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Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh

GS Paper 1

Topics Covered: Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.

 

Context:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently laid the foundation stone for Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University in Aligarh.

  • It will provide affiliation to 395 colleges of the Aligarh division.

 

Who was Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh?

Born in a royal family on December 1, 1886 in Hathras, Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was a freedom fighter, social reformer and a figure representing the Jat community,  predominant in Western Uttar Pradesh.

 

His legacy:

  • In 1914, during World War I, Mahendra Pratap left India and led the German-backed first Provisional Government of India in Kabul, Afghanistan and declared himself its President while waging a war against colonial rule.
  • It was around this time (1917) that Mahendra Pratap was received by Lenin and Leon Trotsky in Petrograd, in Russia.
  • The British announced a bounty on his head and he fled to Japan to continue his movement.
  • In 1911-12, he went off to fight in the looming Balkan War in Turkey, on the side of the Ottoman empire, along with fellow students from the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College (MAO)
  • In 1932, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

His Contributions in the field of education:

Established Prem Maha Vidyalaya, a polytechnic college, in Vrindavan, which offered various courses, including carpentry, pottery and textiles under one roof.

He gave his own residence to establish the first technical school of the country.

He founded the world federation.

 

Political career:

  1. In 1957, Mahendra Pratap contested elections as an independent and defeated former Prime Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then a Jan Sangh candidate, from Mathura in western Uttar Pradesh.
  2. In 1913 he took part in Gandhi’s campaign in South Africa.
  3. He travelled around the world to create awareness about the situation in Afghanistan and India.
  4. In 1925 he went on a mission to Tibet and met the Dalai Lama.
  5. In free India, he diligently pursued his ideal of panchayati raj.

 

Insta Curious:

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had announced the establishment of the provisional government of Azad Hind in occupied Singapore in 1943. Know more about it here.

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. About Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh.
  2. His contributions to India’s freedom struggle.
  3. His political career.

Mains Link:

Write a note on the legacy of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh.

Sources: Indian Express.