A historian and a teacher

Dr. M. Athar Ali, 1925-1998.

PARVATHI MENON

DR. M. ATHAR ALI, who died on July 7, was a leading scholar of medieval Indian history, a teacher of history for 37 years at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Medieval History, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and a distinguished member of the community of Indian historians.

Born on January 18, 1925, Athar Ali was educated at Aligarh Muslim University, where he studied under renowned teachers such as Professor M. Habib, S.A. Rashid and S. Nurul Hasan. He worked for his doctoral degree under Professor Satish Chandra. He started his career in research and teaching when he joined AMU as a research assistant. He became Professor in 1978. Athar Ali retired in 1990 after a five-year period of re-employment.

BY SPECIALARRANGEMENT

Athar Ali's reputation for scholarship was firmly established in 1966, with the publishing of his book The Mughal Nobility Under Aurangazeb. A paper-back edition was brought out in 1970 and a second, revised, edition in 1997. Originally his doctoral thesis, the work not only contributed to a fundamental clarification of the administrative institutions of the Mughal empire but also showed how quantitative methods could be applied to the study of political history.

The book led to a reconsideration of many standard views of the ethnic composition of the Mughal ruling class and was widely regarded as a strong critique of communalist historiography in India and Pakistan. It also offered, for the first time, a more scientific and rational analysis of Aurangazeb the person, and the historical role of Aurangazeb, the last of the great Mughal emperors, whose reign between 1658 and 1707 hastened the disintegration of the empire. The theory, which still receives support from many quarters, that Aurangazeb's 'religious bias' generated a 'Hindu backlash' which brought about the downfall of the empire, was challenged by Athar Ali on the basis of hard evidence. "The evidence I assembled," wrote Athar Ali in his introduction to the revised edition of the book, "did not in any sense exonerate Aurangazeb, but I think it did set different limits within which the Emperor's personal preferences and decisions had impact: and it suggested a number of other factors, besides the one of religious bias..."

In 1985, Athar Ali published his second major work, The Apparatus of Empire: Awards of Ranks, Offices and Titles to the Mughal Nobility, 1574-1658. This is a crucial reference tool for historians concerned with that period. In his introduction to the work's extensive tables, Athar Ali demonstrated how the quantitative data obtained from them could tell the reader the internal processes of the Mughal polity. Athar Ali had largely completed his compilation of similar data on Aurangazeb's reign (1659-1707) for a second volume. His death has left this work unfinished.

The historian's interests were by no means confined to the themes of these works, though they embodied years of superhuman labour on his part. He published a large number of papers on different aspects of history, ranging from detailed investigations of sources to broad interpretations and critiques of current interpretations. For instance, in a recent article he examines the notion of India, nascent and pre-modern though the idea was, in the writings and thought of Akbar ("The Perception of India in Akbar and Abu'l Fazl" in Akbar and His India, edited by Irfan Habib and published in 1997 by Oxford University Press, New Delhi).

Athar Ali, in his work, shared the insistence of the 'Aligarh School' on the rigorous use of sources and on containing one's biases by uncompromising respect for hard evidence. He carried on a firm but courteous controversy with his Marxist colleagues over the role of peasant rebellions in medieval India, and, with Cambridge scholars, over the nature of the pre-colonial regimes and of the colonial conquest. Just before his death, Athar Ali arranged many of his articles to be published in a single volume by Oxford University Press.

Athar Ali strenuously opposed the communal perception of history. He was one of the four distinguished authors (the others were R.S Sharma, D.N. Jha and Suraj Bhan) of the Report to the Nation on the Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, 1990, which was published in many Indian languages. Dismissing, on the basis of an examination of the written and archaeological evidence, the claim that the Babri Masjid occupied the site of Rama's birth or that a temple occupied the site and it was pulled down to construct the masjid, the Report ended with the impassioned appeal: "If, then, we have a care for historical facts, if we want to uphold the law, if we have love for our own cultural heritage, we must protect the Babri Masjid. A country is surely judged by how it treats its past."

To oppose what he thought was the source of a dangerous communalist subversion of the nation, Athar Ali did not disdain activist positions. His support for the well-known anti-communal organisation Sahmat (Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust) was firm and unqualified.

Athar Ali won a number of scholarly distinctions and awards. Some of these were: Wilson Fellow (Smithsonian, 1986); Smuts Fellow (Cambridge, 1974-75); National Fellow (ICHR, 1990-93); and the Barpujari Award, 1986. He was made President of the Indian History Congress in 1989 and secretary during 1977-80.

A teacher of the old school, Athar Ali was a stickler for punctuality. His lectures, for which he always prepared carefully, were clear and systematic and were peppered with sardonic wit. His students retain affectionate memories of him. He also had an old-world spirit of loyalty to his alma mater; he offered it assistance in the legal field, in which he was remarkably well-versed.

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