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

• The university is being established by the Uttar Pradesh government in the 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?

• Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was an alumnus of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and was also the president of India’s first provisional government-in-exile established on December 1, 1915 in Kabul.

• 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.

• He returned in 1947 only after India gained independence. He was elected to Lok Sabha from Mathura in 1957.

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