Academic Degrees

• M. A. (Aligarh Muslim University, 1969)
• Ph.D. (University of Cambridge, 1977).

Positions

• Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia, since 2004-2009.
• Director, Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, July 2000 - January 2010.
• Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1992 – 1996

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Government-sponsored Delegations

•  Leader of the Indian Delegation sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, to take part in the 2nd meeting of Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED), April 2008.
• Visited Lahore and Islamabad, Pakistan on the invitation of High Commission of India at Pakistan to commemorate Gandhi Jayanti, October 2007.
• Member of Indian delegation to Frankfurt Book Fair 2006, sponsored by National Book Trust, India, September 2006.
• Member of the delegation led by Shri Arjun Singh, Cabinet Minister, sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India to Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, May-June 2006.
• Led the delegation of the Jamia Millia Islamia to King Abdul Aziz University (KAAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on invitation of Consul General of India, Jeddah, May 2006.
• Member of the Delegation to attend Saudi National Festival of Heritage and Folk Culture ‘Al-Janadria Festival’ at Riyadh, February 2006.
• Member of the selected group of Indian Universities’s Vice-Chancellors to Paris, Lyon, and Grenoble at France, January 2006.
• Member of the Delegation of Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, to participate in first Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED) Working Group at Singapore, November 2005.
• Member of Indian Delegation led by Shri Arjun Singh, Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, to attend the 33rd session of general conference of UNESCO at Paris, France, October 2005.
• Visited Dakar, Senegal to attend Preparatory Workshop for the World Summit on the Islamo-Christian Dialogue, sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, April 2005.
• Participated in the Embassy of India, Oman, sponsored visit to Muscat for a talk on the topic of interest between India & Oman, March 2005.
• Represented the Indian Council for Cultural Relations at the international conferences in Mauritius, December 1998, and Jakarta, October 1999.
• Represented the Ministry of External Affairs at a conference on "Fifty Years of Independence," held in Stockholm in October 1997.
• Vice-President, Asian (UNESCO) Conference on "Management of Social Transfor-mation" at Bangkok, 1995.
• Represented the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, at the UNESCO conference on Management of Social Transformation held in Paris in 1994.

Membership of Professional Bodies

• Co-editor of Third Frame: Literature, Culture and Society, a quarterly journal (Foundation Books, Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd., Delhi)

Membership of Professional/Learned Bodies/Societies

• Vice-Chairman, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
• UGC nominee, Advisory Committee on Gulf Studies Programme, Centre for West Asian & African Studies, JNU; Member, Delhi Vision Group; Advisory Committee, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Governing Body, Zakir Husain College, University of Delhi; University Court, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh; Governing Body, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 2005; Indian Council for Historical Research, 1993-1996; Board of Studies, University of Shillong; Board of Social Sciences (2nd term, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1999-2001; Editorial Board, Social Action (Delhi) and Calcutta Historical Journal, University of Calcutta; Governing Body of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
• Non-official part-time Director of the Board of Educational Consultants India Limited (Ed. CIL), nominated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
• President, Indo-Iran Society, Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
• Member, Assessment/review Committee for mid-term review of the Special Assistance Programme (SAP).
• Member, Executive Council of Indian Academy of Social Sciences.
• Member, Review Committee to review the function of UGC/AICTE.
• Member, Advisory Board of Jahangirabad Institute of Technology, Jahangirabad Fort, Barabanki, UP
• Member, Board of Management, National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), New Delhi
• Member on the Council, Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi.
• Member on the Committee set up by the Haryana Government to develop the Vision Document of Higher Education in Haryana (on the status of Haryana colleges and universities).
• Member, Advisory Committee, Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), New Delhi.
• UGC Nominee on the Selection Committee for selection of the Vice-Chancellor, Fakir Mohan University, Balasore.
• Visitor’s Nominee as a Member of the Distance Education Council of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. (Dec. 2007)
• Member of the Board, Association France-Union Indienne, 2007.
• General President, Punjab History Congress, Patiala, 2007.
• Additional Chairman, Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, New Delhi, 2005.
• President, Indian History Congress (Modern India), 2002.
• UP Governor’s nominee on the Aligarh Muslim University Court, 1999-2002.
• Trustee, Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust.
• Trustee, Delhi Chapter of the International Sarvodaya Trust.

