Who is irfan habib

Let us begin by defining who is actually a liberal, irrespective of faith. A liberal may be one who is not dogmatic in his religious, social or political views. One who is not just tolerant of others, but respectful as well. Though we plan to discuss the dilemma of a liberal Muslim, a liberal Hindu is also caught in a similar bind. So, we need to keep in mind both while discussing the predicament of a liberal or progressive Muslim in India. An educated liberal Muslim in India is confronted with an unprecedented situation that he/she has not faced before. It is difficult to adhere to the new standards of patriotism thrown at them by the majoritarian “nationalists”. The secular space where a liberal Muslim or Hindu can prosper has shrunk dangerously. A liberal Muslim is sandwiched between two groups of extremists, one from her own community and the other, and more visibly vocal one today, the hydra-headed Hindutva’s foot soldiers and ideologues. While writing about the quandary of the liberal Muslim today, I need to take you back in history as a necessary digression. I want to do this to explain the precariousness of such a Muslim’s existence amidst the orthodox Muslims today. The threats from the Hindutva fanatics will be dealt with later. To understand the ongoing predicament, we need to go back a little and engage with a moderate/liberal and reformist figure of 19th century India. It is essential to go back to our not-so-remote past to comprehend the dilemma of the libera...

“Without undue modesty, we can say we know more about India’s past than Marx did” written by Irfan Habib in ‘Problems of Marxist historiography’ A highly prominent ancient and medieval historian of India, he has served as a history professor in the Department of History AMU from 1969-91. And in 2007, he was granted the position of Emeritus Professor by this university. Having worked in this field for many decades now, he stands from the Marxist school. Professor Irfan Habib was born in 1931 in the Vadodara city of the state of Gujarat. He completed his under-graduation and post-graduation from Aligarh Muslim University in the years 1951 and 1953 respectively. He effectively excelled with first position in academics in both the programs. After obtaining his master’s degree, he started as a lecturer in AMU and then became the Reader here. Moreover, later in 1956; he acquired the degree of D. Phil from New College Oxford. Professor Habib has widely worked on • Indian Feudalism • History of technologies from ancient to medieval times in India • Researched on Vedas and written meticulously about it and vedic age. • Agrarian system of Medieval India. • Economic history of Medieval India • Marxist historiography • About British colonialism in India • Indus Civilization • Maurya’s Rule in India • His one of the famous critique about the book “Orientalism” by Edward Said; in which Said stated that western scholars had only glorified their history and personalities and dishonoured t...

With the grace of the Almighty Allah and the boundless compassion of His Most Merciful Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him), the ink of piety continues to flow forth as before, thanks to which we are able to author this concluding part of the partial chronicle of His Excellency, the most exalted Marxist record-keeper and the brilliant whitewasher of all the pious deeds that Islam undertook in this land of infidels, Hindustan: Irfan Habib bin Mohammed Habib. One of the most powerful techniques of deception that the Marxist eminent distorians used with aplomb was to paint themselves in a self-righteous rainbow and to pretend that there was “another side” to their generation-wrecking and prolonged national pilferage at universities and institutions like the ICHR. This was of course a faithful mimicry of Lenin’s tactic of first “sticking the convict’s badge” on your opponent thereby putting him/her on a permanent defensive. The unsaid converse that enables such a vile psychological tactic is to monopolize goodness, virtue, honesty, and the “truth” of history to yourself. This among others was the origin of the infamous quote, I’m Left and You’re Wrong. A variant of this quote in India for the longest was this: I’m Left and You’re Communal. More than two decades ago, Arun Shourie wrote and eighty years. Those Hindus who wish to tread on this path of narrative-setting have the time-tested option: be solidly independent, be an outsider, be deaf, thick-skinned and shameless about ...

