India's first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad opposed partition till his last breath, experts said here on Tuesday.
"Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was not only a great writer, thinker, freedom fighter and the first education minister of free India, but he was also a living example of secularism," Farhat Ali Khan, officer on special duty at Jamia Urdu Aligarh, said at a function held in memory of Maulana Azad on his death anniversary on Tuesday.
"Maulana Azad had set new milestones by always giving priority to patriotism over religion and politics," he said.
Shamoon Raza Naqvi, registrar of Jamia Urdu Aligarh, said Maulana Azad "was a free thinker and he laid down the parameters of our educational system.
"Implementation of the three language formula for students was the most important reform initiative by Maulana Azad," he said.
Jasim Mohammed said an analysis of the "multi-faceted personality" of Maulana Azad cannot be undertaken only by his life and works, "as he was a great humanist apart from being a politician who worked for the unity of the nation till his death".
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The pre-independence history of India testifies that Maulana Azad struggled till his last moment against division of the country, he said.
Rizwan Ali Khan said "men like Maulana Azad take birth in centuries", and today's generation should take inspiration from his life and works "to make their future bright".