Fellowships/Visiting Professorships

• Visiting Professor at Foundation Maison Des Sciences De L’Homme, Paris, France.
• Distinguished Visiting Professor in Islamic Studies, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, 2006.
• Professor Invite, International Institute of Languages and Civilizations, INALCO, Paris, March-June 2004.
• Visiting Professor, University of Virginia, January-May 2000.
• Visiting Professor, Maison Des Sciences De L’Homme, Paris, June-July 2000.
• Visiting Professor, University of Rome, April-May 1999.
• Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute of Advanced Study), Berlin, October 1997-July 1998.
• Elected South Asian Lecturer, Australian Association of Asian Studies, June-July 1996; lectured at the South Asian centres in Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart.
• Associate Professor, Centre D’Etudes De L’Inde ET de L’ Asie Du Sud, Paris, Mar.-April 1995.
• Visiting Scholar (Easter Term: 1993), Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, UK.
• Senior Research Member (Trinity Term: 1991), St. Anthony’s College, Oxford.
• Professorial Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, 1983-1986.

Awards received

1.  Received the highest French Civilian Award - 'Officer dans I'Ordre des Palmes Academiques' (Officer of the Order of Academic Palms) by the Prime Minister of the France.
2. Awarded Padma Shri by the Hon’ble President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, 2007.
3. Awarded D.Lit (Honoris Causa) by Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University (UPRTOU), Allahabad, 2006.
4. Awarded Professor Sukumar Sen Memorial Gold Medal by The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, 2006.
5. Awarded the Ford Foundation (SARC) Fellowship by the Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Oxford, 2002-3.
6. Awarded D.P. Singhal Scholarship, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 2003.
7. Awarded the Ramkrishna Jaidayal Harmony Award for English writing in 1999. The award was based on my fortnightly column in the Indian Express (started writing in June 1997), India’s largest selling daily newspaper.

Published Books

1. 1Wit and Humour in Colonial North India (Niyogi Books: Delhi, 2007)
2. Partners in Freedom: Jamia Millia Islamia, (Niyogi Books: Delhi, 2006), [with Rakhshanda Jalil]
3. The Nehrus: Personal Histories (Roli Books: Delhi, Mercury Press: London, 2006).
4. A Moral Reckoning: Muslim Intellectuals in Nineteenth Century Delhi (Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2005). Translated into Urdu (2006) English Paperback (2008).
5. From Pluralism to Separatism: Qasbas in Colonial Awadh (Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2004). Translated into Urdu (2005) English Paperback, 2nd impression (2008).
6. John Company to the Republic: A Story of Modern India (Roli: 2001). Translated into Urdu (2002).
7. Islam in the subcontinent: Muslims in a Plural Society (Manohar, 2002).
8. Making Sense of History: Society, Culture and Politics (Manohar, 2003).
9. The Legacy of A Divided Nation: India’s Muslims since Independence (London: Hurst Publishers; Delhi: Oxford University Press 1997 (WestView, Co., USA). Paperback edn., 2002) English Paperback (2007).
10. Nationalism and Communal Politics in India, 1885-1930 (Delhi: Manohar, 1991). Paperback edn. published in 1994. Reprinted in 2000.
11. A Nationalist Conscience: M.A. Ansari, the Congress and the Raj, (Delhi: Manohar, 1987)

Towards Freedom

• Two volumes on ‘Towards Freedom’ (1939), (Oxford, 2008).

Edited texts relating to Islam in India

1. Islam in South Asia Volume I: Theory and Practice (Delhi: Manohar, 2008)
2. Islam in South Asia Volume II: Encountering the West: Before and after 1857 (Delhi: Manohar, 2008)
3. Islam in South Asia Volume III: The Realm of the Traditional (Delhi: Manohar, 2008)
4. Meeting the West. Autobiography of Lutfullah (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006).
5. [With Margrit Pernau] Regionalizing Pan-Islamism: Documents on the Khilafat Movement (Manohar, 2005).
6. Westward Bound: Travels of Mirza Abu Talib Khan (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005).
7. [With Margrit Pernau] C.F. Andrews, Zakaullah of Delhi (Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002).
8. Halide Edib, Inside India (Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002). Translated into Urdu, 2004) English Paperback (2008).
9. Mohamed Ali, My Life: A Fragment: An Autobiographical Sketch of Maulana Mohamed Ali (Delhi: Manohar, 1999).

