Image: Figu­re 2: K. M Ashraf in Laho­re 1937: Box.No. 3, Krü­ger Nach­lass, ZMO Libra­ry & Archives.

Table of Con­tents
Intro­duc­tion: Horst Krü­ger Papers  |  Kun­war Muham­mad Ashraf Papers Ent­an­gled Ide­as and Archi­vesAppen­dix | End­no­tes |  Biblio­gra­phy

Introduction: Horst Krüger Papers 

A broad sur­vey of the docu­ments included in the Horst Krü­ger Papers (now pre­ser­ved in more than 90 boxes and lis­ted online in the Leib­niz-Zen­trum Moder­ner Ori­ent (ZMO) https://www.jpberlin.de/zentrummodernerorient/biblio/index.php) reve­als the breadth and depth of Krüger’s scho­lar­ship on colo­ni­al and post­co­lo­ni­al India. Horst Krü­ger (17.8.1920 – 11.3.1989) stu­di­ed Histo­ry and Ger­man Stu­dies at the Hum­boldt-Uni­ver­si­tät zu Ber­lin. From 1957 to 1959, he was a cul­tu­ral con­sul­tant at the Trade Repre­sen­ta­ti­on of the Ger­man Demo­cra­tic Repu­blic (hence­forth GDR) in India. This time spent in India seems to have inspi­red his lifel­ong scho­lar­ship on his host coun­try. From 1960, he star­ted working on the histo­ry of India at the Aka­de­mie der Wis­sen­schaf­ten der DDR /AdW (Aca­de­my of Sci­en­ces of the GDR). His main rese­arch focus was on the Indi­an Natio­nal Move­ment and its rela­ti­ons with the inter­na­tio­nal labor move­ment. This resul­ted in his mul­ti­vo­lu­me work, Die inter­na­tio­na­le Arbei­ter­be­we­gung und die indi­sche natio­na­le Befrei­ungs­be­we­gung, that appeared as „Indi­sche Natio­na­lis­ten und Welt­pro­le­ta­ri­at“, Ber­lin 1984, und „Anfän­ge sozia­lis­ti­schen Den­kens in Indi­en“, Ber­lin 1985.[1] The Krü­ger coll­ec­tion includes per­so­nal papers, docu­ments, and cor­re­spon­den­ces as well as news­pa­per cut­tings. The coll­ec­tion also hou­ses publi­ca­ti­ons on inter­na­tio­nal anti-colo­ni­al net­works of the Indi­an natio­na­list move­ment; the Con­gress par­ty and its lea­ders; Mus­lim lea­ders and their role(s) in the edu­ca­ti­on and poli­tics of colo­ni­al India; Neh­ru­vi­an sta­te poli­ci­es; Intra-Asi­an soli­da­ri­ty; Afro-Indi­an con­nec­tions; and inter­na­tio­nal poli­tics. The­re are num­e­rous papers on Afri­ca 1958–61 (Indi­ans in Afri­ca, the South Afri­can Uni­on and seve­ral count­ries); Afro –Asi­an soli­da­ri­ty and the Con­fe­rence of Bandung, 1955; North and South Korea 1960–61; Indo­ne­sia 1954–61; and NATO 1957–61. The­re is also a wide ran­ge of papers now pre­ser­ved on micro­films, inclu­ding tho­se from the Archi­ve of the Ger­man Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs, Regar­ding Bri­tish India, Issue 36 (1911–1912).

Lis­ted below are some of the files that con­tain sundry threads of ent­an­gled Indo-Ger­man histo­ry. The­re are two pos­si­bi­li­ties to search online for the same.

First­ly, through indi­vi­du­al name sear­ches, that is, by loo­king for spe­ci­fic names of Indi­ans who had con­nec­tions with Ger­ma­ny. Such a search leads one, for ins­tance, to the files rela­ted to:

V.N. Chat­topad­hya­ya
Shyam­ji Krishnav­ar­ma
Har Day­al
Ram Chandra
Chem­pa­kra­man Pil­lai
K.M. Ashraf
Jab­bar and Sat­tar Khei­ri
G. Adhi­ka­ri
N.M. Joshi

Ram Chandra
Rajen­dra Pra­sad
Jawa­harlal Neh­ru
Auro­bin­do Ghosh

Second­ly, through sear­ches of insti­tu­ti­ons and the­mes, that con­nect Indo-Ger­man his­to­ries. Among others, some of the cate­go­ries that emer­ge from the coll­ec­tion are:

