Remembering Asghar Ali Engineer | Arup Kumar Sen

26th Asghar Ali Engineer Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Uma Chakravarti, the eminent feminist historian, on October 3, 2025. The occasion reminds us of the sincerity and commitment with which Asghar documented and analysed the communal riots and violence in postcolonial India. In fact, he played a pioneering role in documenting the dark side of Indian history unfolding before our eyes. The book edited by him in the early 1980s, Communal Riots in Post-Independence India (Sangam Books, 1984; Second edition, Hyderabad, 1991), narrated and analysed the communal flare-ups in different parts of India. The editor clearly stated the ethical moorings of the book in the preface to the first edition: