Imtiaz Ahmad

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A brief profile

Avijit Ghosh, June 20, 2023: The Times of India

New Delhi : Social scientist Imtiaz Ahmad’s groundbreaking work on caste, kinship and social stratification among Muslims in India, influenced a generation of academics and students alike.


Ahmad, who taught political sociology in JNU for three decades, helmed and edited the seminal, Caste and social stratification among the Muslims, which was published in 1973. The book was conceived in 1967-68 when he was a Fulbright fellow in the University of Chicago and consisted of 10papers born out of field studies by nine different scholars, including Ahmad.


Caste hierarchy in a Meo village in Rajasthan (Partap C Aggarwal), social stratification of Muslim Tamils (Mattison Mines), caste among Muslims of Calcutta (MKA Siddiqui), status and power in a Muslim dominated village in Uttar Pradesh (Zarina Bhatty) — the book was a detailed exploration of the sociological aspects of Muslim life like never before.


As sociologist Khalid Anis Ansari, who teaches in Azim Premji University, wrote in a Facebook post, Ahmad “set the terms of the debate on the sociology of Indian Muslims by bringing in a more empirical focus from the1970s onward’ and opened up “the Muslim caste question within academia. ”
Sociologist Dipankar Gupta, who also taught in JNU, recalls that Ahmad’s book “created a fair amount of discussion and it also led him to pursue the possibility of granting reservations to ‘lower caste’ Muslims who would be identified as Dalits. ” Simply put, Ah-mad’s work was original, pioneering and inventive. Family, Kinship and Marriage among Muslims in India (1976) and Modernisation and Social Change among Muslims in India (1983) were some of his other notable works.


Born in Gonda in east UP, Ahmad went to Lucknow Christian College, whose alumni includes the famous poet Firaq Gorakhpuri. He earned a masters degree in social anthropology from Lucknow University and taught in JNU from 1972-2002. “He would frequently interact with students…after his class was over. His post-classroom interactions were always lengthier than his formal lectures,” posted former JNU student Mazhar Mahmood on Facebook.

Ahmad firmly believed in the democracy of ideas. “He was warm to me even when I was often very critical of his academic positions, particularly secularism and the Muslim caste,” said Ansari.

This reporter spoke to the political sociology professor on many occasions for his views on politics and society. Warm and polite, his opinions were always measured yet insightful adding perspective to any article.

Social scientist Yogendra Yadav says that Ahmad was among the few genuine political sociologists who was equally at ease in both the disciplines. “His quest for truth required him to stand up to dominant orthodoxies and their establishment,” Yadav said.