Khwaja Ghulam Saiyidain (1904–1971) was an Indian educationist, writer and the Secretary at the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

of the Government of India, known for his contributions to Indian educational sector. Born in 1904 in the historic city of Panipat, in the Indian state of

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...

, Saiyidain authored several publications on Indian culture and education including a 1960 report which is reported to have served as the blueprint for the establishment of

National Service Scheme The National Service Scheme (NSS) is an Indian government sector public service program conducted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of India. Popularly known as NSS, the scheme was launched in Gandhiji's Centenary ...

, a youth-centric social programme sponsored by the Union Government. He wrote in Urdu and English languages and his book, ''Andhi Mein Chirag'', won the

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in 1963. ''Iqbal's Educational Philosophy'', ''The Crisis in Modern Society'', ''Education, Culture and the Social Order'' and ''The School of the Future'' are some of his other notable works. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

, in 1967, for his contributions to Indian education sector. He was the father of

Syeda Saiyidain Hameed Syeda Saiyidain Hameed (born 1943) is an Indian social and women's rights activist, educationist, writer and a former member of the Planning Commission of India. She chaired the Steering Committee of the Commission on Health which reviewed the Na ...

and Zakia Zaheer.

References

Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education 1904 births 1971 deaths People from Panipat district Scholars from Haryana 20th-century Indian educational theorists Indian male writers Urdu-language writers from India Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers {{India-bio-stub

See also

References