Then and now: (Top to bottom) Naseeruddin Shah as Mirza Ghalib in a TV serial; Hasan?s book; the author

During his Cambridge days, Mushirul Hasan and a few other students decided to call on Nirad C. Chaudhuri. The maverick intellectual, who lived in England, was happy to meet the young bunch. His wife served them cakes and tea while he regaled them with amusing trivia ? until the writer with the acid tongue discovered there was a Muslim among them. After that, he spoke at great length and detail about Muslim destruction of temples in India.

Nearly three decades later, Hasan ? a historian of modern India and vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia university ? still remembers that winter rendezvous. ?It was a painful experience,? says the 55-year-old. ?Till then I used to think of Chaudhuri as a man of eclectic ideas. Later, when I read his writings, I found out that at heart he was a Hindu communalist. An Anglophile and a Muslim-baiter.?

Aches and agonies are a part of life. But when you are in the dock for alleged historical wrongs committed centuries ago, it hurts. And, often, it leads to doubts about your own ideological turnings.

Hasan, though, has never wavered on the choices he has made. A liberal by conviction and by temperament, he has had his share of anguish. In the early Nineties, he faced the wrath of Muslim fundamentalists for his comments on The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Then, a decade later, Gujarat happened, affecting him deeply and differently. It was a wound that hurt months after the fires had died down and the bodies were buried.

Hasan understood that when he went to Ahmedabad for a meeting last year. ?I simply couldn?t get myself to enter the city. And I did not. I held the meeting in a hotel close to the airport. And I left as early as I could. Because the thought of all that happened there was so repulsive,? he says.

The historian pauses for a moment. ?The Gujarat carnage was shocking,? he says, ?but, it also fortified one?s ideological convictions.? He points towards a book lying on a table. Living Together Separately, the title says. For decades, India has been characterised in various ways ? unity in diversity, composite culture and so on. Living together separately is a new spin to the same ideal in the context of contemporary challenges. ?But the operative part is living together,? he says.

Amidst smoothly flowing white wine and whisky, the book was released in New Delhi last Wednesday with two other tomes. While the first is a collection of essays co-edited by Hasan, Westward Bound ? Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb has an introduction by him.

But it is the third book, A Moral Reckoning: Muslim Intellectuals in 19th-century Delhi, that is often a mirror of modern times. Over 150 years ago, Muslim intellectuals in Delhi ? including historian Muhammed Zakaullah, Urdu?s first novelist Nazir Ahmed and poet Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib ? were faced with a delicate predicament. In the aftermath of the 1857 revolt, the British government saw the Muslims as enemies.

The Muslims debated over how they understood themselves as Muslims and as Indians living in British India. And they wondered what paths to choose as they tried to negotiate with the Raj.

The actors have changed but the stage remains the same. Whereas the dilemmas of the 19th-century Muslim were located in a colonial context, there remain striking similarities in the challenges the 21st century Muslim faces. Says Hasan, ?The colonial structures have dismantled. But there are challenges from the West in general, and the US in particular. However, it is important to negotiate. People talk about the clash of civilisations. But we must also talk about dialogue among civilisations.?

It is the dying of dialogue that worries most Muslim intellectuals. This, they warn, creates ghettoes of the mind ? leading to a world divided between ?us? and ?them?. Political scientist Zoya Hasan is concerned over attempts to equate Islam with terrorism. ?You can see those echoes in India as well,? she says.

Not surprisingly, the times, says former foreign secretary Salman Haider, are tough for the liberal. ?When the majority extreme is rampant, there is pressure on the minority liberal to stand up and be counted,? he says.

In soaking up the pressure rather than succumbing to it lies the test of a liberal. Hasan?s moment of reckoning came in the early Nineties ? when the historian said that while The Satanic Verses hurt Muslim sentiments, banning the book was no solution. He was physically assaulted and prevented from attending his office as the pro-vice-chancellor of Jamia for four years. But the historian remains steadfast in his views. ?One paid the price but it also helped promote the liberal cause,? Hasan says.

But, he isn?t too happy with the expression ?liberal Muslim?, for the historian doesn?t like water-tight categories. ?I have written a lot contesting the phrase, ?nationalist Muslim?. Because underlying this usage is a questionable assumption. You don?t see nationalist Hindu written anywhere,? he says.

Hasan sees himself more as a liberal historian who broadly subscribes to the Nehruvian vision of the world; someone committed to democracy, secularism and nationhood. ?And within the Muslim community, someone who is committed to the enlightened perspective of Islam which would ensure equality of status to women and which would ensure that the liberal and eclectic tenets of Islam are projected,? he says in his crisp, dignified voice.

There?s indeed a dignity about Hasan that shines through even in a place as mundane as a bakery. Old friend Ranjit Nair, director of Centre for Philosophy and Foundation of Science, recalls how they once went to a Cambridge bakery looking for part-time work. ?All of us were asked to knead some dough. But Hasan was sent to the confectionery section. They said, he looked too dignified to be kneading dough,? laughs Nair. Friends speak of him as a true liberal. Political scientist Kamal Mitra Chenoy illustrates the point. ?When he took over as Jamia vice-chancellor last year, he started the process to reinstitute the defunct student?s union. It shows how his mind works,? he says.

The making of Hasan?s liberal mind is a fascinating tale that began in Calcutta, the city where he was born and where his communist father Mohibbul Hasan taught in the department of Islamic history at the University. Hasan recalls living in a nice, expansive flat in Calcutta?s Ripon Street where writers, artistes and journalists walked in and out.

When he was eight, he moved to Aligarh with his family. ?All my father?s friends were liberals and communists. And although he was no longer the revolutionary that he once was, my father was still radical enough to draw left-wing intellectuals to our home,? he says. At their residence the academics ate the elaborate Lucknowi food cooked by his mother, drank whisky and engaged in heated discussions on then current topics such as the great divide between the Soviet Union and China. ?I also remember Victor Kiernan, who had translated Mohammed Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz into English, staying with us for a couple of days,? he reminisces.

During Hasan?s days in the university, Aligarh bustled with interesting personalities. There was Moonis Raza, a communist student leader in the early Forties who had returned to the university as lecturer and towered over its political landscape and later became the V-C of Delhi University. There was Rahi Masoom Reza, his brother, then a bohemian and a radical, who went on to become a successful writer in Bollywood.

Kennedy House, Hasan recalls, was the centre of cultural activities. ?You could hear Beethoven and Mozart wafting in from one of its rooms.There was qawwali and nautanki. And, there were English plays, where Naseeruddin Shah was the star. I remember going with him for a Mock Parliament session in Delhi.?

Growing up in such an environment imbued Hasan with a liberal ideology that was not learnt from books but was lived in. ?I haven?t experienced anything else,? he says.

It is a doctrine that Hasan would like to bequeath to Jamia, which doesn?t surprise peace activist Achin Vanaik, who calls him an institution-builder. But Hasan would rather sustain an institution. ?I hope Jamia remains true to its secular and composite values,? he says.

Then he adds, ?One hopes that more and more people are converted to the liberal, secular creed. After all, there lies success and salvation.?