The Edu­ca­tio­nal Sys­tem in India
The ‚All India Trade Uni­on Con­gres­s’
The ‚Afro-Asia­tic Con­fe­rence of Women‘ in Cai­ro in Janu­ary 1961
The Indi­an Natio­nal Con­gress and Mass Cont­act)
The ‚All India Con­gress Com­mit­tee’
The For­eign Poli­cy of Paki­stan – Rela­ti­ons with India 1957-‚61
Indi­an Uni­ver­si­ties and Col­leges 1957-‚61
Socia­lism and Com­mu­nism in India
Board Free­dom Move­ment Maha­rash­tra
The ‚Indi­an Natio­nal Move­men­t’
Secon­da­ry Schools in India
The Dome­stic Deve­lo­p­ment of Nepal 1956 – 1961
The ‚Silk Let­ter Con­spi­ra­cy Case’
Indi­an-Japa­ne­se Rela­ti­ons 1916–19
Impe­ria­lism and the Indi­an natio­nal libe­ra­ti­on move­ment
’Ho­ly War‘ and the Pan-Isla­mic move­ment
Ninth Euro­pean Con­fe­rence on Modern South Asi­an Stu­dies, 1986
Indi­an-Ger­man poli­ti­cal rela­ti­ons befo­re World War II

The docu­ments were coll­ec­ted in various archi­ves in India, Gre­at Bri­tain and Ger­ma­ny like for ins­tance at the Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um and Libra­ry, Delhi (NMML), the Natio­nal Archi­ves of India, Delhi (NAI), the Poli­ti­sches Archiv des Aus­wär­ti­gen Amtes, Ber­lin (PAAA; Poli­ti­cal Archi­ve of the Ger­man For­eign Office) or the Dimitroff-Muse­um, Leipzig.

This post focu­ses on one of the results of such a name search in the Horst Krü­ger coll­ec­tion: files rela­ted to K.M. Ashraf. The­se files occu­py a distinct and important space in the Krü­ger Papers, and can be seen as a gra­phic illus­tra­ti­on of ent­an­gled ide­as and archives.

Kunwar Muhammad Ashraf Papers

The Mar­xist intellec­tu­al and cul­tu­ral milieu in the GDR was deep­ly ent­an­gled with the growth of pro­gres­si­ve socia­list thin­king and poli­tics among Mus­lims in South Asia. Aca­de­mic insti­tu­ti­ons like the Aca­de­my of Sci­en­ces, Ber­lin (Deut­sche Aka­de­mie der Wis­sen­schaf­ten zu Ber­lin, and later Aka­de­mie der Wis­sen­schaf­ten der DDR/ AdW) and the Indo-Ori­en­tal Semi­nar at the Hum­boldt-Uni­ver­si­tät zu Ber­lin with its empha­sis on “New Indo­lo­gy”, ope­ned a new chap­ter to initia­te scho­lar­ly enga­ge­ments with Islam and Mus­lim scho­lar­ship in India.[2]

In this post, I want to pur­sue a strand of the ent­an­gled Indo-GDR intellec­tu­al his­to­ries by fol­lo­wing the tra­jec­to­ry of Kun­war Muham­mad Ashraf (1903–1962)[3] and his efforts to find ans­wers to the “Mus­lim Ques­ti­on” within the con­text of Indi­an cul­tu­ral inte­gra­ti­on through his enga­ge­ment with ”New Indo­lo­gy” in the GDR. His ide­as and per­so­nal papers are housed in the Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um & Libra­ry, Delhi, while many of his per­so­nal wri­tin­gs and papers are in the Horst Krü­ger coll­ec­tions in the archi­ve of the Leib­niz-Zen­trum Moder­ner Ori­ent (ZMO). Ashraf´s thin­king and wri­tin­gs on the “Mus­lim Ques­ti­on” were pro­du­ced in dia­lo­gue with Ger­man ide­as and intellec­tu­als at the Insti­tu­te of Indo­lo­gy, Hum­boldt- Uni­ver­si­tät zu Ber­lin.[4] It was a signi­fi­cant decis­i­on that the Insti­tu­te cho­se a Mus­lim Mar­xist scho­lar as a visi­ting pro­fes­sor of Medieval Indi­an histo­ry and culture.

K.M Ashraf had a long asso­cia­ti­on with Mar­xist inter­na­tio­nal cir­cles as a stu­dent in Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don from 1927–32. He con­nec­ted with the wider net­work of South Asi­an Com­mu­nists in Ger­ma­ny, inclu­ding Saj­jad Zaheer, Viren­dra­nath Chat­topad­ha­yay and M. N. Roy. His poli­ti­cal role as a Con­gress socia­list par­ty lea­der in char­ge of the Mus­lim mass cont­act pro­gram­me bet­ween 1935 until 1947, and sub­se­quent dis­il­lu­sionment and move to the Com­mu­nist Par­ty, is a tra­gic tale of missed oppor­tu­ni­ties.[5] Ashraf was a staunch oppo­nent of “Mus­lim sepa­ra­tism” and a firm belie­ver in pro­gres­si­ve inter­na­tio­nal soli­da­ri­ty. Based on the Gangad­har Adhi­ka­ri the­sis, the Com­mu­nist Par­ty of India’s (CPI) decis­i­on on the “Mus­lim Ques­ti­on” was in favour of the crea­ti­on of Paki­stan. Despi­te his per­so­nal reser­va­tions, Ashraf moved to Paki­stan due to par­ty pre­cepts. In Paki­stan, he came under poli­ti­cal sus­pi­ci­on and was arres­ted on char­ges of being a Com­mu­nist. He was neither wel­co­med in Paki­stan nor accept­ed back in India.[6] Neither here nor the­re, Ashraf beca­me emble­ma­tic of the unre­sol­ved “Mus­lim Ques­ti­on” in post-par­ti­ti­on South Asia: he beca­me a sta­te­l­ess per­son and was in exi­le in Eng­land befo­re he was reha­bi­li­ta­ted in Kiro­ri Mal Col­lege, Delhi whe­re he taught histo­ry from 1956–60.[7] Con­stant­ly under sus­pi­ci­on and attack in India, he moved to Ber­lin on a visi­ting pro­fes­sor­ship. A vic­tim of par­ti­ti­on poli­tics in South Asia, Ashraf´s Ber­lin stay was also mark­ed by the har­dening of divi­si­on bet­ween the two Ger­ma­nys. He wit­nessed the clo­sure of the free cor­ri­dor bet­ween the two Ger­man sta­tes on 13 August 1961.

