For the man who rebuilt Jamia, his knowledge was his strength
Total no. of eligible slum dwellers (as per DDA’S 2017 survey) NEWDELHI:BEFORE a road accident in 2014 forced him to give up his public life, Mushirul Hasan was working on yet another book. This time it was on Jawaharlal Nehru—he’d told Hindustan Times during an interview in 2012 at his book-lined residence.
Indisposed for a long time, Hasan died Monday morning. He was nearing 71. He is survived by his wife, Zoya Hasan, an academic and political scientist.
“Professor Hasan was a fine scholar, upstanding liberal and an institution builder,” said Bangalore-based historian Ramachandra Guha. “He would be remembered for his courtesy and civility.”
Historian William Dalrymple said, “I knew him best when he ran the National Archives where he did wonderful work, modernising it and making it a place that was exciting to be in rather than a chore.”
British writer and historian Patrick French described Hasan as “a big figure in the writing of history in independent India”. “I first met him in London, and thought he was an open-minded man and an expansive thinker. As well as his prolific academic writing as a scholar who worked from Urdu and English sources, he was an innovative university administrator. Mushirul Hasan represents a plural aspect of Indian intellectual life that is disappearing,” French said.
Author Sadia Dehlvi who frequently hosted Hasan in her drawing room gatherings in Nizamuddin East said, “He was a close friend. His commitment and contribution to highlight the histories of Indian secularism and composite culture will always be cherished. A much-needed voice of sanity in today’s political and social turmoil has been lost.”
After finishing his Masters from Aligarh Muslim University and PHD from Cambridge, Hasan became Jamia Millia Islamia’s youngest professor at 31 and went on to serve as the university’s dean, pro-vice chancellor and later, its vicechancellor from 2004 to 2009.
Remembering Hasan for “re-building” the university, retired professor Azeezuddin Hussain who served in the history department of the varsity, said, “He built several centres for research, including those for Dalit studies and north east studies. He organised international seminars and invited scholars from the US, the UK and France. It was Jamia’s first tryst with global education system.”
Hasan began his academic career as a lecturer at DU’S Ram Lal Anand College. He later taught in Ramjas College before leaving for a doctorate in the UK. As a young lecturer, he rode across Delhi roads on a Java bike. His “adda” was Sapru House library, near Mandi House “from there, we friends would go to Connaught Place cinemas, or to the discos. There was one in the Regal building. Another was in GK”, he had said in the interview.
Historian Mohibbul
Hasan’s son, he launched into a life of reading by first devouring classics, such as Gulliver’s Travels and Robinson Crusoe. Thanks to a neighbourhood barbershop, he got a hang of Urdu, his mother tongue.
“You can fight the whole world simply on the strength of what you have received as knowledge in the course of your research and during the crafting of your history books. And I believe this is what it has done to me,” he had said.
Hasan was buried in a graveyard abutting Jamia where he spent 30 of his most productive years.