On October 26 as an activist and an author, Dilip Mandal has made a statement that India’s first Muslim School Teacher was a meinufacture. The activist claims on X that he invented ‘Fatima Sheikh’ which apparently did not exist and went on to claim that the Teacher he earlier spoke about was merely a fabrication of his mind. During his startling assertion the work which Faimat sheikh had done was shaykh so is his assertion which people know is not a true version.

A Myth or a fraud was how Mandal defined it: “It was nothing but my bias aimed at one end, engulfing the theoretical vacuum that existed at that time.” He records on Twitter, “I beg your pardon” while contemplating “what does the truth contain?" What do religions like Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity hold in real history.

Indian author Dilip Mandal wrote an article for the online news publication ‘The Print’ in which he attempted to explain why Fatima Sheikh is not as recognized in Indian history as Sonia Animal is, and he quite the impression that Fatima Sheikh’s name has been lost in time. However, as soon as Mandal admitted the truth on X, the "The Print" media outlet removed his article from its website.

Why Did Dilip Mandal Imagine Fatima Sheikh?

Dilip imagined Fatima to exist because two modern day historians required the existence of a woman scholar and a writer, and even a Female Muslim, Dilip created a fiction character out of the requirement. Dilip herself does not elaborate on what makes him portray the fictitious character of Fatima Sheikh, but she strictly maintains that such was the work of circumstance and time. "Those who needed this narrative for political and ideological purposes amplified it," he said in the post.

In a remarkable on-terrain narrative, the activist distinguished himself from a multitude of historians and claimed that it was he who burst forth the life of Fatima Sheikh. To the astonishment, they were able to search on Google and can only have one `dilipsaysist11's animated video, in which Sheikh's name Indian women scholars of the past and in this case sometime never existed in google to search on loading.

As a result of this astonishing disclosure, Dilip Mandar's Wikipedia entry about Fatima was also swiftly erased, betraying the timeline as to how such accounts function.

“You will not find an entry in a Google search earlier. No article, no book, no mention. Nothing. Interest in her ceased to exist in 2022, and I stop pursuing the story of Fatima Sheikh,” he stated.

“She made her entry into the social media narrative and just disappeared. Don’t ask me as to why I did it. It was a matter of time and circumstance. A figure needed to be designed for such a purpose and so I designed one,” he added further.

Mandal went on and also revealed that he imagined a fictional sketch of the character since no old photographs existed. “I created lot of stories around her. And thus Fatima Sheikh came into existence. The story went viral,” he asserted.

Fatima Sheikh: A Character Who Was Fictionalized

Mandal contested that there is no record about Fatima Sheikh in some of the social reformers’ documents like Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule writings and even British papers about the education campaign they waged. According to Mandal,the ‘reputation’ of Fatima Sheikh suddenly emerged in the last 15 years and before that there was no reference to her.

It is noteworthy that Sheikh has been termed as a teacher by few and this portrayal has somehow lured some media outlets to term her as a teacher. It is claimed that Fatima Sheikh was Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule’s accomplice during the setting up of women’s first education centre in India and few outlets have called her a reformist and ‘somewhat neglected figure’ in India’s history.

Furthermore the name of Fatima Sheikh seems to be absent from the texts produced by Jyotiba Phule, and his wife Savitribai Phule. As a matter of fact, she is said to be a fellow with social reformers in the state of Maharashtra, especially with Jyotiba Phule, and Savitribai Phule.

As per evidence presented, Dilip Mandal stated ”she is nowhere to be found – absolutely nowhere. Please do not use my old tweets, Facebook posts, articles and even videos as an evidence. I have mentioned Fatima Sheikh’s name the most I've always admit it. But, she was never alive.”