Irfan Habib

He has authored a number of books, notably the Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1556–1707, an Atlas of the Mughal Empire: Political and Economic Maps with Detailed Notes, and an Atlas of Ancient Indian History (with Faiz Habib).

As the general editor, he is also the driving force behind the A People's History of India series, volumes of which continue to be released.

Habib was born into an Indian Muslim family.

He was the son of Mohammad Habib and Sohaila Habib (née Tyabji).

His paternal grandfather was Mohammad Naseem, a wealthy barrister and member of the Congress party, and his maternal grandfather was Abbas Tyabji, sometime the Chief Justice of the High Court of Baroda princely state, and noted follower of Mahatma Gandhi.

Habib's wife Sayera Habib (née Siddiqui) was Professor of Economics at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

The couple have three sons and a daughter.

Irfan Habib (born 10 August 1931) is an Indian historian of ancient and medieval India, following the methodology of Marxist historiography in his contributions to economic history.

He is known for his strong stance against Hindutva and Islamic fundamentalism.

After returning from Oxford, Habib joined AMU as a member of the faculty; he was Professor of History at Aligarh from 1969 to 1991 and is presently a Professor Emeritus.

He was Coordinator/Chairman of the Centre for Advanced Studies, AMU from 1975 to 1977 and from 1984 to 1994.

He was the general secretary, Sectional President, and then the General President of the Indian History Congress (1981).

Habib uses Marxist historiography in his work.

Habib has also written books about Vedas and Vedic age, and he considers the Vedas to be a good historical source, which describes transmission in a priestly culture, that valued faithfulness.

He further lays out the reasons that the texts were orally transmitted for hundreds of years, then they were finally written down.

Habib has a sustained commitment to secularism.

He was Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research during 1986–90.

He delivered the Radhakrishnan Lecture at Oxford in 1991.

Habib is an Elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Royal Historical Society since 1997.

Habib has worked on the historical geography of Ancient India, the history of Indian technology, medieval administrative and economic history, colonialism and its impact on Indian historiography.

Amiya Kumar Bagchi describes Habib as "one of the two most prominent Marxist historians of India today and at the same time, one of the greatest living Marxist historians of India between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries."

He led the historians at the Indian History Congress of 1998 who moved a resolution against the "saffronisation" of history.

He has said that the BJP government at the Centre which was in power from 1998 to 2004, especially the MHRD Minister himself, were responsible for inventing facts and dates to suit their interpretation of Indian history.

To counter Irfan Habib, Murli Manohar Joshi released a book which rebuts the history of what the former minister calls '‘Habib & Co'’.

Habib condemned the decision led by the BJP, has removed chapters on Muslim rule, including the Mughals, from some school textbooks, along with references to Muslims' contributions to the country's freedom struggle, he argue that these revisions aim to deny Muslims their place in India's history and are part of an Islamophobic agenda.