Rafiq Zakaria was born on 5 April 1920. He  was an Indian politician and Islamic religious cleric. He was closely associated with the Indian independence movement and the Indian National Congress party. He was known for his advocacy of conservative Islam. Zakaria was an alumnus of Ismail Yusuf College, Mumbai. He won the Chancellor's Gold Medal in the MA examination of University of Mumbai and in 1948 received a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His doctoral thesis was titled Muslims in India: a political analysis (from 1885–1906). He was called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn in England and practised law in Mumbai, where he was appointed Chief Public Prosecutor. Zakaria was a close associate of the administration of Jamiaurdu (Hind).

To be noted that Zakaria, a Konkani Muslim from Maharashtra, spent over 25 years in public service, including some time as a cabinet minister in state government of Maharashtra and later as a Member of the Indian parliament. He served as deputy to Indira Gandhi, the leader of the Congress Party, in the Lok Sabha. Zakaria represented India abroad, including at the United Nations in 1965, 1990 and 1996.

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It should known about him that Zakaria founded a number of schools and colleges in his constituency of Aurangabad. These included a women's college of arts and sciences and the Indian Institute of Hotel Management, which is now known as the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad (IHM-A). The Maulana Azad Education Trust Aurangabad is a mini university in itself. He was Chancellor of the Jamia Urdu, Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh), and President of Maharashtra College in Mumbai.

Zakaria was married twice. He was the father of four children by his two wives: Mansoor Zakaria and Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, the art historian who works with INTACH in Mumbai, by his first wife, Shehnaz Khan, the daughter of a Bhopali aristocrat. Arshad Zakaria and Fareed Zakaria, the American journalist, by his second wife, Fatima Zakaria, who was for a time the editor of the Sunday Times of India and was in 2008 the editor of the Taj magazine of the Taj Hotels.

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