Author, activist Dilip Mandal stoked controversy on Thursday when he claimed that Fatima Sheikh, celebrated as one of India’s first Muslim women school teachers, never existed and was a “fabricated character” he had created.
In 2019, Mandal had written a piece for The Print asking why history had forgotten the contributions of Fatima Sheikh. It was taken down on Thursday. “ThePrint has taken note of Dilip Mandal’s post on X claiming that he created a ‘historical’ personality named Fatima Sheikh. We are withdrawing this article as we investigate this matter,” the outlet said.
Confession:
— Dilip Mandal (@Profdilipmandal) January 9, 2025
I had created a myth or a fabricated character and named her Fatima Sheikh.
Please forgive me. The truth is that “Fatima Sheikh” never existed; she is not a historical figure. Not a real person.
It is my mistake that, during a particular phase, I created this name… pic.twitter.com/8pHjiQXTfG
In an X post, Mandal had written that, “The truth is that ‘Fatima Sheikh’ never existed; she is not a historical figure. Not a real person.” “It is my mistake that, during a particular phase, I created this name out of nothing – essentially from thin air. I did that knowingly.”
The author, who was appointed as a media advisor for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in August 2024, also claimed that there was no reference to Fatima Sheikh on Google search in any article or book. “Interest in her vanished in 2022 when I abandoned the story of Fatima Sheikh.”
Sheikh is believed to be a close associate of Savitribai Phule and Jyotiba Phule and had helped them set up India’s first school for girls. In his post, Mandal, however, asserted that the “modern folklore or myth” of Fatima Sheikh was “constructed without historical or textual evidence”.
Despite Mandal’s claims, researchers have documented historical references to ‘Fatima’.
Edited by researcher MG Mali, the book Savitribai Phule – Samagra Vangmay, published in 1988 by the Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya Ani Sanskruti Mandal, mentions a letter written by Savitribai Phule to her husband mentioning Fatima. A 1986 book, Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule, published by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, also contains references to Fatima Sheikh.
दिलीप मंडल को कोई एहसास-ए-कमतरी ज़रूर है तभी इसे बताना होता है कि दुनिया मूर्ख है और यह इतना विद्वान और महान है कि फ़ातिमा शेख़ जैसा काल्पनिक चरित्र इसने गढ़ा जिसका 2006 से पहले कोई ज़िक्र भी नहीं था. मैं सूचना एवं प्रसारण मंत्रालय के प्रकाशन विभाग से 1986 में छपी किताब… pic.twitter.com/7N8EYOlNGU
— Sujata (@Sujata1978) January 9, 2025
On January 9, 2022, Sheikh was also honoured by Google with a doodle on her 191st birthday. However, Mandal asserted that the photograph attributed to Fatima is “fictional”.
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