The Maharashtra Congress has urged President Droupadi Murmu to confer the Bharat Ratna on legendary social reformer Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj and India’s first Muslim woman teacher Fatima Sheikh.
In a letter to the President on Wednesday, state Congress Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan said that the two iconic personalities had initiated massive social reforms in that era for all sections of the people, and their trailblazing efforts are remembered even now.
Today (June 26) is the 150th birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj (1874-1922) of Kolhapur and next October will mark the start of the 125th death anniversary year of Fatima Sheikh (1831-1900) — a close associate of the pioneer in women’s education, Savitribai Jyotiba Phule.
Khan said that the Chhatrapati had introduced the first reservations for the backward classes, opened free schools and hostels to impart proper education for the poor and also ensured that they got gainful employment after education.
He was also the first king who translated the Holy Quran into the Marathi language and built boarding schools for Muslim students in his kingdom, said Khan.
Sheikh had worked closely with Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule at India’s first school for girls launched at Bhidewada in Pune on January 1, 1848, and later taught at all the five schools the Phule couple set up in the state, including two in Mumbai.
The former minister said that the government should recognise the sterling contributions of these two historical personalities by conferring them with the country’s highest civilian honour, and inspire future generations.
Khan has also marked copies of the letter to the President to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
