PM lays foundation stone of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh University in Aligarh

Context

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University in Aligarh. 

About the University

• The university is being established in memory and honour of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, the great freedom fighter, educationist and social reformer. 
• It is being set up in a total area of over 92 acres at Lodha village and Musepur Kareem Jarouli village of Aligarh's Kol tehsil.
• The university will provide affiliation to 395 colleges of the Aligarh division.

Who was Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh?

• Born into a royal family in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh in 1886, Singh was a social reformer, freedom fighter and Marxist revolutionary. 
• An alumnus of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Collegiate School later called Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), he was active in the political arena from a young age.
• Though he did not complete his graduation from AMU, Singh was felicitated during the centenary celebrations of the university in 1997. 
• He also participated in the 1911 Balkan War with his fellow students at the college.
• Belonging to the royal family of Mursan, he had left his home and family in Aligarh in December 1914 and escaped to Germany and remained in exile for about 33 years as he was wanted by the British authorities.