Born at Hyderabad on 8 February 1897, Dr. Zakir Husain came of a Pathan family of the upper middle-class, settled at Qaimganj in the District of Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh. His father, Fida Hussain Khan, went to Hyderabad, studied law and had a most successful career. Unfortunately, he died when Dr. Zakir Husain was only ten years old.

Dr. Zakir Husain was sent first for his education to the Islamia High School in Etawah (U. P.) which specialised in puritanical strictness. After finishing school, he joined the M. A. O. College at Aligarh, and studied up to the M. A. When the Indian National Congress and the All India Khilafat Committee joined hands in launching the Non-Cooperation Movement, Mahatma Gandhi toured the country to induce teachers and students to leave Government-administered schools and colleges.

The young Zakir Hussain, who was then half-student and half-teacher, very prominent among the students and very popular with a large section of the staff, persuaded Hakim Ajmal Khan and other leaders to establish a national institution at Aligarh, and the Jamia Millia Islamia came into being on 29 October 1920. But Zakir Husain did not wish to leave his studies incomplete and he went to the University of Berlin in Germany for higher studies in 1923, returning with a doctorate in Economics three years leter.

He rejoined the Jamia Millia in February-March, 1926, and became the Shaikhu Jamia (Vice-Chancellor). It was at the Jamia Millia that Dr. Zakir Husain developed his gifts as an educationst. It was his experience here as well as his deep study of the philosophy of education which enabled him to take charge of the scheme of Basic National Education when it was launched in 1938. He was the President of the Hindustani Talimi Sangh, Sevagram, from 1938 to 1948.

In November 1948, Dr. Zakir Husain was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University. He was also nominated a member of the Indian Universities Commission. The World University Service made him the Chairman of the Indian National Committee and in 1954 he was elected the World President of that organisation. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha and made the Indian representative on the Executive Board of the UNESCO from 1956 to 1958.

He remained the Chairman, Central Board of Secondary Education, till 1957, a member of the University Grants Commission till 1957, a member of the University Education Commission in 1948-49 and of the Educational Reorganisation Committees of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In 1957 he was appointed the Governor of Bihar and in 1962 elected Vice-President of India. On 9 May 1967, he was formally sworn in as the

third President of the Indian Republic four days later. He held the highest office of the country with exemplary grace and dignity till his sudden death on 3 May 1969.

Dr. Zakir Husain was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1954 and Bharat Ratna in 1963. He was awarded D. Litt. (honoris causa) by the Universities of Delhi, Calcutta, Aligarh, Allahabad and Cairo.

Many demands were made on Dr. Zakir Husain’s time and he was not able to undertake many scholarly projects which he had in mind. His interest in literary and academic work was so keen that he translated Plato’s ‘Republic’ and Cannon’s ‘Elementary Political Economy’ into Urdu soon after joining the Jamia Millia in 1920. While in Germany, he got an edition of the ‘Diwan-i-Ghalib’ printed-doing much of the compositing himself, because the press did not have enough staff-and also brought out a book in German on Mahatma Gandhi (‘Die Botschaftdes Mahatma Gandhi’).

He delivered a series of lectures on economics under the auspices of the Hindustani Academy and another series in English, on Capitalism: Essays in Understanding, under the auspices of the Delhi University in 1945. He also translated Friedrich List’s ‘Nationaloekonomie’. His Convocation Address have been collected and published under the title ‘The Dynamic University’. But he excelled in writing for children and his stories are masterpieces of style.

Tall, well-built, fair in complexion, with a noble forehead, a sensitive aristocratic nose, a well-trimmed beard and always neatly and tastefully dressed in sherwani and pyjama, Dr. Zakir Husain was an imposing embodiment of culture and refinement. He was sensitive to beauty in all its forms and had an intense passion for excellence. His varied tastes and hobbies, his love of roses, his collection of cacti, fossils, paintings and specimens of calligraphy, objets d’art, and corios and, above all, his rich library are evidence of his versatile personality.

He was steeped in the spiritual and aesthetic culture and the ethical principles of the Muslim sufis and poets. He had the sufi’s indifference towards the externals of religion and, though a deeply religious man, his religiousity was never obvious. It was the inspiration for secularism by which he endeared himself to men to different religious communities.

Dr. Zakir Husain’s nationalism was, like Gandhiji’s, a reflection of his allegiance to the highest moral values and to the ideals of a culture which had become the whole of his own self. It was a nationalism which demanded for the individual that self-discipline which is the foundation of democratic citizenship and that identification with the good of the society which gives substance and meaning to the life of the individual.