If ever a sub-editor in a hurry needed a representative picture of a professor, she can safely dig out a photo of S. Irfan Habib from the archives. Dressed in a red polka-dot shirt, blue jeans, and a mildly rumpled jacket, the head of scholastic grey matching an off-white, windswept beard, it is difficult not to think of him as an absent-minded professor. Habib isn’t one, though he does keep forgetting to smile for the photographer. We meet at the India International Centre and settle down outside of the lounge. I realise too late that I must strain to hear his voice above the pitter-patter of a water fountain that, over the course of our conversation, merges with the sound of a sudden spell of wintry rain. He looks frailer than I had imagined. “I had a bypass surgery last October,” he explains. “I’m not fully back to normal. Need more rest for a complete recovery.” But the historian needs to be up and about as his latest book, Indian Nationalism: The Essential Writings , was released in early December. The anthology, which he put together, collects the reflections of some of the best sub-continental minds — from Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai to Jayaprakash Narayan and Khwaja Ahmad Abbas — on the subject at a time when nationalism has become a potent force multiplier in Indian politics. Habib takes pride in being a product of “mofussil India” at having made a mark, though his intellectual priors were outside the metropolitan academic elite. “I had no godfather in...

Kolkata: More than eight decades ago, in 1938, India saw the first comprehensive attempt at rewriting its history when Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the second and most-influential sarsanghchalak (or helmsman) of the Hindutva organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), published his book, We Or Our Nationhood Defined. “It is high time that we studied, understood and wrote our history ourselves and discarded such designed or undesigned distortions (regarding India’s history and antiquity),” Golwalkar wrote in the book, which has been to Hindutva forces what the Bible is to devout Christians. Thus, in the guise of correcting alleged distortions, began an initiative that historians today allege has grown into one of the biggest projects seeking to alter a country’s history. On Sunday, January 30 – remembered nationally as the day of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination – Marxist historian and globally-renowned scholar Irfan Habib identified Golwalkar’s book as the fountainhead of recent attempts to alter India’s history; an initiative he called ‘doctoring history’. Habib’s remarks came during a speech he delivered at an online event titled ‘Doctored History: From Ancient Times till Today’, organised by the New Socialist Initiative, a Delhi-based collective. In his book, Habib pointed out, Golwalkar propagated the RSS’s key theories about Indian history that Hindutva preachers have been trying to prove right ever since. And since there is no evidence to substantiate their clai...

Mohammad Habib Born 1895 ( 1895) Died 1971 (aged75–76) Nationality Spouse Sohaila Habib ( Children Relatives see Academic background Academic work Institutions Doctoral students Mohammad Habib (1895–1971) was an Indian He was a candidate in the Early life and education [ ] Habib was a son of Mohammed Naseem, a barrister in Lucknow. His wife Sohaila Tyabji was the daughter of Habib studied at the M.A.O. School and College (now It was in Oxford that he received his baptism in nationalism. The ideas of his liberal-minded tutor Ernest Barker, a meeting with Career [ ] In 1926, he won the election of the U.P. Legislative Council as a member of the ( [ citation needed] At In the forties, his interest in Post-retirement [ ] He unsuccessfully contested for the office of the Death [ ] He died in 1971. Legacy [ ] The Mohammad Habib Hall of Selected publications [ ] • A Comprehensive History of India: The Delhi Sultanate (A.D. 1206-1526) (general editor with • Hazrat Amir Khusrau of Delhi. 1st Pakistan ed. Lahore: Islamic Book Service [1979]. • Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya: hayat aur talimat.Dihli: Shubah-yi Urdu, Dihli Yunivarsiti, [1972] University of Delhi. Dept. of Urdu. Silsilah-i matbuat-i Shubah-yi Urdu [1970]. • The political theory of the Delhi sultanate (including a translation of Ziauddin Barani's Fatawa-i Jahandari, ...) Allahabad, Kitab Mahal [1961]. • Politics and society during the early medieval period: collected works of Professor Mohammad Habib / edited by • Some aspect...

IRFAN HABIB is one of the most eminent living historians of India. Born in Vadodara, Baroda, in 1931, he has had a lifetime connection with Aligarh Muslim University, from which he has issued a prodigious output of work, ranging from very focused scholarship, to cartography, to large scale works on Indian history. He was awarded a Government of India overseas scholarship to New College. He remembers having to study Caesar’s invasion of Britain, but appreciated the rigour of the tutorial system which he briefly experienced. Then he started his research on the Mughal agrarian system. Karl Marx influenced Irfan Habib Habib is a committed lifelong Marxist, and Marxism has underpinned his world view and his work. He is a living rebuke to those who may see the term ‘Marxist Historian’ as something rigid and arid: rather, it allows him to provide refreshing and original intellectual critiques of conventional wisdom. His understanding of Marx’s own views on tax and rent systems in pre-colonial India (where the state was the rent collector) inform a view of the Indian economic development where the surplus leaves the village. His own contribution to the historiography of India is built on his ‘The Agrarian System of Mughal India 1556–1707’, but then extends, both backwards (Vedic) and forwards (post-colonial) in time, and into the People’s History of India series, which he conceived. Habib does not flinch from controversy. A passionate secularist, he has taken a firm stand against ...

