Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari (25 December 1880 – 10 May 1936) was an Indian nationalist and political leader, and former president of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

and the

Muslim League Muslim League may refer to: Political parties Subcontinent ; British India *All-India Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinah, led the demand for the partition of India resulting in the creation of Pakistan. **Punjab Muslim League, a branch of the organ ...

during the

Indian Independence Movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

. One of the founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia University he remained its chancellor 1928 to 1936.Profile of Ahmed Ansari
Encyclopaedia Britannica

Early life and medical career

Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari was born on 25 December 1880 in Yusufpur- Mohammadabad town in eastern

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

). Educated at the Victoria School, Ansari and his family moved to

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

. Ansari obtained a medical degree from the

Madras Medical College Madras Medical College (MMC) is a public medical college located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established on 2 February 1835, it is the second oldest medical college in India, established after Calcutta Medical College. History The Governm ...

and went to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on scholarship studies. He achieved the M.D. and M.S. degrees in 1905. In 1910 Ansari earned a Master of Surgery (ChM) from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

for his thesis ''Treatment of syphilis by arylarsonates with special reference to recent research''. He was a top-class student and worked at the

London Lock Hospital The London Lock Hospital was the first voluntary hospital for venereal disease. It was also the most famous and first of the Lock Hospitals which were developed for the treatment of syphilis following the end of the use of lazar hospitals, as l ...

and the Charing Cross Hospital in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He was an Indian pioneer in surgery, and today there is an Ansari Ward in the

Charing Cross Hospital Charing Cross Hospital is an acute general teaching hospital located in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom. The present hospital was opened in 1973, although it was originally established in 1818, approximately five miles east, in central L ...

, London, in honour of his work. From 1921 to 1935, Ansari visited Vienna, Paris, Lucerne and London to meet with famed urologists, including Robert Lichtenstern, Eugen Steinach and Serge Voronoff, some of the pioneers of grafting animal testicles onto humans. In the last decade of his life, Ansari performed over 700 such grafting operations, meticulously recording 440 of them. From these experiments he published his book ''Regeneration of Man'', which he shared with his close friend Mahatma Gandhi.

Nationalist activities

In 1898, while a student in Madras, Ansari attended his first All India Congress Sessions, which was presided over by

AnandaMohan Bose Ananda Mohan Bose ( bn, আনন্দমোহন বসু) (23 September 1847 – 20 August 1906) was an Indian politician, academician, social reformer, and lawyer during the British Raj. He co-founded the Indian National Association, one ...

. In 1927, when the Sessions were held again in Madras, Ansari presided over the session The Ansari connection
''The Hindu''. Updated 10 October 2016 Dr. Ansari became involved in the

during his stay in England. He moved back to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

and joined both the

Indian Congress The Indian Congress occurred from August 4 to October 31, 1898 in Omaha, Nebraska, in conjunction with the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition. Occurring within a decade of the end of the Indian Wars, the Indian Congress was the largest ...

and the

. He played an important role in the negotiation of the 1916 Lucknow Pact and served as the Muslim League's president in 1918 and 1920. He was an outspoken supporter of the Khilafat movement, and led the Indian medical mission to treat the wounded Turkish soldiers during the Balkan Wars. (Syed Tanvir Wasti, The Indian Red Crescent Mission to the Balkan Wars, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 45, No. 3, 393–406, May 2009) Ansari served several terms as the AICC General Secretary, as well as the President of the Indian National Congress during its 1927 session. As a result of in-fighting and political divisions within the League in the 1920s, and later the rise of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Muslim separatism, Ansari drew closer to

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

and the Congress Party. When he became the President of the Indian National Congress in 1927 on the invitation of Mahatma Gandhi, he spent all of his wealth for the Indian National Congress activities, which left him almost bankrupt. He spent his later life in writing and developing the Jamia Milia Islamia. Ansari was one of the Foundation Committee of Jamia Millia Islamia and also served as the chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia university in

soon after the death of its primary founder,

Hakim Ajmal Khan Mohammad Ajmal Khan (11 February 1868 – 29 December 1927), better known as Hakim Ajmal Khan, was a physician in Delhi, India, and one of the founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia University. He also founded another institution, Ayurved ...

in 1927.History and profile of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi (vice-chancellor Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari in 1927)
jmi.ac.in. Retrieved 24 August 2017

Personal life

Ansari lived in a palatial house, called the ''Darus Salaam'' or ''Abode of peace.''

was a frequent guest when he visited Delhi, and the house was a regular base for Congress political activities. Ansari died in 1936 en route from

Mussoorie Mussoorie is a hill station and a municipal board, near Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hill s ...

on a train due to a heart attack. He is buried within the premises of Jamia Millia Islamia, a university in Delhi.

Progeny

Many members of Ansari's family remained in India after

partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

in 1947 and became politicians in free India. His immediate progeny and family members include: *

Mohammad Hamid Ansari Mohammad Hamid Ansari (; born 1 April 1937) is an Indian politician and retired Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer who was the 12th vice president of India from 2007 to 2017. Ansari joined the IFS in 1961. In a diplomatic career spanning 3 ...

, former

Vice President of India The vice president of India (IAST: ) is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India. The office of vice president is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in the ...

, is Ansari's grand-nephew.

Honours

Ansari Road in Daryaganj, old

is named after him. Ansari Nagar near AIIMS, New Delhi has also been named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansari, Mukhtar Ahmed Indian independence activists from Uttar Pradesh Presidents of the Indian National Congress Jamia Millia Islamia People from Ghazipur 1880 births 20th-century Indian Muslims 1936 deaths All India Muslim League members Madras Medical College alumni Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Founders of Indian schools and colleges