Deter­mi­ned to use his time to enga­ge with the issue that had affec­ted both his aca­de­mic and per­so­nal life, Ashraf star­ted working on the the­me of Mus­lim iden­ti­ty and Indi­an cul­tu­re. As an aca­de­mic and poli­ti­cal acti­vist in colo­ni­al India, he had writ­ten on the topic of the “Mus­lim Ques­ti­on” in India, which was sub­se­quent­ly published as His­to­ri­cal Back­ground of Hin­du- Mus­lim Ques­ti­on in India.[8] He had also writ­ten on the “Mus­lim ques­ti­on” and poli­tics in the Urdu jour­nal Awa­mi Daur and was working on revi­sing his con­tri­bu­ti­ons and publi­shing them as a book. It even­tual­ly came out as An Over­view of Indi­an Mus­lim Poli­tics 1920–1947.[9] This issue was clo­se to his heart and fel­low com­mu­nist lea­der Saj­jad Zaheer was invol­ved in the pro­cess of mate­ria­li­zing the book. In fact, Ashraf and Zaheer dis­cus­sed it during their Ber­lin mee­ting in May 1961. Zaheer even­tual­ly also wro­te the fore­word for the book. As Zaheer noted, Ashraf´s work was cha­rac­te­ri­zed by a strong desi­re that the “Mus­lims will join revo­lu­tio­na­ry, most logi­cal and most sci­en­ti­fic and huma­ne move­ment of India in order that Mus­lims must have a place of honour and digni­ty in the coun­try.”[10] It was this desi­re that impel­led Ashraf to turn to pro­gres­si­ve inter­na­tio­na­lism as an ans­wer to the Mino­ri­ty Question.

