Mushirul Hasan : academia
By Charu Bahri
for IndianMuslims.info
Mushirul Hasan, son of well-known historian Professor Mohibbul Hasan was born on August 15, 1949 in Kolkata. His early childhood passed by in an anglo-Indian neighborhood in the city (Kolkata). At the age of seven his family moved to Aligarh, where his father held a teaching position in the history department at the Aligarh Muslim University. The transition from his surroundings in metropolitan Kolkata to Urdu-speaking Aligarh was marked in that it exposed him to new perspectives and a different, more orthodox Muslim community. While growing up, his mothers’ was his sole influence insofar as religion was concerned. No wonder then that his new environs by no means restricted his and his siblings’ student life. Jam sessions in their living room, cinema on Sundays and that too, to see English films, Mushirul Hasan was slowly but surely developing an all-round personality that would stand him in good stead in the years to come.
He studied physics, chemistry and math and even Persian literature. As his father did not pressurize any one subject on him, he absorbed the essence of many subjects before finally zeroing in on history. During his senior student life, Hasan took an active part in debates, student politics and interacting with people from different walks of life. He lauds his father as well as the people and environment of the history department at Aligarh (AMU) for his firmly-rooted secular values.
In fact, Hasan’s interest in secularism was so strong that he relocated to Delhi to study modern history, which covered the tragedy of the Partition. He subsequently studied at Cambridge University, UK, where again, his exposure to Western ideas and a multicultural society helped him settle in quickly and work towards completing his doctorate within three years. He then returned to India and began his teaching career as a reader in the department of history at the Jamia Millia Islamia (New Delhi).
In July 1981 Hasan was appointed professor of modern Indian history at the Jamia Millia Islamia at the young age of thirty-one which in fact is the youngest ever professorial appointment in the subject in India.
Professor Hasan was also appointed director of the Academy of Third World Studies at the Jamia Millia Islamia on February 15, 1992, a position he continues to hold. Over the ensuing years, he held the positions of Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia (1992 to 1996) and officiating Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia (1996 to 1997).
On June 10, 2004 he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia.
He has been and continues as member of many prestigious professional and learning organizations, such as the governing body of Zakir Husain College of the University of Delhi and the university court of the Aligarh Muslim University.
Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan has also been visiting professor at the Central European University, Budapest, International Institute of Languages and Civilizations, (INALCO) Paris, University of Virginia, Charlottesville and fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Berlin, and held professorial fellowships at the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library in New Delhi, Centre of Oriental Studies in Rome and the Centre of Indian Studies at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris, to name a few.
He has written numerous books (listed below) and is currently said to be writing Modern India as part of a four-volume series entitled India 2000.
Professor Hasan is well-known for his continuing staunch stand on secularism, liberal and democratic values and free speech, which is best elucidated by his declaration that Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses should not have been banned, since freedom of speech must be preserved. At the time, he faced assault from a large mob of students, about 250 strong, who dissented from his open stance. He stood firm however, for his belief that as a teacher, he should be allowed to express his views and explained that quite asides making the issue a religious one, he strongly felt that Muslims should not project themselves as intolerant.
Vice-Chancellor Hasan envisages a democratic movement based on inner reflection on ways to reform Muslim society in keeping with the Quran and Sunnah, to make its society more egalitarian and especially to promote emancipation and education for women.
For his excellence in teaching and scholarly achievements, Vice-Chancellor Hasan has been awarded D. Lit (Honoris Causa) by the Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University at Allahabad in 2006, the Professor Sukumar Sen Memorial Gold Medal by The Asiatic Society of Kolkata in 2006, a Ford Foundation (SARC) Fellowship by the Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Oxford in 2002-3, the D.P. Singhal Scholarship by the University of Queensland in Brisbane in 2003 and the Ramkrishna Jaidayal Harmony Award for English writing based on his fortnightly column in the Indian Express newspaper in 1999.
Publications
To read more of Vice-Chancellor Professor Mushirul Hasan’s thoughts, refer his books:
The Nehrus: Personal Histories, Roli Books, Delhi & Mercury Press, London, 2006
A Moral Reckoning: Muslim Intellectuals in Nineteenth-Century Delhi, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2005
Pluralism to Separatism: Qasbas in Colonial Awadh, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2004 (translated into Urdu, 2005)
John Company to the Republic: A Story of Modern India, Roli, Delhi, 2001 (translated into Urdu 2002)
Islam in the Subcontinent: Muslims in a Plural Society, Manohar, Delhi, 2002
Making Sense of History: Society, Culture and Politics, Manohar, Delhi, 2003
The Legacy of A Divided Nation: India’s Muslims since Independence, Hurst Publishers, London 1997, also Oxford University Press, Delhi 1997 also paperback edition, WestView Co., USA, 2002
Nationalism and Communal Politics in India, 1885-1930, Manohar, Delhi, 1991, also paperback edition, 1994 (reprinted in 2000, 2005)
A Nationalist Conscience: M.A. Ansari, the Congress and the Raj, Manohar, Delhi, 1987