Irfan Habib
Indian historian (born 1931)
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Early and personal life
Habib was born in 1931 to Mohammad Habib and Sohaila Habib (née Tyabji). His paternal grandfather was Mohammad Naseem, a barrister and member of the Indian National Congress, and his maternal grandfather was Abbas Tyabji, Chief Justice of the High Court of Baroda State and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Habib's father, Mohammad Habib, was a historian and was associated with the Indian independence movement.
Habib's wife, Sayera Habib née Siddiqui, was Professor of Economics at AMU. The couple have three sons and one daughter.
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Academic
After obtaining his doctorate at Oxford under C. C. Davies, Habib joined the history faculty at Aligarh Muslim University. He was Professor of History at AMU from 1969 to 1991, and later became Professor Emeritus. In 1991, he delivered Oxford's Radhakrishnan Lecture. He has been an elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Royal Historical Society since 1997.
His research spans ancient Indian historical geography, the history of Indian technology, medieval administrative and economic history, colonialism, and Indian historiography. Economist Amiya Kumar Bagchi described Habib as "one of the two most prominent Marxist historians of India today" and "one of the greatest living historians of India between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries".
Positions
Habib served as Coordinator and Chairman of the Centre for Advanced Studies at AMU in 1975–1977 and 1984–1994. He was Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research from 1986 to 1990. He served as General President of the Indian History Congress in 1981. In 2021, he was appointed an Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford.
Philosophical and political views
Habib's scholarship is associated with Marxist historiography. His book Essays in Indian History: Towards a Marxist Perception brings together essays on caste, peasantry, class struggle, colonialism, and Marxist historiography.
Habib has written about the historical value of ancient Indian texts, including the Vedas. He has argued that, although transmitted orally, the Vedas can be used as historical sources in the context of a tradition that valued faithful transmission.
Habib has been active in public debates over secularism and history education in India. He led historians at the Indian History Congress in 1998 who moved a resolution against the alleged "saffronisation" of history. He has criticised textbook revisions and public-history initiatives associated with Hindu nationalist politics.
In 2023, Habib criticised textbook revisions that removed or reduced material on Muslim rule in India, including the Mughals, and references to Muslim contributions to the Indian freedom struggle. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said that such revisions distorted Indian history and reflected a Hindu nationalist interpretation of the past.
Honours
- 1968 – Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, awarded for research on India during the seventeenth century.
- 1982 – Watumull Prize of the American Historical Association, jointly with Tapan Raychaudhuri, for The Cambridge Economic History of India, Volume 1.
- 2005 – Padma Bhushan, Government of India.
- 2009 – Ibn Sina Memorial Lecture, Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences.
- 2010 – Honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt), University of Calicut.
- 2016 – Yash Bharti Award, Government of Uttar Pradesh.
- 2021 – Honorary Fellow, New College, Oxford.