The Indian who raised the first Provisional Government of India against the British rule in 1915

The Indian who raised the first Provisional Government of India as President against the British rule.

Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was born on December 1, 1886, at the age of 93.  He passed away from the world on 29 April 1979.  Raja Mahendra Pratap was the king of a small sovereign princely state near Hathras.  He along with his fellow students of MAO College (now Aligarh University) participated in the Balkan War in 1911 as medical assistants.  He is known as "Aryan Peshwa".

In December 1914, Raja Mahendra Pratap left the country to seek international help for India's liberation from British rule.  He traveled to many countries like Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Turkey to seek help against British rule in India.  It was during these visits that the German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm-II given Raja a personal welcome.

In December 1915, Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh arrived in Afghanistan and established the first 'Provisional Government of India' in exile outside India in Kabul.  Raja Mahendra became the first President of the Provisional Government and Maulvi Barkatullah of Bhopal became the Prime Minister of the Government.  Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was 28 years old at that time.

This first provisional government got the support of countries like Turkey, Afghanistan, Germany, Russia, Japan, etc.

Raja Mahendra Pratap developed particularly close relations with the Russian revolutionary Lenin and the Japanese leadership.  About three decades later, Subhas Chandra Bose also reached these countries, with whom Raja Mahendra Pratap made relations.  No doubt Bose got the benefit of the hard work of King Mahendra Pratap.

He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1932 by a Swedish writer-politician, even before Mahatma Gandhi.  His recommendation was to praise King Mahendra Pratap for exposing British brutalities in India and promoting education.  He was the first Indian to be nominated for the Nobel Prize.

In 1957, Azad was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mathura as a candidate and defeated the veteran leader of Jan Sangh and future Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the same election.