The GDR was invol­ved in buil­ding new ties with the erst­while colo­nies and third-world count­ries and was deve­lo­ping what they cal­led “Modern Ori­en­to­lo­gy”.[11] This visi­on of modern Ori­en­to­lo­gy was to be rea­li­sed and imple­men­ted at the Insti­tu­te for Ori­en­tal Stu­dies at the Aca­de­my of Sci­en­ces, Ber­lin. [12]The New Mar­xist Ori­en­to­lo­gists in the GDR, while pay­ing homage to and “con­ti­nuing the huma­ni­stic tra­di­ti­on of clas­si­cal Ger­man Indo­lo­gy,” wan­ted to bring fun­da­men­tal chan­ges to the disci­pli­ne.[13] Modern Ori­en­to­lo­gy had its ori­g­ins in the wri­tin­gs of Karl Marx, simi­lar to which it aimed to con­cen­tra­te on the modern histo­ry and cul­tu­re of India with the stu­dy of socia­list ide­as as the main aca­de­mic con­cern. K. M Ashraf´s Ber­lin years were mark­ed by aca­de­mic vita­li­ty and acti­vism that his Ger­man col­le­ague Horst Krü­ger fondly descri­bes in his remi­nis­cen­ces of Ashraf.[14] Both had met in Delhi in 1957 and bond­ed over shared rese­arch inte­rests and metho­do­lo­gy. Krü­ger con­side­red him not just a good fri­end or col­le­ague but in his own words “Dr. Ashraf was not sim­ply my guru but at the same time the living and inspi­ring exam­p­le of the Indi­an people´s strugg­le for free­dom and bet­ter life.“[15]  Ashraf’s visit to Ber­lin as a Guest Pro­fes­sor of Medieval Histo­ry in 1960 fur­ther cemen­ted this bond over shared aca­de­mic and ever­y­day acti­vi­ties in Ber­lin. His visit coin­ci­ded with the 150 years cele­bra­ti­ons of the Hum­boldt Uni­ver­si­tät and a con­fe­rence on “The Natio­nal Awa­ke­ning of peo­p­le of Asia and Afri­ca and Task of Ori­en­to­lo­gy”. Ashraf, Krü­ger recounts, not only actively par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the con­fe­rence but also gave an impromp­tu lec­tu­re on “Anti-Impe­ria­list tra­di­ti­ons in Urdu lite­ra­tu­re.”[16] During his stay, he also gave a series of lec­tures on the the­me of “The Mus­lim Ques­ti­on in Indi­an Poli­tics”, which were based on his own poli­ti­cal expe­ri­ence and scho­lar­ly wri­tin­gs. [17] The same year also saw him being elec­ted the pre­si­dent of the Indi­an Histo­ry Con­gress at its ses­si­on in Ali­garh, whe­re he gave an important pre­si­den­ti­al address.[18] This lec­tu­re reflec­ted on the com­plex issue of “Mus­lim cul­tu­re” and the poli­tics of know­ledge pro­duc­tion on Indi­an histo­ry. Ashraf cri­ti­qued the absence of medieval histo­ry in the tra­di­tio­nal Indo­lo­gist stu­dies of Indi­an cul­tu­re, which focus­sed on Sans­krit lin­gu­i­stic and tex­tu­al stu­dies to defi­ne the core of Indi­an cul­tu­re – a trend that also con­tin­ued under colo­ni­al and natio­na­list histo­ry-wri­ting whe­re the medieval peri­od beca­me the peri­od of cul­tu­ral deca­dence. He did not spa­re the Mus­lim apo­lo­gist histo­ry-wri­tin­gs of Sayy­id Ahmad Khan and Zakaul­lah.[19] Ins­tead, he advo­ca­ted a Mar­xist his­to­rio­gra­phy as deve­lo­ped by Muham­mad Habib at Ali­garh Uni­ver­si­ty, who cri­ti­qued Mus­lim com­mu­na­list and sepa­ra­tist his­to­rio­gra­phy. Remem­be­ring the vio­lent par­ti­ti­on of the coun­try, Ashraf sug­gested a cri­ti­cal enga­ge­ment with the histo­ry and cul­tu­re of Mus­lims in India to rethink the issue of con­flict and (re)conciliation. In this direc­tion, he empha­si­zed a pro­gres­si­ve out­look and cited the exam­p­le of new Indo­lo­gy in the socia­list world, which was “more holi­stic and diver­se in its approach” and pro­vi­ded new ori­en­ta­ti­ons in the stu­dy of Indi­an histo­ry.[20] He high­ligh­ted the new initia­ti­ve at the Ori­en­tal insti­tu­tes in Ber­lin, Hal­le and Leip­zig in their stu­dy of Mus­lim cul­tu­re in India.[21] The pro­blem of Mus­lim cul­tu­re in medieval and modern India and its con­ti­nui­ties and trans­for­ma­ti­on remain­ed a recur­ring rese­arch the­me in his work. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, he could not attain his visi­on, dying sud­den­ly on 7 June, 1962 in Ber­lin due to a heart attack. He was buried at the Zen­tral­fried­hof in Ber­lin Fried­richs­fel­de, also known as Sozia­lis­ten­fried­hof (Ceme­tery of the Socia­lists)”.[22]

Ashraf was an important actor in for­ging an ent­an­gled histo­ry of pro­gres­si­ve ide­as among Mar­xist intellec­tu­als in GDR and India. His enga­ge­ment with the new Indo­lo­gy pro­ject in East Ber­lin allo­wed him to rethink his own work on Mus­lims and natio­na­lism. Fur­ther, it threw new light on the poli­cy fol­lo­wed by the Com­mu­nist Par­ty on Paki­stan, sup­port­ing the move­ment in the loo­ming Cold War con­text. The fail­ure to come to terms with mino­ri­ties and the ina­bi­li­ty to resol­ve the ques­ti­on of “natio­nal cul­tu­re” remain­ed a fraught sub­ject, which was sel­dom dis­cus­sed open­ly. Ashraf revi­si­ted the “Mus­lim Ques­ti­on” not as a reli­gious but as a poli­ti­cal and cul­tu­ral ques­ti­on of mino­ri­ties to ana­ly­se the cate­go­ries of reli­gi­on and histo­ry wri­ting in GDR and India. He enga­ged with and pro­mo­ted new ways of stu­dy­ing Mus­lim and Indi­an histo­ry to not only empha­si­ze the his­to­ri­cal con­s­truc­tion and trans­for­ma­ti­on of “Mus­lim and Indi­an cul­tu­re” but also to demons­tra­te them as mutual­ly con­sti­tu­ting, and not sepa­ra­te, cate­go­ries. The pro­gres­si­ve and inter­na­tio­nal scho­lar­ly milieu of East Ber­lin pro­vi­ded a space and fur­nis­hed him with resour­ces to arti­cu­la­te some of the­se unre­sol­ved ques­ti­ons from the past and ima­gi­ne new futures.

