“Historian Irfan Habib says ‘Marathas gave Aligarh its name’- Maratha history researcher says ‘not true'”, Swarajyamag, April 19, 2024:

“Historian Irfan Habib’s claim of the Maratha Confederacy having decided to christen Aligarh as it is known today has once again brought the Uttar Pradesh government’s efforts to revert back the names of several cities and towns to their original names into spotlight. In a recent interview to The Telegraph, Habib, Professor Emeritus of History at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), criticised the re-naming of cities and towns by BJP-led state governments across India.

However, what has caught the attention of several Maratha history aficionados and researchers is Habib’s claim of Marathas having taken the initiative to name his home town Aligarh, located in the western region of Uttar Pradesh. “There was a cantonment where AMU stands now. The Marathas called it Aligarh after the name of their supporter, Nazaf Ali Khan. Do they [the BJP] want to erase their own history?,” the daily quotes the widely discredited historian as saying. Habib said this in the context of the BJP-led Aligarh Municipal Corporation’s recent resolution requesting the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to rename Aligarh as Harigarh.

What do the contemporary Sources say?

Pune-based history researcher Shivaram Karlekar has now pointed out that, contrary to Habib’s claim, it wasn’t the Marathas but Afrasyab Khan, a slave-turned-deputy of the senior-most Delhi-durbar courtier Mirza Najaf Khan, who gave Aligarh its name in the late 18th century. “If we look at the contemporary correspondences of the senior most Maratha general in the north- Mahadji Shinde, it becomes amply clear that Aligarh was known as Ramgarh in the medieval period……”

Read the full article at Swarajyamag.com