Mahmud Hasan Deobandi was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of the Indian independence movement, who co-founded the Jamia Millia Islamia University and launched the Silk Letter Movement for the freedom of India. He was the first student to study at the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary. His teachers included Muhammad Qasim Nanawtawi and Mahmud Deobandi, and he was authorized in Sufism by Imdadullah Muhajir Makki and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi.

Jamia Millia Islamia is a premier central university located in New Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces during the British Empire in 1920, it moved to its current location in Okhla in 1935. It was given the deemed status by University Grants Commission in 1962. Jamia Millia Islamia became a central university in the year 1988 by an act of the Indian Parliament which was passed on December 26, 1988.