A few decades ago, at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Professor Irfan Habib summoned his former student and now faculty member, K K Muhammed, to his office. Muhammed had discovered the Ibadat Khana in Fatehpur Sikri. Built by Akbar in 1575 CE, the Ibadat Khana was the place where various religious scholars held discussions. A major discovery, this was reported in various newspapers, something which Prof. Habib was not too happy about. The conversation went as follows: Irfan Habib: “This is not Ibadat Khana.” Muhammed: “No? This is not Ibadat Khana?” IH: “What you gave in Times of India is not Ibadat Khana.” M: “How can you say that? Are you an archaeologist?” IH: “I may not be as good an archaeologist like you.” M: “Sorry, you are not an archaeologist.” Prof. Habib was speechless. He pushed a paper towards Muhammed and said, “write what you discovered is not Ibadat Khana”. Muhammed refused and walked away. After working both at the AMU and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in various designations, Muhammed has now written an autobiography in Malayalam, titled ഞാനെന്ന ഭാരതീയൻ ( Me, the Indian), which has details of his encounters with Prof. Habib and his cabal. As part of his education, Muhammed learned how a historian becomes secular. When Muhammed reached the AMU as a student, he was initially excited to have someone as famous as Prof. Habib as his teacher. But Muhammed recollects from a later time, “As a teacher, he did not make any impact on me.” His other c...

• • • Aligarh society claims Irfan Habib was pushed by Kerala Governor's security officers at IHC event Aligarh society claims Irfan Habib was pushed by Kerala Governor’s security officers at IHC event The incident took place at Kannur University on Saturday, when the Kerala Governor, while making his opening address, reiterated his stand in favour of the new Citizenship law. However, some delegates protested after Khan spoke on the contentious legislation. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and historian Irfan Habib at the 80th session of Indian History Congress at Kannur University. (Source: Twitter/Kerala Governor) Stating that History Congress’ acting president Irfan Habib was pushed by security officers of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan when the historian went to speak to him during the inauguration of the Indian History Congress (IHC) in Kannur, the Aligarh Society of History and Archaeology (ASHA) condemned the incident and alleged used of force on IHC members. “Professor Irfan Habib, who was on the dais in the capacity of being the outgoing President of the IHC, got up from his seat…to request the governor to refrain from turning IHC into his political arena. As soon as Professor Habib went there, the ADC and the security officer of the Governor pushed him and tried to stop him. The Governor too started accusing Habib of trying to stop him from speaking,” the Aligarh Society of History and Archaeology said in a statement. The incident took place at Kannur Unive...

If ever a sub-editor in a hurry needed a representative picture of a professor, she can safely dig out a photo of S. Irfan Habib from the archives. Dressed in a red polka-dot shirt, blue jeans, and a mildly rumpled jacket, the head of scholastic grey matching an off-white, windswept beard, it is difficult not to think of him as an absent-minded professor. Habib isn’t one, though he does keep forgetting to smile for the photographer. We meet at the India International Centre and settle down outside of the lounge. I realise too late that I must strain to hear his voice above the pitter-patter of a water fountain that, over the course of our conversation, merges with the sound of a sudden spell of wintry rain. He looks frailer than I had imagined. “I had a bypass surgery last October,” he explains. “I’m not fully back to normal. Need more rest for a complete recovery.” But the historian needs to be up and about as his latest book, Indian Nationalism: The Essential Writings , was released in early December. The anthology, which he put together, collects the reflections of some of the best sub-continental minds — from Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai to Jayaprakash Narayan and Khwaja Ahmad Abbas — on the subject at a time when nationalism has become a potent force multiplier in Indian politics. Habib takes pride in being a product of “mofussil India” at having made a mark, though his intellectual priors were outside the metropolitan academic elite. “I had no godfather in...