‘Intellectualism of past leaders missing today’: Romila Thapar at Maulana Azad biography launch

She elaborated on Azad’s tenure as independent India’s first education minister and how he advocated for compulsory education of all Indians up to age 14. “He argued that basic education is every citizen’s birthright. He felt that citizens can’t discharge duties to the state unless they are educated,” she said.

“There’s a crisis today, education is being palmed off as literacy,” she added. “Education is the opening up of the mind and learning how to think. Had he been alive today, he’d have asked us a question: does India’s current education system open up the mind or permit it to remain comfortably closed?”

Vohra talked about Azad’s passion for education and the arts, employing tutors in English, French and the Sitar, going on to pioneer the formation of the Indian Institute of Technology and the University Grants Commission. Azad requested 10 per cent of the first Indian budget to be allocated to education, but received only one per cent, left with a severe paucity of funds for a nation that was then 85 per cent illiterate.

“However, by the time he died in 1958, he was allocated Rs 30 crore for education,” said Vohra. “He had a preoccupation with building the nation and was very learned in Arabic, Persian and Urdu, and engaged with many debates of the time.”

Vohra mentioned Azad’s commitment to maintaining religious harmony and unity, and his belief that without Hindu-Muslim unity, India’s foundation will be weak: “He told his compatriots to keep away from the Muslim League because of its sectarian agenda… He repeatedly emphasised that the battle against colonialism won’t succeed unless we’re all together.”

Chandok talked about Azad’s literary inclinations and his editorial role in a magazine that got him jailed, following which he turned away from writing and dove headfirst into the freedom struggle, becoming a prominent part of the Khilafat movement.

The evening ended with a clip from Alam’s 2020 eponymous play on Azad, played by the veteran actor Tom Alter in which he discusses his differences with other leaders of the time and his great penchant for tea.