Irfan Habib

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Irfan Habib (1931- ) is a Marxist Indian historian, a professor at the Aligarh Muslim University and a former Chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research. His father, Mohammad Habib, was a noted historian and freedom fighter.

Irfan Habib completed his M.A. from Aligarh Muslim University and his D.Phil. from New College, Oxford. He was Professor of History at Aligarh from 1969-94, as well as Co-ordinator/Chairman of the Centre of Advanced Study in History, AMU, during 1975-77 and 1984-94. He served as Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research during 1987-93.

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2005.

1 Honours
2 Positions held
3 Controversies
4 Selected publications
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Honours

Among the first six Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows, 1968.
Cultural Prize of American Historical Association, 1984.
Padma Bhushan, 2005.
Muzaffar Ahmad Memorial Prize, 2006.

[edit] Positions held

President, Indian History Congress, 1981.
Radhakrishnan Lecturer, Oxford, 1991.
Elected Corresponding Fellow, British Royal Historical Society, 1997.

[edit] Controversies

In 1998, Arun Shourie in his book titled Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud accused Irfan Habib and fellow marxist^{[citation needed]} historian Tasneem Ahmad of various unethical and fraudulent actions. Shourie claims that Tasneem Ahmad's Ph.D thesis, which was later published with a preface written by Irfan Habib ^[1], was a word by word plagiarised version of Dr. Parmatma Saran's unpublished work of "English Translation of Arif Qandhari's Tarikh-i Akbari". Shourie's allegations went unchallenged by either Irfan Habib or Tasneem Ahmad.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Selected publications

Books Authored by Irfan Habib:

The Agrarian System of Mughal India 1556-1707. First published in 1963 by Asia Publishing House. Second, extensively revised, edition published in 1999 by Oxford University Press.
An Atlas of the Mughal Empire: Political and Economic Maps With Detailed Notes, Bibliography, and Index. Oxford University Press, 1982
Essays in Indian History - Towards a Marxist Perception. Tulika Books, 1995.
The Economic History of Medieval India: A Survey. Tulika Books, 2001.
People's History of India - Part 1: Prehistory. Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2001.
People’s History of India Part 2 : The Indus Civilization. Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2002.
A People's History of India Vol. 3 : The Vedic Age. (Co-author Vijay Kumar Thakur) Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2003.
A People's History of India - Vol 4 : Mauryan India. (Co-author Vivekanand Jha) Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2004.
A People's History of India - Vol 28 : Indian Economy, 1858-1914. Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2006.

Books Edited by Irfan Habib:

The Cambridge Economic History of India - Volume I: 1200-1750 (co-editor Tapan Raychaudhari)
UNESCO History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol 5 : Development in contrast: from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. (Co-editors Chahryar Adle and K M Baikapov)
UNESCO History of Humanity, Vol 4: From the seventh to the sixteenth century. (With various co-editors).
UNESCO History of Humanity, Vol 5: From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. (With various co-editors).
The Growth of Civilizations in India And Iran
Sikh History from Persian Sources
Akbar and His India
India - Studies in the History of an Idea
State & Diplomacy under Tipu Sultan
Confronting Colonialism
Medieval India - 1
A World to Win - Essays on the Communist Manifesto (co-editors Aijaz Ahmed and Prakash Karat)

Other Published Work:

Prof. Habib has published numerous papers in journals and collectaneous volumes on Historical Geography of Ancient India, History of Indian Technology, Medieval Administrative and Economic History, Colonialism and its Impact on India, and Historiography.