The author has made a successful attempt to script a social and political life of the Hindustan of the period stretching from 1200-1550 AD. The author very convincingly brings home the impact of the invasion of the Muslim on the ancient Hindu order which was almost completely destroyed. The book draws a clear picture of how the early Muslim invaders succeeded in levying foundations which proved strong enough for the later Mughals in raising their glorious edifice. Thereby, the author proves that how Akbar as well as his successors followed the pattern their Turkish and Afghan predecessors had shaped for them.
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.
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