K. S. Lal

Historian Jeremy Black in his book Contesting History: Narratives of Public History (2014), referenced his book The Muslim Slave System in Medieval India as a "good modern work"; he also comments that K. S. Lal " is regarded as right-wing by Indian Muslim Marxist scholars".

In 2001 he was appointed chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) and also placed on the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Committee to draft the model school syllabus on Indian History.

The 1993 book The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India attempted to assess the legacy of Muslim rule in India and describes its history. The book was criticized by Peter Jackson in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, stating that book contains "a markedly selective and one-sided account of India's Muslim past". K. S. Lal wrote a rebuttal to Jackson's criticism in his book Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India.

For the next ten years, starting 1973, he was the Professor and Head of the Department of History, first at the University of Jodhpur (1973–79), and then at the Central University of Hyderabad (1979–83).

The 1973 book Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India estimated the demographics of India between 1000 CE and 1500 CE. Simon Digby disputed Lal's study of the demographic situation in medieval India in a review in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Digby stated that estimate lacks accurate data in pre-census times. Indian historian Irfan Habib criticized the book in 1978 in The Indian Historical Review. He described Lal's starting population figure as "a figment of the imagination of one scholar resting on nothing more tangible than the imagination of another", and faulted Lal for unexplained or faulty assumptions in his other population estimates. K. S. Lal wrote a reply to Irfan Habib's criticism in 1979 in his book Bias in Indian Historiography (1979) and Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India (1999).

Avril A. Powell praised Lal's works on Indian history in the 1950s and 60s, but concluded that by 1990s Lal's work represented "political agendas".

From 1945 to 1963 he was with Madhya Pradesh Educational Service and taught at the Government Colleges at Nagpur, Jabalpur, and Bhopal. In 1963, he joined University of Delhi as a reader and taught Medieval Indian history in its History Department.

He obtained his master's degree in 1941 at the University of Allahabad. In 1945 he obtained his D.Phil. with a dissertation on the history of the Khaljis. This dissertation formed the basis for his book History of the Khaljis. He started his career as a Lecturer of History in the Allahabad University, though he served in this position only for a brief period.

Kishori Saran Lal (1920–2002), better known as K. S. Lal, was an Indian historian. He is the author of several works, mainly on the medieval history of India.