Noted historian and former Jamia VC Mushirul Hasan passes away, aged 69

Noted Historian and former Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia Mushirul Hasan, passed away on Monday morning. He was 69 years old. He has extensively written on India's Partition. He is survived by his wife Zoya Hasan, a political scientist and academician.

An alumnus of the Aligarh Muslim University and the University of Cambridge, Hasan was the Vice-Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia University. He has also served as the Director-General of the National Archives of India, and the President of the Indian History Congress.

Mushirul Hasan's health started declining after he was critically injured in a road accident on his way to Mewat from Delhi in 2014.

Hasan has extensively documented Islam and Muslims of South Asia. His book India Partition: The Other Face of Freedom, documents how Partition displaced millions and left behind a legacy of hostility and bitterness between the governments as well as the people from India and Pakistan.

In his book When Stone Walls Cry, Hasan has presented the unknown facets of prison life of the Nehrus and how that transformed their vision and character. He documents how Jawaharlal Nehru decided to guide India on to the world stage as a modern nation, contrary to Mahatma Gandhi's imagination of Hind Swaraj.

His namaz-e-Janaza shall be performed at 1 pm at Babul Ilm and 2 pm at Jamia Mosque and burial shall take place in Jamia graveyard.

In his condolence message, CPI(M) chief Sitaram Yechury said: "A Historian, A Teacher, A Vice-Chancellor, An Archivist: Mushir ul Hasan blended all fine qualities of our syncretic culture and scholarship. His work and his books continue to shape our consciousness."