[3] In 2005, he was the editor of the quarterly journal Taarikh (History) and has been widely interviewed by electronic and print media in India, Pakistan and the Middle East.
[5] In 1999, while speaking at a seminar in Mumbai organised by the NGO Khoj, Mubarak Ali referred to fundamentalism's effects on historical scholarship in his country.
[1] Speaking at the "National Seminar on Rani Kot", a historic location and fort in Sindh, he called for the reading and writing of history from a different angle, in which invaders of old and ancient India should not always be acclaimed as "great".
[6] He has written a number of books and articles on Ind-Pakistani history, and has been widely acclaimed as an anti-establishment and anti-government thinker and historian.
[8][1] Mubarak Ali has said that "any system based on oppression, coercion and authoritarianism [is] the first problem in the way of writing history".
"[9][1] In 2005, Mubarak Ali claimed that the police was harassing him and investigating him to "verify his learning", and that he was considering leaving Pakistan forever.
Speaking at the launch, Ali stated that some of the Pakistani curricula did not contain any citation about Ashoka the Great, whose reign witnessed peace and religious harmony.
In the 1980s, former military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, as part of a general drive towards Islamization, started the process of historical revisionism and exploited this initiative.
These interpretations highlight national controversies, for example about Mughal Muslims in India, the relationship between the Ottomans and the Mughals, religion and its political use, Islamic scholars and modernism, French revolution, Indus Civilization, imperialism and fundamentalism, history of coil and coffee, honor killings in Pakistan, forgetful men and the latest trends in historiography.
[12] In May 2007, at an event launching three books of Mubarak Ali in Karachi, Pakistan, Jaffer Ahmed, Director of the Pakistan Studies Centre of the University of Karachi reportedly said about Mubarak Ali, "He diverted the focus of history from the kings to the people, culture, traditions, chores, customs, education and health facilities and made people realise how vast the scope of history can be."