Mubarak Ali is a Pakistani historian, activist and scholar.
15 Facts About Mubarak Ali
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Mubarak Ali was born in Tonk, in the erstwhile princely state of Tonk, British India on 21 April 1941.
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Mubarak Ali was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of History at Sindh University Jamshoro in 1963.
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Mubarak Ali later became head of the History Department at the University of Sindh.
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Mubarak Ali was the Director of the Goethe Institute in Lahore until 1996.
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In 1999, while speaking at a seminar in Mumbai organised by the NGO Khoj, Mubarak Ali referred to fundamentalism's effects on historical scholarship in his country.
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Mubarak Ali described how after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, ancient history was de-emphasized in Pakistan by some historians.
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Mubarak Ali further stated that the official historiography in Pakistan is committed to the two-nation theory in the Indian subcontinent.
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Mubarak Ali said that archaeological sites do have their own significance, referring to the discovery of Mohenjo-daro which reflected a great civilization of the region.
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Mubarak Ali has written a number of books and articles on Ind-Pakistani history, and has been widely acclaimed as an anti-establishment and anti-government thinker and historian.
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Mubarak Ali has called for the rewriting of the subcontinent's history and correction of what he called "historical aberrations", so that the hatred and misunderstanding prevailing between the people of India and Pakistan could come to an end.
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Mubarak Ali said textbooks in the two countries had been systematically distorted and that the time has come to reverse the trend.
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Mubarak Ali has said that "any system based on oppression, coercion and authoritarianism [is] the first problem in the way of writing history".
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In 2005, Mubarak Ali claimed that the police was harassing him and investigating him to "verify his learning", and that he was considering leaving Pakistan forever.
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In 2007, Mubarak Ali published three books: Qadeem Hindustan, Ahd-e-Wusta Ka Hindustan and Bartanvi Hindustan, published jointly by the NGO ActionAid and the Fiction House.