Books edited on Islam in India, on the Communal Problem and on India’s partition

1. Mutiny Memoirs (Niyogi Books, 2008)
2. [With Satish Saberwal] Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe, (Delhi: Manohar, 2006).
3. (With Asim Roy] Living Together Separately: Cultural India in History and Politics, (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005)
4. Will Secular India Survive (Delhi: ImprintOne, 2004).
5. (With Nariaka Nakazato) The Unfinished Agenda: Nation-Building in South Asia (Delhi: Manohar, 2001).
6. Inventing Boundaries: Gender, Politics and the Partition of India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000). Paper back edn. 2002.
7. (With M. Asaduddin) Image and Representation: Stories of Muslim Lives in India (Delhi: OUP, 2000). Paper back edn. 2002.
8. Knowledge, Power and Politics: Educational Institutions in India (Delhi: Roli Books, 1998).
9. Islam, Communities and the Nation: Muslim Identities in South Asia and Beyond (Delhi: Manohar, 1998).
10. Guest edited three special issues on ‘Muslim Identity Politics in India’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (Duke University), vol. xvi, no 2 (1996), vol. xvii, no. 1 (1997), part 1, and vol. xvii, no. 2 (1997), part III.
11. India Partitioned: The Other Face of Freedom (Delhi: Roli International, 1995, in two volumes, 2nd revised and enlarged edition published in 1997).
12. India’s Partition: Process, Strategy and Mobilisation (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993). Eleventh impression (paperback) published in 2008.
13. India’s Colonial Encounter: Essays in Honour of Eric Stokes. Co-edited with Narayani Gupta (Delhi: Manohar, 1993).
14. Islam and Indian Nationalism: Reflections on Abul Kalam Azad (Delhi: Manohar, 1992).
15. India and Indonesia from the 1830s to 1914: The Heyday of Colonial Rule (Comparative History of India and Indonesia), vol. 2 Mushirul Hasan, et al/ Published in 1988.
16. Communal and Pan-Islamic Trends in Colonial India (Delhi: Manohar, 1985; second rev.& enlarged edin.). Translated into Farsi (Persian).
17. Muslims and the Congress: Select Correspondence of Dr M.A. Ansari, 1912-1935 (Delhi: Manohar, 1981).
18. Mohamed Ali in Indian Politics: Select Writings (in 3 vols., Delhi and Karachi).

Published papers on Post-Independence India

• "Pathways of Political Leadership in India: Limits and Possibilities", Economic and Political Weekly, 14-20 March 1998.
• "Modern Hate", History Today (London), August 1997.
• "The Changing Position of Muslims and the Political Future of Secularism in India", T. V. Sathyamurthy (ed.), Region, Religion, Caste, Gender and Culture in Contemporary India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996).
• "Minority Identity and its Discontents, Ayodhya and its Aftermath", South Asia Bulletin (Durham, NC, USA), vol. xiv, no. 2, 1994, "Minority Identity and its Discontents: Response and Representation", Economic and Political Weekly, 19 February 1994.
• "Adjustment and Accommodation: India’s Muslims since Independence", K. N. Panikkar (ed.), Communalism in India (Delhi: 1991). Also published in Parshotam Mehra and et.al (eds.), Society, Religion and the State: Identity Crisis in India History (Delhi, n.d.).
• "Competing Symbols and Shared Codes: Inter-Community Relations in Modern India", S. Gopal (ed.), Anatomy of a Confrontation: The Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhumi Issue (Delhi: 1991).
• "In Search of Identity and Integration: Indian Muslims since Independence", Third World Quarterly, London, April 1988. An enlarged version of the paper published in Economic and Political Weekly (Special Number, November 1989). Also translated in Bengali.
• "Moradabad Riots: Causes and Meanings" (with Satish Saberwal), A. A. Engineer (ed.), Communal Riots in Post Independence India (Bombay: 1984).
• "Some Aspects of the Problems of Muslim Social Reforms", Zafar Imam (ed.), Muslims of India (Delhi: 1975).
• ‘Present Tense: A Historian’s Perspective’, in Present Tense: Living on the Edge (Delhi, 2004).
• ‘Aligarh Muslim University: recalling radical days’, India International Centre Quarterly’, 2003.

