Maulana Azad Fellowship for minorities to stop from 2023: Centre

Maulana Azad Fellowship for minorities to stop from 2023: Centre

Subject: Government Schemes

• The Union government has decided to discontinue the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) from 2022-23 for minorities as according to them, the scheme overlaps with various other fellowship schemes for higher education.

Maulana Azad Fellowship for minorities  scheme(MANF)

• The Ministry of Minority Affairs implements MANF Scheme for educational empowerment of students belonging to six notified minority communities i.e. Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, Zoroastrian (Parsi).
• The Scheme is implemented through the University Grants Commission (UGC) and no waiting list is prepared under the Scheme by UGC.
• Candidates belonging to the Six centrally notified minority are considered for award of fellowship under the MANF Scheme.
• The selection of candidates is done through JRF-NET (Junior Research Fellow- National Eligibility Test) examination conducted by the National Testing Agency.
• Prior to 2019-20, the merit list was prepared on the basis of marks obtained by the candidates in their Post Graduate examination.
• However, in 2018-19, only the candidates who had qualified CBSE-UGC-NET/JRF or CSIR-NET/JRF were eligible to apply.
• As per the data provided by UGC 6,722 candidates were selected under the scheme between 2014-15 and 2021-22 and fellowships to the tune of ₹ 738.85 crores were distributed during the same period.

Contributions of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

• He was a proponent of Hindu Muslim unity, opposed to Partition.
• In 1912, he started a weekly journal in Urdu called Al-Hilal which played an important role in forging Hindu-Muslim unity after the bad blood created between the two communities in the aftermath of Morley-Minto reforms (1909).
• Under the 1909 reforms, the provision of separate electorates for Muslims was resented by Hindu.
• The government regarded Al- Hilal as a propagator of secessionist views and banned it in 1914.
• Maulana Abul Kalam Azad then started another weekly called Al-Balagh with the same mission of propagating Indian nationalism and revolutionary ideas based on Hindu-Muslim unity.
• In 1916, the government banned this paper too and expelled Maulana Abul Kalam Azad from Calcutta and exiled him to Bihar from where he was released after the First World War 1920.
• He was one of the founding members of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, originally established at Aligarh in the United Provinces in 1920.
• His Works: Basic Concept of Quran, Ghubar-eKhatir, Dars-e-Wafa, India Wins Freedom, etc.
• Azad supported the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22) started by Gandhiji and entered the Indian National Congress in 1920.
• In 1923, he was elected as the president of Indian National Congress. At an age of 35, he became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress.
• Maulana Azad was arrested in 1930 for violation of the salt laws as part of Gandhiji’s Salt Satyagraha. He was put in Meerut jail for a year and a half.
• He again became the president of Congress in 1940 and remained in the post till 1946.

Post Independence

• In 1947, he became the first education minister of free India and remained at this post till his death in 1958. In his tenure, he did tremendous work for the upliftment of the country.
• The first IIT, IISc, School of Planning and Architecture and the University Grants Commission were established under his tenure as the education minister.
• Indian Council for Cultural Relations, for introduction of Indian culture to other nations.
• 11th November is observed as National Education Day every year since 2008 to commemorate his birth anniversary.
• Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was posthumously awarded India’s highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna in 1992.