Entangled Ideas and Archives

This ent­an­gled histo­ry of intellec­tu­al exch­an­ge and the trans­for­ma­ti­on of ide­as shared bet­ween Ashraf and FRG scho­lars is pre­ser­ved as Ashraf files in the Krü­ger coll­ec­tions at the ZMO archi­ve (for details about the files rela­ted to Ashraf see the appen­dix). The making and rema­king of this archi­ve is in its­elf a sub­ject wort­hy of stu­dy.[23] Due to Ashraf’s sud­den death in East Ber­lin, it see­med that his papers and other docu­ments inclu­ding pho­to­graphs were given to the Aca­de­my of Sci­en­ces of the DGR, Ber­lin, most likely by his wife Phyl­lis Mary Kemp Ashraf, a socia­list acti­vist scho­lar, who had accom­pa­nied him to East Ber­lin in 1960.

Kunwar Muhammad Ashraf´s Bio data at the archive of the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient
Figu­re 1: P.M. Ashraf´s Bio data. Box No.38. Krü­ger Nach­lass, ZMO Libra­ry & Archives.

Also found in the Krü­ger Papers are pho­tos that young Ashraf sent to her. A ten­der pri­va­te moment of love appears amidst public and poli­ti­cal papers that are con­cer­ned with com­mu­nist and revo­lu­tio­na­ry work and writings.

A picture of Kunwar Muhammad Ashraf in the Horst Krüger files at the archive of the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient
Figu­re 2: K. M Ashraf in Laho­re 1937: Box.No. 3, Krü­ger Nach­lass, ZMO Libra­ry & Archives.

Ano­ther sur­vi­ving spe­ci­men of his per­so­nal archi­ve is the hand-writ­ten auto­bio­gra­phi­cal note in which Ashraf recounts his extra­or­di­na­ry jour­ney from being a devout Mus­lim in Mewat to beco­ming a com­mit­ted com­mu­nist in East Ber­lin. The­se were appar­ent­ly trans­fer­red to NMML, Delhi due to the efforts of his son Moham­mad Jaweed Ashraf. Howe­ver, it seems Krü­ger also had addi­tio­nal copies as some ori­gi­nal docu­ments and pho­tos remain­ed with him for his work on the Ashraf Fest­schrift volu­me and found their way into the archi­ve of the Leib­niz- Zen­trum Moder­ner Ori­ent within the Krü­ger collection.

Along with Ashraf´s own intellec­tu­al work and wri­tin­gs, the Ashraf Files also pro­vi­de us with an insight into the making of his Fest­schrift volu­me and the num­e­rous let­ters of con­do­lence and affec­tion that arri­ved on his untime­ly death, inclu­ding one per­so­nal­ly signed by Jawa­harlal Neh­ru to com­me­mo­ra­te Ashraf´s life and works. Seve­ral of the­se let­ters and essays were incor­po­ra­ted in the feli­ci­ta­ti­on volu­me and many others now sur­vi­ve as let­ters in the Ashraf Files within the Horst Krü­ger Papers. Krü­ger also coll­ec­ted all the publi­ci­ty mate­ri­als gene­ra­ted for the book, inclu­ding bro­chu­res and the reviews that appeared after­wards, irre­spec­ti­ve of whe­ther they were cri­ti­cal of or glo­ri­fy­ing Ashraf. The Ashraf Files in the Krü­ger coll­ec­tion show that the prot­ago­nists did not mere­ly share an aca­de­mic or intellec­tu­al con­nec­tion but a bond that was roo­ted in mutu­al admi­ra­ti­on and affec­tion. Ashraf seems to have left a las­ting impres­si­on on Krüger´s intellec­tu­al and per­so­nal care­er. The Krü­ger coll­ec­tion pro­vi­des an archi­ve of this ent­an­gled histo­ry of ideas.

The Boxes containing files related to Ashraf from the Horst Krüger files at the archive of the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient
Figu­re 3: Boxes con­tai­ning files rela­ted to Ashraf: pho­to­gra­phed by the aut­hor, ZMO Libra­ry & Archives.

Appendix

Docu­ment list based on elec­tro­nic search K.M Ashraf in Krü­ger papers, ZMO Archives

