be a good historical source, which describes transmission in a priestly culture, that valued faithfulness. He further lays out the reasons that the texts were orally transmitted for hundreds of years, then they were finally written down. Habib has a sustained commitment to secularism. He led the historians at the Indian History Congress of 1998 who moved a resolution against the "saffronisation" of history. He has said that the BJP government at the Centre which was in power from 1998–2004, especially the MHRD Minister himself, were responsible for inventing facts and dates to suit their interpretation of Indian history. To counter Irfan Habib, Murli Manohar Joshi released a book which rebuts the history of what the former minister calls '‘Habib & Co'’. Honours Among the first six Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowships, 1968. Watumull Prize of American Historical Association, 1982. (Jointly with Tapan Raychaudhuri). Padma Bhushan, Government of India, 2005. Ibn Sina Memorial Lecture, 2009. Honorary doctorate (D.Litt) by University of Calicut, 2010. Yash Bharti, 2016 Honorary Fellow, New College, Oxford, 2021. Selected publications Books authored The Agrarian System of Mughal India 1556–1707. First published in 1963 by Asia Publishing House. Second, extensively revised, edition published in 1999 by Oxford University Press. An Atlas of the Mughal Empire: Political and Economic Maps With Detailed Notes, Bibliography, and Index. Oxford University Press, 1982 Essays in Indian History – Towards a Marxist Perception. Tulika Books, 1995. The Economic History of Medieval India: A Survey. Tulika Books, 2001. Medieval India: The Study of a Civilization. National Book Trust, 2008. People's History of India – Part 1: Prehistory. Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2001. People's History of India Part 2 : The Indus Civilization. Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2002. A People's History of India Vol. 3 : The Vedic Age. (Co-author Vijay Kumar Thakur) Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2003. A People's History of India – Vol 4/5 : Mauryan India. (Co-author Vivekanand Jha) Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2004. A People's History of India – Vol 6 : Post-Mauryan India, 200 BC – AD 300. Tulika Books, 2013. A People's History of India – Vol 14 : Economic History of India, AD 1206–1526, The Period of the Delhi Sultanate and the Vijayanagara Empire. Tulika Books, 2017. A People's History of India – Vol 20 : Technology in Medieval India, c. 650–1750. Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika Books, 2016. A People's