K. S. Lal

Kishori Saran Lal ( किशोरी शरण लाल ) (1920–2002) was an Indian historian. He wrote many historical books, mainly on medieval India. Many of his books, such as History of the Khaljis and Twilight of the Sultanate, are regarded as standard works.

Career

He obtained his Master's degree in 1941 at the University of Allahabad. In 1945 he obtained his D.Phil. with a dissertation on the history of the Khaljis. This dissertation formed the basis for his book History of the Khaljis. He started his career as a Lecturer of History in the Allahabad University, though he served in this position only for a brief period.

From 1945 to 1963 he was with Madhya Pradesh Educational Service and taught at the Government Colleges at Nagpur, Jabalpur, and Bhopal. In 1963, he joined University of Delhi as a Reader and taught Medieval Indian history in its History Department.

For the next ten years, starting 1973, he was the Professor and Head of the Department of History, first at the University of Jodhpur (1973–79), and then at the Central University of Hyderabad (1979–83).

Besides his mother tongue Hindi, he was fluent in Persian, Old Persian, Urdu, and other languages.

Works

• The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India. New Delhi, Aditya Prakashan, 1992. [1] (ISBN 81-85689-03-2)
• History of the Khaljis (1950, 1967, 1980)
• Twilight of the Sultanate (1963, 1980)
• Studies in Asian History (edited - 1969)
• Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India (1973)
• Early Muslims in India (1984)
• The Mughal Harem (1988) ISBN 81-85179-03-4
• Indian Muslims: Who are they (1990) [2] ISBN 81-85990-10-7
• Muslim Slave System in Medieval India (1994) [3] ISBN 81-85689-67-9
• Historical essays
• Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India (1999) ISBN 81-86471-72-3
• Growth of Scheduled Tribes and Castes in Medieval India (1995)
• Studies in Asian History: Proceedings of the Asian History Congress, 1961
• The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims(2005) Ed. by Andrew Bostom ISBN 1-59102-307-6 contains five chapters contributed by K. S. Lal: 'Muslims Invade India', 'Jihad Under The Turks and Jihad under the Mughals', 'The Origins of Muslim Slave System', 'Enslavement of Hindus by Arab and Turkish Invaders', 'Slave Taking During Muslim Rule', this is maximum number of articles by any single author in this book that deals with the textual analysis of theory and practice of Jihad in Islam.

Criticism

Lal's early books were not controversial, but some of his later works have earned him a lot of criticism by historians such as Peter Jackson and Irfan Habib (despite the fact that Irfan Habib's father, the historian Muhammad Habib, wrote a foreword to "History of the Khaljis"). The criticism included allegations of being a spokesman for the RSS. Lal noted: "As usual these [my books] have been reviewed in journals in India and abroad, bestowing both praise and blame as per the custom of the reviewers. However, during the last fifteen years or so, some of my books have received special attention of a certain brand of scholars for adverse criticism."

In the midst of a Hindu-Muslim antagonism he is allegedly oft-cited and patronized by various right-wing proponent groups of Hindutva. He was both placed by the BJP (as part of the NDA 2005 government of India), and made the chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) and also placed on the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Committee to draft the model school syllabus on Indian History. The controversy surrounding these events is reflected in the theme of the discourses of his books which allegedly describe Muslims as foreigners, destructive barbarians and immoral degenerates, thereby placing him among a controversial group of authors charged by the left-leaning political parties with the "saffronized" (i.e., make lessons consonant with the Hindu world view) re-writing of history, with a negative portrayal of Muslims and a pro-Hindu bent. Lal himself disputes these allegations, citing, in turn, that the ICHR has always been dominated by historians with a strong leftist bias and that the current controversy is "merely the outcome of an exaggerated sense of pique on the part of the excluded Left wing".

See also

• Romila Thapar
• Koenraad Elst
• Andrew Bostom

References

• "Delhi Historians Group's Publication "Communalization of Education: The History Textbooks Controversy", A report in 2002, New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
• Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor "India: International Religious Freedom Report 2005", US Department of State