Taught history at the Department of History and Culture, Jamia Millia Islamia, 1984-87.
Worked as Assistant Research Officer at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, June 1986-April 1987.
Taught history at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) as Lecturer (1988-99), as Reader (1999-2007) and as Professor (2007-10).
Has been with the Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) since October 2010 as Professoe in History at the School of Liberal Studies.
My Zone / Area of Expertise
Modern Indian History with special focus on Indian National Movement, Communal Politics, Partition of the Sub-Continent, Politics of Language., Hindi and Urdu, Nationalism, Identity Politics, and Social Science Teaching.
Awards
Was invited to deliver the presidential address at the modern India section of the 25th session of the Uttar Pradesh History Congress held at VBS Purvanchal University, Jaunpur, 15 November 2014.
Was invited to deliver the presidential address at the modern section of 47th session of the Punjab History Conference at Punjabi University, Patiala, 28-29 February 2015. He spoke on “The Idea of Punjab: Challenges and Resilience”.
Was invited to deliver the presidential address at the Historiography section of the 43rd session of the Andhra Pradesh History Congress, held at Sri Kandakuri Veeresalingam Theistic College, Rajamahendravaram, 5-6 January 2019.
Has been invited by the UP History Congress to deliver the general presidential address at their forthcoming 31st session to be held in Lucknow, 16-17 November 2019.
Publications
Has written two books, A Narrative of Communal Politics, Uttar Pradesh, 1937-39, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2001 and a small monograph entitled Swaraj Party (in Hindi), brought out by the National Book Trust (NBT), New Delhi, 1997. This small monograph was a part of the NBT project to produce historical accounts of the freedom struggle for rural audiences. It has been translated in other Indian regional languages.
Has published over 20 research articles in books and journals on various themes pertaining to communal politics, partition of India, identity politics, Indian National Movement, politics of Language, Hindi and Urdu and social science teaching.
Has published over 40 articles at a popular level for The Times of India, The Economic Times, Deccan Herald and also Hindi newspapers like Dainik Bhaskar and Navbharat Times.
Has also been regularly reviewing books for The Book Review, Biblio, Seminar and Studies in History.
Has co-edited Towards Freedom, a collection of documents on the freedom struggle for the year 1942. The volume was sponsored by the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) and published by the Oxford University Press.
Seminar / Conferences
Invited as a key-note speaker by the Department of History, Punjab University, for a national seminar on “History in Times of Market Demands”, 17 April 2010.
Invited by the Ravenshaw University, Cuttack to deliver the fourth Jagannath Pattnaik Memorial Lecture on “Rethinking History Today” at their Colloquium and Lecture series during 17-18 May 2010.
Invited to deliver the key-note address at the international seminar on “Memoirs and History: Exploring New Dimensions” by the Department of History, University of North Bengal, Darjeeling.
Invited to deliver the 31st Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Memorial Lecture at the 43rd Andhra Pradesh History Congress, Sri Kandukuri Veeresalingam Theistic College, Rajamahendravaram, East Godavari District, 5 January 2019)
Projects
Was involved in the collection of documents for the research project “Towards Freedom” for the year 1942, sponsored by the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), as member of the editorial team along with Prof. Bipan Chandra and Dr. Visalakshi Menon (led by Prof. Bipan Chandra). The volume has recently been published by the Oxford University Press.
During April-July 2009 he was a visiting researcher at the Centre for History of Emotions, Max-Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. Produced a small monograph on “Emotions in Politics and Politics of Emotions: Making of a Muslim Nation in Colonial India, 1937-46”.