BoxNum­merSach­grup­peAutorTitelQuel­leOrtJahr
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Habib H.Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf from the Edi­tor of ‚The Agra Cititzen‘).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um & LibraryAgra06.06.1938
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee(?)Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um & LibraryLaho­re19.03.1938
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Vakil, M.Sh.Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf from the ‚Indi­an Insti­tu­te of Sociology‘).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um & LibraryBom­bay01.04.1938
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘(?)Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um & LibraryDelhi02.04.1938
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Kach­roo, D.N.(?)Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf in con­nec­tion with ‚The ‚Stu­dents Review‘, the jour­nal of the ‚Bena­res Stu­dents Association‘).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um & LibrarySri­na­gar11.06.1938
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Brel­vi, S.ALet­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryBom­bay18.05.1937
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Mazum­dar, G.Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryCal­cut­ta05.05.1937
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘(?)Artic­le (in ‚The Search­light‘ regar­ding a speech held by K.M. Ashraf at a public mee­ting on the rela­ti­onship towards the Con­gress and the Muslims).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &Library(?)27.04.1937
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘(?)Artic­le (in a news­pa­per) :“Mus­lim Cul­tu­re And Lea­der­ship. Con­gress Leader’s View.“ (regar­ding a speech held by K.M. Ashraf at a public mee­ting at Patna).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &Library(?)25.04.1937 (?)
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Mazum­dar, G.Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryCal­cut­ta09.09.1937
39,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Brel­vi, S.A.Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryBom­bay26.04.1937
39,4Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Mar­da­na, V.(?)Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &Library(?)14.10.1938
39,4Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘(?)Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf from the Gene­ral Secre­ta­ry of the Pun­jab Con­gress Socia­list Party).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryLaho­re22.09.1938
39,4Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress CommitteeLon­don, M.N.Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryAgra05.10.1938
39,5Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Bazaz, P.N.(?)Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf, Secre­ta­ry of the ‚All India Con­gress Com­mit­tee‘, Allahabad).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &Library(?)(?)
410,2Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘Kum­ar­manga­lam, M.Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryCam­bridge03.01.1938
410,2Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘(?)Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryAmrit­sar29.11.1937
410,2Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘(?)Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf from the Secre­ta­ry of the Con­gress Committee).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryBija­pur19.12.1937
410,3Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee(?)Let­ter (to K.M. Ashraf from the Mana­ger of ‚The Dai­ly Asia Agra‘).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryAgra06.12.1937
411,6Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘(?)Coll­ec­tion (of seve­ral Indi­an news­pa­pers artic­les regar­ding K.M. Ashraf and the rela­ti­ons bet­ween the Con­gress and the Muslims).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &Library(?)22.01.1960
411,7Papers on the ‚All India Con­gress Committee‘(?)Com­mu­ni­que (published by K.M. Ashraf in ‚The Dec­can Times‘ regar­ding a let­ter from J. Neh­ru to R.A. Kidwai).Neh­ru Memo­ri­al Muse­um &LibraryMadras26.09.1937
17100,1J. Neh­ru PapersNeh­ru, J.„Let­ter (to Dr. H. Krü­ger regar­ding K.M. Ashraf 2 copies).Krü­ger FilesNew Delhi(?)
23128,1K.M. Ashraf Papers(?)„Anno­ta­ti­on : “Kun­war Moham­mad Ashraf 1903 ‑1962. An Indi­an Scho­lar And Revo­lu­tio­na­ry.“ (edi­ted by H. Krü­ger published in ‚Cata­lo­gue‘, 1973).Krü­ger FilesNew Delhi(?)
23128,1K.M. Ashraf Papers(?)„Review : “Kun­war Moham­mad Ashraf: An Indi­an Scho­lar And Revo­lu­tio­na­ry 1903 – 1962.“ (edi­ted by H. Krü­ger published in the jour­nal ‚Eco­no­mic And Poli­ti­cal Weekly‘).“Krü­ger FilesNew Delhi(?)
23128,2K.M. Ashraf Papers(?)Let­ters, reviews and anno­ta­ti­ons (in con­nec­tion with the book “Kun­war Moham­mad Ashraf“ by H. Krüger).Krü­ger Files(?)(?)
23128,3K.M. Ashraf Papers(?)Let­ter (to H. Krü­ger from J. Neh­ru inclu­ding pho­tos from K.M. Ashraf).Krü­ger FilesNew Delhi13.10.1963
38288,1Pro­files of various Indi­an and Ger­man Scho­lars and Politicians(?)Bio­gra­phi­cal sketch (of P.M. Ashraf).Krü­ger Files(?)(?)
49363,1Horst Krü­ger PapersKrü­ger, H.„Artic­le (in a spe­cial edi­ti­on issued by the Insti­tut für Orient­for­schung der Deut­schen Aka­de­mie der Wis­sen­schaf­ten zu Ber­lin) : „„Kun­war Moham­mad Ashraf, An Indi­an Scho­lar And Revo­lu­tio­na­ry (1903–1962).“““Krü­ger FilesBer­lin(?)
58424,1K.M. Ashraf PapersAshraf, K. M.Hand­writ­ten notes (K. M. Ashraf on himself ).Krü­ger Files(?)(?)
58424,1K.M. Ashraf PapersAshraf, K. M.Typed script: „„K. M. Ashraf’s pre­si­den­ti­al address to the Fourth Ses­si­on of the All-India Stu­dents‘ Fede­ra­ti­on held in Cal­cut­ta on the 1st Janu­ary, 1939. The Con­fe­rence was ope­ned by Sj. Sarat Chandra Bose““ “Indi­an Annu­al Regis­ter, 1939, Vol. 1Cal­cut­ta1939
58424,1K.M. Ashraf PapersAshraf, K. M. / Gupta, N. L.„Typed script:„„ Inter­view with K. M. Ashraf dated 27th Octo­ber 1960“““Krü­ger FilesDelhi27. Octo­ber 1960
63440,3Papers on P. M. Ashraf(?)Pho­tos of P. M. Ashraf (belon­ging to Mrs. P. M. Ashraf)Krü­ger FilesLaho­re1907 ?
75504Jawa­harlal Neh­ru: files and news­pa­per articles(?)Neh­ru papers rela­ting to Ashraf, Bald­win, Bridge­man, Brodck­way, Chat­topad­hya­ya, Tara­k­nath Das, Edo Tin­nen, Innes, Pol­lit, Ral­land, M.N. Roy, Agnes Smed­ley, H.N. Spal­ding, Ernst Tol­ler, Shcu­kat Usma­ni / Cor­re­spon­dence bet­ween Neh­ru and Motilal(?)(?)1936

