The book is a collection of six lectures, two radio features broadcast from the BBC and Presidential Address delivered to the 62th Session of Indian History Congress, 1962. First lecture deals with various typologies of history itself. Second lecture deals with various typologies of primary sources to highlight the political perception and socio-cultural values practi-ced during the medieval period. Third lecture discusses the various aspects of the medieval Muslim social life Fourth lecture deals with the people’s movements. Fifth lecture discusses the status of religion in the medieval society. Sixth lecture dwells upon the future of historiography in India and reviews the work being done these days. First of the two radio-features broadcast on the BBC in 1952-53 deals with the information contained in various travelers’ accounts. The second one deals with Bengal Awakening to underline how the reactionary elements in Bengal were intriguing to defeat the awakening and how such persons as Derozio were fighting these reactionaries.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR K.M. Ashraf
Kunwar Mohammad Ashraf (1903-1962) belonged to Malkhana Rajput family and had his primary education in Moradabad. He had his higher education at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia at Delhi. He went to England to pursue doctorate in Medieval Indian History from London School of Oriental Studies. His book-Lofe and Conditions of the People of Hindustan is based on his Ph.D. thesis. During 1934-1945 he was elected member of the AICC and served as political secretary to Maulana Azad and pandit Nehru when they were Congress presidents. in 1935, when AICC opened the Muslim Mass Contact Cell, Ashraf was asked to head it. Between 1941 and 1943 Ashraf was arrested and put in Deoli Detention camp. During 1943-46, when the CPI became legal, Ashraf worked in the head-quarters of Communist Party of India in Bombay where he wrote two books: Hindu Muslim Question and our Freedom Movement (1857-1943) and Historical Background to Muslim Question in India (1725-1943). Well versed in Persian and Arabic languages, Ashraf was an eminent historian and a scholar of Islamic studies. During 1948-1954 Ashraf lived in exile in London. After returning to India in 1954 he taught in the University of Kashmir at Srinagar and the University of Delhi. In 1960 he went to Berlin as a Visiting professor and stayed there till he breathed his last in 1962. Ashraf papers and articles are now treasured in Nehru Museum at Teen Murti House, New Delhi.
There are no reviews yet.