Popular Writer and activist Dilip Mandal recently claimed he created the "fictional character" of Fatima Sheikh, who was celebrated as India's first Muslim teacher, had no actual existence in history. He claimed this incident in a recent post on X on 9 January.

He said there is no photograph of her because she never existed, and the picture representing her is also fictional. In a recent post on X, under the title Confession, Dilip Mandal noted, “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 out of nothing—essentially from thin air. I did that knowingly.” 

He said there was no single entry for her in a Google search before, stating, “No article, no book, no mention. Nothing.” Mandal went on to say that his interest in her faded in 2022 when he abandoned the narrative of Fatima Sheikh. He said that she appeared in social media narratives and just disappeared.

Yet, without giving any specific reason for creating the ‘fictional character’, he said, “Don’t ask me why I did it. It was a matter of time and circumstance. A purpose required the creation of an image, and so I created one. Thousands of people can attest to this—most of them hearing the name for the first time from me.”

He even said that Fatima Sheikh's name does not appear in Jyotiba Phule's and Savitribai Phule's writings. Fatima is depicted as a colleague of Maharashtra’s social reformers Jyotirao Phule alias Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule.

“The complete writings of Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule have been published, and nowhere is the name Fatima Sheikh mentioned as someone who taught alongside them. Even Babasaheb Ambedkar never referred to such a name. No biographer of Mahatma Phule or Savitribai Phule has mentioned Fatima Sheikh. No Muslim scholar referenced this name until 15 years ago. British documents that discuss the educational efforts of the Phule couple make no mention of Fatima Sheikh either”, Dilip Mandal also penned. 

As proof that Fatima Sheikh was not mentioned before she was 'created' 15 years ago, he posted a Google Trends chart screenshot termed Fatima Sheikh from 2004 that reveals that the search for the term had peaked in January 2022.

He later posted a few more tweets about the issue and retweeted a 2023 tweet by Ambedkarite Central with a letter from Savitribai Phule, the only instance where Fatima was mentioned. The tweet added that it was not mentioned anywhere or even a hint that she was a teacher and supported establishing a Dalit school.

When a person accused him of lying, Dilip Mondal said that Savitribai Phule is not from the Harappan era; she is from our time, and there are records of that. He said that old newspapers have been there about it in the library. He also challenged to find any mention of Fatima's birthday celebration before 2006, saying that if such a reference is found, he will admit that he did not create the character.

If Dilip Mondal's claim is valid, it would mean he has succeeded in inserting a fictional character into Indian history. Countless articles on Fatima Sheikh have emerged, portraying her as a pioneering teacher, anti-caste activist, advocate of girls' education and social reformer. Considerably, she was a feminist icon in India at the time of British rule.

There is an article on her on Wikipedia, and her 191 birthday was celebrated on 9th January 2022 with a doodle. A book published in 1991 named Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the Early Twentieth Century by Feminist Press at the City University of New York mentions that Fatima Sheikh was a colleague of Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule when they opened schools, especially for girls from lower castes. There is only one mention of her name in the book, "The schools Jotiba and Savithribai Phule started in Pune were meant especially for lower-caste girls. Their colleague, Fatima Sheikh, was a Muslim woman.” it can be proof that she could be a coworker of Phules but not a renowned activist as it claims now. 

Although Fatima Sheikh actually lived and worked in the schools founded by Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule, Mr Mandal insists that she is fictional. Moreover, most of the exposure of Sheikh's glory has indeed occurred in the last decade or so, and before that, mentions of her on the Internet were almost non-existent.