Zakir Husain

Born in Hyderabad in 1897 to an Afridi Pashtun family, Husain earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Berlin and returned to help found Jamia Millia Islamia in the 1920s as a national university born from the Non-cooperation movement. He led it as vice-chancellor for over two decades, then in 1937 chaired the committee that designed Nai Talim - a new educational framework calling for free, compulsory schooling in the child's first language. He opposed separate electorates for Muslims, a stance that cost him a seat in the 1946 Interim Government when Jinnah's Muslim League vetoed his inclusion. After Partition he stayed in India, became vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University in 1948, received the Padma Vibhushan in 1954 and the Bharat Ratna in 1963. He served as Governor of Bihar, then vice president from 1962 to 1967, before being elected president that May. He died in office less than two years later, on 3 May 1969, and is buried at the Jamia Millia Islamia campus in Delhi.