Endnotes

[1]See ZMO Web­page Bestän­de / Nach­lass Dr. Horst Krü­ger. https://www.zmo.de/biblio/sammlung_krueger.html
[2]On the  lar­ger histo­ry and scho­lar­ly acti­vi­ties at the Deut­sche Aka­de­mie der Wis­sen­schaf­ten (Adw) zu Ber­lin see: Anne­ma­rie Haf­ner, „Indologie/Südasienwissenschaften an der Deut­schen Aka­de­mie der Wis­sen­schaf­ten (AdW) zu Ber­lin bzw. der Aka­de­mie der Wis­sen­schaf­ten der DDR zwischen1947 und 1991.“ In Maria Fram­ke, Han­ne­lo­re Lötz­ke, Ingo Strauch (eds.).  Indo­lo­gie und Süd­asi­en­stu­di­en in Ber­lin: Geschich­te und Posi­ti­ons­be­stim­mung. Stu­di­en zur Geschich­te und Gegen­wart Asi­ens.  Vol. 4, 2014. pp. 259–284.
[3]For the bio­gra­phi­cal details, inclu­ding his poli­ti­cal care­er in Con­gress Socia­list Part and Com­mu­nist Par­ty in India, see, Khi­zar Humayun Ansa­ri. The Emer­gence of  Socia­list Thought Among North Indi­an Mus­lims (1917–1947). Kara­chi: Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2015.
[4] On the  emer­gence of and affi­ni­ties bet­ween the “Jewish Ques­ti­on” in Ger­ma­ny and the “Mus­lim Ques­ti­on” in South Asia see, Aamir Muf­ti. Enligh­ten­ment in the Colo­ny: The Jewish Ques­ti­on and the Cri­sis of Post­co­lo­ni­al Cul­tu­re. Prince­ton NJ: Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2007.
[5] Chowd­hu­ry, Abdul Haye, “The Free­dom Move­ment in Mewat and Dr. K. M. Ashraf”, in: Horst Krü­ger, (ed.). Kun­war Moham­med Ashraf: An Indi­an Scho­lar and Revo­lu­tio­na­ry 1903–1962. Delhi: People’s Publi­shing House, 1969, pp. 291 – 340, here pp. 330–333.
[6]On Ashraf’s role in Mus­lim mass cont­act pro­gram­me see: Ven­kat Dhu­li­pa­la. Crea­ting A New Medi­na: Sta­te Power, Islam, and  the Quest for Paki­stan in Late Colo­ni­al North India. New Delhi: Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2015.
[7] Chowd­hu­ry, Abdul Haye, “The Free­dom Move­ment in Mewat”, pp. 331–333.
[8] Kun­war Moham­mad Ashraf. Hin­du-Mus­lim Ques­ti­on And Our Free­dom Strugg­le. Two Vols. New Delhi: Sun­ri­se Publi­ca­ti­ons, 2005.
[9]Kun­war Moham­mad Ashraf. An Over­view of Indi­an Mus­lim Poli­tics 1920–1947. Trans­la­ted by Jaweed  Ashraf. New Delhi: Manak Publishers, 2001. The Urdu ver­si­on was ori­gi­nal­ly published in 1963 and has been trans­la­ted by Jaweed Ashraf.
[10]Ibid.,7.
[11]  Ibid.
[12] Micha­el Maschke & Jana Tschu­renev. “Von der Phi­lo­lo­gie Zur Gesell­schafts­wis­sen­schaft: Ber­li­ner Süd­asi­en­for­schung in der Zeit der DDR.“ In Maria Fram­ke, Han­ne­lo­re Lötz­ke, Ingo Strauch (eds.). Indo­lo­gie und Süd­asi­en­stu­di­en in Ber­lin: Geschich­te und Posi­ti­ons­be­stim­mung. Stu­di­en zur Geschich­te und Gegen­wart Asi­ens.  Vol. 4, 2014. pp. 165–203.
[13] Krü­ger (ed.), Kun­war Moham­med Ashraf. On Krü­ger and his per­so­nal papers  see,
https://www.zmo.de/biblio/sammlung_Krüger.html
[14] Horst Krü­ger on K.M. Ashraf, in: Krü­ger (ed.), Kun­war Moham­med Ashraf, p. 380.
[15] Ibid., 380–381.
[16] Ibid.
[17]  Ibid.
[18]K. M Ashraf. “Pre­si­den­ti­al Address to the Medieval Histo­ry Sec­tion of the Indi­an Histo­ry Con­gress, Ali­garh 1960.” Cited in Horst Krü­ger (ed.). Kun­war Moham­med Ashraf: An Indi­an Scho­lar and Revo­lu­tio­na­ry 1903–l962. Delhi: People’s Publi­shing House, 1966, pp. 403–411.
[19] Ibid., 405.
[20] Ibid., 408.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid., 384.
[23]See also the post by Anan­di­ta Baj­pai. “Tra­cing India in a Ber­lin Archi­ve: Reflec­tions on the Joa­chim and  Petra Heid­rich papers in the Leib­niz-Zen­trum  Moder­ner Ori­ent Archi­ve.” MIDA Web­site Post.

