Renowned sociologist, author and former professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Imtiaz Ahmad passed away here on Monday. He was 83. He was under treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Prof. Ahmad is known for his works on caste in Islam. He worked with keen interest in social anthropology and taught Sociology, Political Science and Islamic Studies in various universities in India and abroad.
Prof. Ahmad’s areas of interest included social stratification, communalism and ethnic conflicts, social movements, Islamic transformations, refugees and migrants, child rights and child labour, poverty alleviation and development and society. Born in 1940, Prof. Ahmad completed his graduation and post graduation from Lucknow University. He completed his research from University of Delhi and University of Chicago. Caste and Social Stratification among Muslims in India, published in 1973, is considered as his seminal work.
Before taking up the post of lecturer in the Sociology Department of Delhi College under Delhi University, he worked as a Senior Research Analyst with the UNESCO Research Centre. Later, he joined as professor of Political Sociology at the JNU. He was a visiting professor at University of Missouri, USA, Institute of Higher Studies, Paris, Institute of Refugee Studies, York University, Canada, University of Sherbrooke, Canada and International University of People’s Initiatives in Peace, Roverato, Italy.
He won the Pandit Jagpal Krishna Gold Medal from Lucknow University in 1960. He was a Fulbright Fellow between 1967-68 at the Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, USA. He was a Fellow at the South Asia Centre, University of Chicago and a Senior Fellow of Indian Council of Social Sciences, New Delhi.
Prof. Ahmed contributed both for academic journals and mainstream media. His students and colleagues remembered him as a father-figure who guided them as a mentor, a friend and a staunch secular person.
