Mushirul Hassan

Mushirul Hassan — Professor Mushirul Hasan (Born: 15 August 1949) second son for noted historian and professor at his time Muhibbul Hasan he originally belongs to Village Muhammadpur Tehsil Fatehpur District Barabanki, is an internationally known historian, author and ex-Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia University at Delhi. He has written extensively on the Partition of India, on communalism , and on the histories of Islam in South-Asia.

Mushirul Hasan was the elected President of the Indian History Congress in 2002. In 2007, He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India and the Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Government in 2010. In May 2010, he was appointed the director-general of the National Archives of India.

Mushirul Hasan did his M. A. from Aligarh Muslim University in 1969. He later earned a Doctorate (Ph.D.) from the University of Cambridge, 1977. In September 2008, The Calcutta University offered him an honorary D.Litt.

On the verse of being physically assaulted by students at the Jamia Millia Islamia University some years back, he had, by his own admission, “very coolly put my glasses and my watch in my pocket and thought, ‘what a stupid way to die’.”

That’s Mushirul Hassan for you, who, many years later, returned to the same university as Vice-Chancellor and brought democracy back into its vocabulary. Author of some seven books on Modern Indian history, visiting professor in several foreign universities and academy par excellence, Hassan had proved his credentials as an administrator. Hassan was always fascinated by the past. “I always wanted to be a historian, partly because of my father’s status as an expert in the subject and partly because I always had access to book on the subject that developed an interest. It was basically about family ethos.” Speaking about his choice of field (Hassan has worked extensively on the history of partition and the growth of communal politics in India), he says, “There was a need to relook at events through the eyes of someone who came from a relatively secular background.” But he is ‘thankful” for all the “colored interpretations” as “more the voices, better it is for the health of the subject.” India he feels is crucial for his academic stimulation. “My intense academic involvement in the day-to-day issues here, my engagements have contributed to whatever creativity I have,” he says. About Jamia he says, “It’s not the brick and mortar I am attached to. The composite, secular, liberal legacy of the university is worth fighting for.