Hindu reformer raja who donated land for AMU defeated Vajpayee in polls

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court in a 4:3 majority ruling on Friday overturned its 1967 decision that held Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as a minority institution. Amid all the high-pitched debate over whether AMU should retain the minority tag or not, what has gone forgotten is the man who gave the land for the AMU campus. It would be difficult to bracket this man within one single category. For Mahendra Pratap Singh was a raja, a reformer, a Nobel Prize nominee and a member of Parliament.
His name was brought back into discourse when Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath stated that Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was not given due credit and announced a university in his name. This was the time of UP Assembly polls in 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also validated this.
But who was Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, and why does he stand out among the many royals that India had?
A freedom fighter, revolutionary, reformer and writer. He was also President of the Provisional Government of India, which served as the government in exile during World War I from Kabul in 1915. He even became a target of the British government due to his activities. Finally, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1932.
He returned to India a year before Independence and started his work with Mahatma Gandhi.
Singh won the Mathura Lok Sabha seat in 1957 as an Independent candidate. At this time, he was also contesting then Jana Sangh leader, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who would stand fourth in the election.
But Vajpayee won the Balrampur seat from Uttar Pradesh.

Mahendra Pratap Singh (centre), President of the Provisional Government of India, at the head of the Mission with the German and Turkish delegates in Kabul, 1915. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Born to a Jat family in Hathras in 1886, Raja would later inherit the estate from his father.
At the age of nine, Raja was enroled to Government High School in Aligarh. He later shifted to Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Collegiate School founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, which later became AMU.
Both British headmasters and Muslim teachers became an intrinsic part of Raja’s education.
His home was later converted into a technical school called Prem Mahavidyalaya in 1909.
He inherited his estate from his father, Raja Ghanshyam Singh, who had helped Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in establishing AMU.
He would also take to helping Sir Syed and AMU and grant land for AMU.
First, he would give land for AMU’s school and then some land to the university.
Due to his immense contribution, the school has been renamed after the Raja. His family had even asked that his portrait be placed inside the AMU.

After his death in 1979, the Janata Party government issued a postal stamp in his memory. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Singh’s contribution to pre-Independence India is larger than education reforms.
He was inspired by Congress leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He even attended the Calcutta session of the Congress despite his family’s apprehensions.
During World War I, he left the country to seek international help for the Independence of India.
On entering Germany, Kaiser Wilhem-II would come to receive Singh. But he would also go to Switzerland, Turkey and Austria to seek help.
Singh would go on to establish the first government of India in exile from Kabul in 1915.
He was also the president and Maulavi Barktuallah of Bhopal became the prime minister of the government.
During these trips, Singh would develop close relationships with Russian leader Lenin and the Japanese leadership. He was tapping on the support of similar countries, which would be later taken up by Subhas Chandra Bose.
Because of his relentless struggle, Singh earned the respect of Mahatma Gandhi for his patriotism and sacrifice.
Singh was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Swedish doctor N A Nilsson. He was praised by the nominator for exposing British brutalities in India.
Singh’s return to India would only come a year before India declared Independence. Upon this return, he met Mahatma Gandhi at his Wardha Ashram.
But his efforts to reach out to Germany and Japan, which were fighting World War II with Britain, would keep him in political oblivion in British India.
But he would hold political office soon.
In 1957, he became a Lok Sabha MP from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. Among the people he defeated was a young Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was cutting his political teeth in Jana Sangh. But Vajpayee won the Balrampur seat from Uttar Pradesh.
After his death in 1979, the Janata Party government issued a postal stamp in his memory. While the Raja and his contributions are being acknowledged and remembered now, his contribution to AMU should become a part of our collective memory.