and developed a close friendship, according to the Press Trust of India.

Malala was 15 when she was shot in the head in 2012 in Pakistan by a member of the Taliban for defying a diktat banning girls from school. She was flown to the UK for treatment.

She graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics last year.

Congratulatory messages have poured in from across the world for the gritty activist. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British screenwriter, and Pakistan PM Imran Khan's ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and film star Priyanka Chopra are among those who have wished the couple.