A few decades ago, at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Professor Irfan Habib summoned his former student and now faculty member, K K Muhammed, to his office. Muhammed had discovered the Ibadat Khana in Fatehpur Sikri. Built by Akbar in 1575 CE, the Ibadat Khana was the place where various religious scholars held discussions. A major discovery, this was reported in various newspapers, something which Prof. Habib was not too happy about. The conversation went as follows:

Irfan Habib: “This is not Ibadat Khana.”

Muhammed: “No? This is not Ibadat Khana?”

IH: “What you gave in Times of India is not Ibadat Khana.”

M: “How can you say that? Are you an archaeologist?”

IH: “I may not be as good an archaeologist like you.”

M: “Sorry, you are not an archaeologist.”

Prof. Habib was speechless.

He pushed a paper towards Muhammed and said, “write what you discovered is not Ibadat Khana”. Muhammed refused and walked away.

After working both at the AMU and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in various designations, Muhammed has now written an autobiography in Malayalam, titled ഞാനെന്ന ഭാരതീയൻ (Me, the Indian), which has details of his encounters with Prof. Habib and his cabal. As part of his education, Muhammed learned how a historian becomes secular.

When Muhammed reached the AMU as a student, he was initially excited to have someone as famous as Prof. Habib as his teacher. But Muhammed recollects from a later time, “As a teacher, he did not make any impact on me.” His other classmates too had a similar opinion. This news reached Habib’s ears. Muhammed ran for the Student’s Union as a Congressman. This too did not go well with the Marxists, and they decided to contain him. This would cause various encounters between the Irfan Habib group and Muhammed. The details of these conflicts are there in the first few chapters of the book.