Bibliography

Ansa­ri, Khi­zar Humayun, The Emer­gence of Socia­list Thought Among North Indi­an Mus­lims (1917–1947). Kara­chi: Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2015.

Ashraf, Kun­war Moham­mad, An Over­view of Indi­an Mus­lim Poli­tics 1920–1947. Trans­la­ted by Jaweed Ashraf. New Delhi: Manak Publishers, 2001.

——–, His­to­ri­cal Back­ground of Hin­du- Mus­lim Ques­ti­on in India 1725–1943.” Two Vols. New Delhi: Sun­ri­se Publi­ca­ti­ons, 2005.

——–, Indi­an His­to­rio­gra­phy and Other Rela­ted Papers. Trans­la­ted from Urdu  and pre­pared for Publi­ca­ti­on  by Jaweed Ashraf. New Delhi: Sun­ri­se Publi­ca­ti­ons, 2006.

Baj­pai, Anan­di­ta, Tra­cing, Cata­lo­guing, Index­ing: Reflec­tions on the Joa­chim and Petra Heid­rich papers in the Leib­niz-Zen­trum Moder­ner Ori­ent Archi­ve, 2018, https://www.projekt-mida.de/reflexicon/tracing-cataloguing-indexing-reflections-on-the-joachim-and-petra-heidrich-papers-in-the-leibniz-zentrum-moderner-orient-archive/. (Last acces­sed on: 03-05-2019).

Chowd­hu­ry, Abdul Haye, “The Free­dom Move­ment in Mewat and Dr. K. M. Ashraf”. In: Horst Krü­ger (ed.), Kun­war Moham­med Ashraf: An Indi­an Scho­lar and Revo­lu­tio­na­ry 1903–1962. Delhi: People’s Publi­shing House, 1969, pp. 291 – 340. 

Dal­mia, Vasud­ha, Poe­tics, Plays and Per­for­man­ces: The Poli­tics of Modern Indi­an Theat­re. Delhi: Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2006.

Dhu­li­pa­la, Ven­kat, Crea­ting A New Medi­na: Sta­te Power, Islam, and the Quest for Paki­stan in Late Colo­ni­al North India. New Delhi: Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2015.

Krü­ger, Horst (ed.), Kun­war Moham­med Ashraf: An Indi­an Scho­lar and Revo­lu­tio­na­ry 1903–1962. Delhi: People’s Publi­shing House, 1969.

——–, Die Inter­na­tio­na­le Arbei­ter­be­we­gung und die indi­sche natio­na­le Befrei­ungs­be­we­gung, in 4 Bän­den. Ber­lin: Aka­de­mie-Ver­lag, 1984

——–, Anfän­ge sozia­lis­ti­schen Den­kens in Indi­en : der Beginn der Rezep­ti­on sozia­lis­ti­scher Ideen in Indi­en vor 1914. Ber­lin : Aka­de­mie –Ver­lag, 1985.

——–, Indi­sche Natio­na­lis­ten und Welt­pro­le­ta­ri­at. Der natio­na­le Befrei­ungs­kampf in Indi­en und die inter­na­tio­na­le Arbei­ter­be­we­gung vor 1914. Ber­lin: Aka­de­mie Ver­lag, 1984.

Muf­ti, Aamir, Enligh­ten­ment in the Colo­ny: The Jewish Ques­ti­on and the Cri­sis of Post­co­lo­ni­al Cul­tu­re. Prince­ton NJ: Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2007.

Maschke, Micha­el, Jana Tschu­renev, “Von der Phi­lo­lo­gie Zur  Gesell­schafts­wis­sen­schaft: Ber­li­ner Süd­asi­en­for­schung in der Zeit der DDR”. In: Maria Fram­ke, Han­ne­lo­re Lötz­ke, Ingo Strauch (eds.), Indo­lo­gie und Süd­asi­en­stu­di­en in Ber­lin: Geschich­te und Posi­ti­ons­be­stim­mung. Stu­di­en zur Geschich­te und Gegen­wart Asi­ens: 4. Ber­lin: tra­fo, 2014, S. 165–203.

Razak Khan, MIDA, CeMIS, Georg-August-Uni­ver­si­tät Göttingen

MIDA Archi­val Refle­xi­con

Edi­tors: Anan­di­ta Baj­pai, Hei­ke Liebau
Lay­out: Mon­ja Hof­mann, Nico Putz
Host: ZMO, Kirch­weg 33, 14129 Ber­lin
Cont­act: archival.reflexicon [at] zmo.de

ISSN 2628–5029