Remembering Maulana Azad today is not just about recalling an administrative title or a political figure from history books. Azad’s story is fundamentally one of self-learning, nation-building, and the transformation of the educational system of independent India. He took charge of the Ministry of Education at a moment when India was severely poverty-stricken, deeply scarred, and its national literacy rate was at its lowest.
Often, people who doubt his capabilities point to his lack of formal educational qualifications, using his title of “Maulana” and his absence of degrees to belittle his contributions. But let us be clear about this historical reality: it is true that he was not formally educated. But he was not uneducated; rather, he was profoundly educated, widely read and intellectually more grounded than most decorated scholars of his time. And perhaps most importantly, in an age when credentials are so easily manufactured or inflated, Azad never tried to produce fake degrees or make false claims to prove his credibility to anyone. His work, scholarship, and vision were his credentials.
The India of 1947 was poor, overwhelmingly illiterate, and physically and emotionally scarred by the violence of Partition. Schools were unevenly distributed across rural and urban areas. There was an acute scarcity of trained teachers. Universities needed reform, and millions of citizens lacked basic primary education.
Azad’s primary contribution lies in the fact that his tenure led to a complete departure from colonial education. The British colonial system had been explicitly designed by Lord Macaulay and his successors to produce clerks, administrative assistants, and graduates in general literary disciplines—people who could run the colonial bureaucracy but not build an independent economy. Azad believed that political independence would remain hollow and fragile without the ability to produce our own material and technical resources. He argued that India needed engineers, doctors, scientists, researchers, and trained, skilled industrial workers. He maintained that developing the country’s economic and material resources was essential to raising the standard of living of ordinary people.
In reality, Azad wished India to be truly self-reliant—what we today call Atma Nirbhar. But he worked towards this with genuine policy commitment, establishing institutes of excellence rather than relying on hollow speeches read through imported teleprompters.
IIT Kharagpur and the Architecture of Technical Self-Reliance
Azad, at the inauguration of IIT Kharagpur—the very first Indian IIT—stated:
“One of the first decisions I took on assuming charge as Minister was that we must improve the facilities for higher technical education in our country so that we would ourselves meet most of our needs.”
Alongside technical education, another significant contribution of Azad was the radical democratisation of learning. He did not see higher education or basic schooling as the exclusive privilege of elites, a trend we unfortunately see returning today through the heavy privatisation and corporatisation of education. Azad believed that education was the fundamental birthright of every individual. He pressed constantly for free and compulsory primary education for all. He also stood firmly for the introduction of a national programme of adult education.
Azad believed that educating all citizens would emphasise both rights and duties, giving ordinary people the actual ability to participate in national development. His idea of the nation was inclusive and accommodating. He explicitly wanted to see a clear, tangible difference between being a “colonised subject” of the British Crown and a “free citizen” of independent India. And to him, that fundamental transition from subject to citizen could only be achieved through education.
Decolonising the Curriculum: Women’s Rights, Regional Languages, and Secularism
A central pillar of this democratisation was his special focus on women’s education.
In 1949, speaking in the Central Assembly, he argued:
“No programme of national education can be appropriate if it does not give full consideration to the education and advancement of one half of the society, that is, women.”
Another important aspect of Azad’s ideology was the complete decolonisation of the mind and curriculum. He believed that Indian education should shake off its colonial baggage. He advocated for a national curriculum that instilled a sense of legitimate pride in Indian civilisation, history, and diversity. He also advocated for education in regional languages at the primary level to make learning more effective.
There is another critical aspect of Azad’s educational philosophy that is not widely discussed today: his stance on religious education. Azad believed that in a diverse, multi-religious society like India, religious instruction should not be left entirely to private entities, unchecked institutions, or fundamentalist groups. He believed that if left to private, unregulated actors, religious education could easily devolve into sectarianism and narrow dogma. Under state oversight and a balanced curriculum, it could focus on moral values and mutual respect.
As we stand here today in 2026, Maulana Azad’s life and vision remain more relevant than ever. We live in a time when India is continuously debating its education system. The Ministry of Education has frequently been at the centre of public debates and controversies over national examinations, the erosion of institutional autonomy, problems of credibility, and the growing commercialisation of schooling.
In this climate, Azad’s story needs to be retold with conviction. What India needs today is a renewed national commitment to complete what Azad started as our first Education Minister. Azad laid the foundation of an education system intended to promote secularism, social equality, and scientific temper. His life remains a striking reminder of the power of education to transform societies and nations. His commitment to building a self-reliant, developed nation through public institutions remains one of his greatest legacies.