Published Papers on Historical Themes

1. "Memories of a Fragmented Nation: Rewriting the Histories of Partition", Economic and Political Weekly, 10-16 October 1998. Also published in Amrik Singh (ed.), The Partition in Retrospect (Delhi, 1990); in Wissenschaftskolleg: Jahrbuch 1997-98; and The Annual of Urdu Studies, Number 15, part 1, 2000.
2. "Aligarh’s ‘Notre eminent contemporain’: Assessing Syed Ahmad Khan’s Reformist Agenda" (Lecture delivered at the Royal Asiatic Society, London, on 2 April 1998), Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay), 9-15 May 1998.
3. "Negotiating its past and present: The Aligarh Muslim University", in Mushirul Hasan (ed.), Knowledge, Power and Politics: Educational Institutions in India (Delhi, 1998).
4. Introduction to (with Narayani Gupta and V. Graff) Memories of a City (Delhi: OUP, 1997).
5. "Traditional Rites and Contested Meanings: Shia-Sunni Strife in Colonial Lucknow", Economic and Political Weekly, 2 March 1996. Abridged version in Violette Graff (ed.), Memories of a City (Delhi: OUP, 1997).
6. "The Myth of Unity: Colonial and Nationalist Narratives", David Ludden (ed.), Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 1996; Delhi: OUP, 1996). Also published in Rada Ivekovic & Neda Pagon (eds.), Otherhood and Nation (Ljubljana: Slovenia, 1998),
7. "Muslim Intellectuals, Institutions and the Post-Colonial Predicament", India International Centre Quarterly (Delhi), Spring, 1995.
8. Introduction to David Lelyveld, Aligarh’s First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India (Delhi: OUP, 1995).
9. "India’s Partition: Unresolved Issues", The East and the Meaning of History (Bardi Editone: University of Rome, 1994).
10. "Resistance and Acquiescence in North India: Muslim Responses to the West", in Mushirul Hasan and Narayani Gupta (eds.), India’s Colonial Encounter: Essays in Memory of Eric Stokes. Also published in Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, a journal of the Department of Oriental Studies, University of Rome, Roma (1994).
11. "Secular and Communitarian Representations of Indian Nationalism: Ideology and Praxis of Azad and Mohamed Ali", Mushirul Hasan (ed.), Islam and Indian Nationalism: Reflections on Abul Kalam Azad.
12. "The Muslim Mass Contact Campaigns: Analysis of a Strategy of Political Mobilisation", Richard Sisson and Stanley Wolpert (eds.), Congress and Indian Nationalism: The pre-Independence Phase (Berkeley: 1988). Published in the Economic and Political Weekly and the journal South Asia (Australia). Also published in Urdu and Hindi.
13. "Pan-Islamism versus Indian Nationalism: A Reappraisal", Paul R. Brass and Francis Robinson (eds.), Indian National Congress and Indian Society 1885-1985: Ideology, Social Structure and Political Dominance (Delhi: 1987). Also published in India and Indonesia from 1830’s to 1914: The heyday of Colonial Rule (E.J. Brill: Leiden, 1987).
14. "Nationalist and Separatist Trends in Aligarh, 1915-1947", A. K. Gupta (ed.), Myth and Reality: The Struggle for Freedom in India (Delhi: 1987).
15. "Mirza Abu Talib and the West: A Nineteenth Century Response", Historical and Cultural Relations Between France and India (La Reunion: 1987).
16. "Congress Muslims and Indian Nationalism: Dilemma and Decline, 1929-1934", J.C. Masselos (ed.), Struggling and Ruling (Delhi: 1986). Also published in the journal South Asia (Australia).
17. "The Delhi Proposals: A Study of Communal Politics", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. 17, no. 9, 1982.
18. "Religion and Politics: The Ulama and the Khilafat Movement", Economic and Political Weekly, August 16, 1980.
19. The Roots of Muslim Rage; Sept 11 and its Aftermath, Seminar Proceedings War and Peace in Islam, Delhi Policy Group. Feb (2002).
20. The BJP’s Intellectual Agenda: Text books and Imagined History, South Asia, Vol XXJ No 3 Dec 2002.

