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Zakir Hussain (Urdu: زاکِر حسین), was the third President of India from May 13, 1967 until his death on 3 May 1969.

Hussain was born in Hyderabad (India). His Pakhtun father had migrated to Hyderabad from Qaimganj, district Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh. He was educated at Islamia High School, Etawah and at the Anglo-Muhammadan Oriental College (now Aligarh Muslim University where he was a prominent student leader ).

Hussain, then only 23, was among the small group of students and teachers who founded a National Muslim University near Delhi and named it Jamia Millia Islamia. He subsequently went to Germany to obtain a PhD from the University of Berlin in Economics. While in Germany Hussain was instrumental in bringing out the anthology of arguably the greatest Urdu poet Mirza Assadullah Khan "Ghalib" (1797-1868). He returned to India to head the Jamia Millia Islamia which was facing closure in 1927. He continued in that position for the next twenty one years providing academic and managerial leadership to an institution that was intimately involved with India's struggle for freedom from the British Rule and experimented with value base education on the lines advocated by Mahatma Gandhi. During this period he continued to engage himself with movements for educational reforms in India and was particularly active in the affairs of his old alma mater' the MAO College, now the Aligarh Muslim University. During this period Hussain emerged as one of the most prominent educational thinkers and practitioners of modern India. His personal sacrifice and untiring efforts to keep the Jamia afloat in very adverse circumstances won him appreciation of even his arch political rivals like Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Soon after India attained independence he agreed to be the Vice chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University which, because of active involvement of a section of its teachers and students in the movement for creation of Pakistan was facing trying times in post partition India. Dr Hussain, again, provided leadership during a critical phase of the history of the University at Aligarh from 1948-1956. Soon after completing his term as Vice Chancellor he was nominated as a member of the Upper House of Indian Parliament in 1956, a position he vacated in 1957 to become Governor of the State of Bihar.

After serving as the Governor of Bihar from 1957 to 1962, and as the Vice President of India from 1962 to 1967, Hussain was elected President of India on May 13, 1967. In his inaugural speech he said that the whole of India was his home and all its people were his family.

He was awarded the highest Indian national honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1963. He is the first Indian President to die in office on the 3rd day of May, 1969.

v • d • e Presidents of India
Rajendra Prasad • Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan • Zakir Hussain • V. V. Giri • Muhammad Hidayat Ullah • V. V. Giri • Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed • Basappa Danappa Jatti • Neelam Sanjiva Reddy • Zail Singh • R. Venkataraman • Shankar Dayal Sharma • K. R. Narayanan • Abdul Kalam • Pratibha Patil