Conferences & Lectures

• Delivered lectures and attended national and international conferences/ seminars at the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy (1981 & 1995); All-Bengal Studies Conference, Connecticut (1983); University of Sydney, Australia (1985); University of Leiden (1989); Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, St. Cross College, Oxford (1990) Institute of Oriental Studies, Rome (Nov. 1992); International Orientalist Congress, Hongkong (Aug. 1994); School of Oriental and African Studies, London; Centre for Indian Studies, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford (1991), and the British Association for South Asian Studies, Cambridge (England), (1993); UNESCO Conference in Paris (1994); Centre for Philosophical Studies, Ljubljiana, Slovenia, (May 1997); Triangular South Asian Consortium, North Carolina State University, May 1997; Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mauritius, December 1998.
• Presented papers to mark the centenary year of the Indian National Congress at the University of California, Los Angeles (1984), and the University of Sydney (1985).
• Delivered lectures in December 1993 at the South Asian Centres/Institutes at the Universities of Austin, Texas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Amherst College, and Michigan, Ann Abhor. The same year I lectured at the School of Oriental Studies, London, the London School of Economics, and the Universities of Sussex & Exeter.
• During the 50th year of India’s Independence, I present papers in Stockholm (Oct. 1998), and the Instuto Italiano per l`Africa e l`Oriente, Rome, Dec. 1997.
• In Berlin (Oct. 1997-July 1998), I lectured at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin (Oct.), the Universities of Edinburgh (24 Nov.) and Strathclyde, Glasgow (27 Nov.); Indian Social Institute, New Delhi (Jan.); the Royal Asiatic Society, London, 2 April 1998); Centre for Religious Studies, University of Amsterdam (15 April), the Sudasien Institut, University of Heidelberg (11 May); Institute of Anthropology, Humbolt University, Berlin (2 June). Attended an international conference on "Diversity and Unity" in South Africa (13-21 Mar).
• During my teaching stint at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville (19 Jan-19 May 2000), I delivered lectures at Harvard, Austin (Texas), Santa Cruz (California), and Stanford. I also attended the Asian Studies Conference at San Diego.
• In 2002, I attended a conference at the University of Curtin, Perth (Australia), and the Oberlin Colege, Ohio (USA). I was also invited to a "Thinker’s Retreat" on Islam in Ottawa, Canada, and to the preliminary meeting of the SSRC, New York, in Istanbul, Turkey.
• Participated in ‘India Forum’ at the Old Dominion University, Norfolk, U.S.A., November 2004.
• Participated in conference on: International Anti Apartheid Movement in South Africa’s Freedom Struggle: Lessons for today, Durban, October 2004.
• Participated in Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Dialogue Among Cultures and Civilizations for Peace and Sustainable Development, Hanoi, Vietnam, December 2004.
• Participated in a talk on the topic of interest between India and Oman in cooperation with the Historical Association of Oman, Muscat, March 2005.
• Participated in preparatory workshop for the world summit on Islam-Christian dialogue, Dakar, Senegal, April 2005.
• Delivered Hamza Alavi Distinguished Lecture organized by Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences at Karachi, Pakistan, April 2005.
• Participated in the seminar on ‘Cultural and Religious Pluralism in Democratic Societies: Muslims in India and the European Union’, May 2005.
• Participated in the 15th Annual National Convention 2005 on the theme ‘Emerging India: Equitable Education for Sustainable Development’ organized by the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin (AFMI), September 2005.
• Participated in the conference on ‘India: Implementing Pluralism and Democracy’ organized by The University of Chicago, USA, November 2005.
• Participated in the Advisory Board meeting and conference on ‘Secret Texts and Print Culture’ organized by the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, December 2005.

Memorial Lectures

• Delivered memorial lectures at the Universities of Marathwada (Aurangabad) (Moin Shakir Memorial Lectures); Osmania, Hyderabad; Punjab, Chandigarh (Bhagat Singh Memorial Lecture); Dr Zakir Husain College, University of Delhi (Ved Pal Memorial Lecture); Department of Urdu, Jamia Millia Islamia (Dr. Zakir Husain Memorial Lecture); the Indian History Congress in Calicut (SC Misra Memorial Lecture), the D.D. Kosambi Lecturers at the University of Mumbai; the Durgabai Deshmukh Lecture, India International Centre; and the Nehru Memorial Lecture at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on March 24, 2006.
• Delivered special/extension/ valedictory lectures at the British Association of South Asian Studies (Cambridge: 1993), and at the meeting of the Australian Association of South Asian Studies in Melbourne.