People's Democracy

Indian History Congress Meets For

Its 63rd Session At Amritsar

(From Our Correspondent)

THE Indian History Congress meeting at the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, December 28-30, for its 63rd annual session, was a splendid success in terms of both the academic contributions made, and the number of historians from all over India, who participated in it. Over 900 out of its 7000-odd members attended the session and nearly 500 papers were read at its different sessions.

True, the spirit of the occasion was a little subdued owing to the carnage in Gujarat. The general president, Professor Dwijendra Tripathi, from Ahmedabad, delivering his address on December 28, expressed his feelings bluntly when he said: “I stand before you with bloody hands and a guilty mind.” Himself a pioneer in business history, Tripathi devoted most of his address to an examination of the major processes of accommodation of different cultural and religious streams that have helped to give the Indian civilization its unique character.

Earlier, while inaugurating the session, Captain Amrinder Singh, chief minister, assured the support of the Punjab state government to the work of the Indian History Congress. Kushal Behal, minister for higher education, in his speech, strongly criticised both the NCERT “curriculum framework” and the new NCERT history textbooks for their anti-secular and communal approach and downright falsifications of facts. He announced that these textbooks would not be approved for use in schools in the Punjab.

ACADEMIC SESSIONS

The academic sessions of the History Congress are divided into five sections. Presiding over the section on Ancient India, Professor U P Arora (Bareilly) made a comprehensive survey of the nature and extent of Greek influences on Indian culture. Professor S P Verma (Aligarh) devoted his Presidential Address (Medieval India Section) to a highlighting of humanism that Mughal painting for the first time introduced in Indian art. Professor Mariam Dossal (Mumbai) in her Presidential Address (Modern India) outlined the problems of the colonial cities, their inhabitants and administration. Professor Arjun Dev (formerly of NCERT) from his chair in the Section on History of Countries other than India, made a forceful plea for the promotion of a World History without national bias, and ended his address with a quotation from Eric Hobsbawm: ‘More history than ever is today being revised or invented by people who do not want the real past, but only a past that suits their purpose’. Professor V H Sonavane (Baroda), presiding over the Archaeology Section presented a historical perspective on Indian rock art.

The prestigious S C Misra Memorial Lecture was given on the first day (December 28) by Professor Barun De (Kolkata), whose theme was a discussion of recent trends in Indian historiography, in which he took up cudgels against the Cambridge and the Subaltern schools. The Indian History Congress Symposium on the next day (December 29) was on the subject of History and Archaeology. Professor Iqtidar Alam Khan (Aligarh) stressed the need to pay attention to the remains of medieval bridges and technological devices (sugar mills, indigo vats, etc). Dr Supriya Verma (Chandigarh) spoke of the attempts to saffronise our conceptions of the Indus civilization and chalcolithic cultures.

As already mentioned, a very large number of papers were read at the different Sections; but, as usual, the section at which the largest number of papers were read was Modern India. The themes of papers presented are a good indication of the fields in which greater interest is being taken by Indian historians; the thematic classification in the list of papers greatly helps one to follow the trends. It is clear that there is a shift towards gender history, and the past of depressed castes and tribes, while the interest in the National Movement and agrarian unrest is being maintained. Unfortunately, a decline in interest in the working-class movement is also noticeable; and this surely ought to be remedied.

During the last four sessions, the Indian History Congress has established the practice of holding special panels, the proceedings of which are separately published. The Indian History Congress itself organised a panel on Punjab History, chaired by Professor J S Grewal. The Aligarh Historians Society organised a panel on the Idea of India, in which many historians, including Professors Shereen Ratnagar, U P Arora, J S Grewal, K Veluthat, I A Khan, Om Prakash, Shireen Moosvi, Aniruddha Ray, Gautam Chattopadhyaya, Indu Banga, and Barun De, read papers. They described the various ways in which India has been perceived in the past. Professor Irfan Habib delivered the keynote address, and Professors D Tripathi and Harbans Mukhia chaired the two sessions of the panel. It was well attended throughout, with considerable amount of discussion.

The Urban History Association organised a panel on Urban Phenomena in Indian history, in which a number of papers were read. It was followed by a symposium on December 30 in which the main speakers were Professors J S Grewal and Chetan Singh, who presented papers on towns in the plains and hills.

RESOLUTIONS PASSED

The Business Meeting of the History Congress was held in the afternoon of the December 30. It passed four resolutions, one of which was organisational in nature, raising the number of members of the Executive Committee from sixteen to twenty, from the next year. The other three are being separately printed here.

The resolution which aroused the greatest interest was the one containing a decision to set up a committee to report on the new NCERT textbooks of History. Even before the names of members of the Committee are known (these are to be announced by the Secretary of the History Congress),  J S  Rajput, Director, NCERT, has proclaimed this to be a mere “drama”. Obviously, he is frightened of an authoritative judgement of historians on the kind of History he and his masters are trying to dish off to our children. By another resolution the History Congress called on state governments to exercise greater care when approving or publishing school text books. In its final resolution the History Congress endorsed the Punjab state government’s appeal to UNESCO to declare the Golden Temple a World Heritage site, and called upon all bodies and authorities to protect monuments in and around Amritsar.

All the resolutions were passed unanimously, no one speaking or voting against. A single newspaper report that there was a walk-out by a group of delegates is absolutely incorrect. Even a few members who had earlier opposed the resolution on the NCERT’s new “curriculum framework” at Kolkata two years ago, showed their low opinion of the new NCERT textbooks by joining in the unanimous passage of the resolution on the formation of a committee to report on their contents.

ELECTIONS  & CONFERMENT OF HONOUR

The Executive Committee elected Professor S Settar (Bangalore), former Chairman of the ICHR, and a noted historian of ancient Indian art and culture, as the general president for the next session. The sectional presidents for the next session are: Professor B P Sahu (Delhi) (Ancient India); Dr Vijay Ramaswami (JNU) (Medieval India): Professor Suranjan Das (Kolkata) (Modern India); Professor Y K Mishra (Bhagalpur) (Countries other than India); and Professor Shereen Ratnagar (Mumbai) (Archaeology).  Mr Iravatham Mahadevan (Chennai) and Professor Satish Chandra (Delhi) were re-elected Vice-Presidents. Professor Ramakrishna Chatterjee and Arun Bandopadhyay, both of Kolkata, were re-elected Secretary and Treasurer respectively. Dr R C Thakran (Delhi) and Professor Rajan Gurukkul (Kerala) were elected Joint-Secretaries.

A notable event in the History Congress was the conferment of the Rajvade Award for life-long service to History upon Professor R S Sharma, the doyen of Ancient Indian historians. The award with Rs 25,000 cheque, has been endowed by Professor A R Kulkarni (Pune), a former general president of the History Congress.

The delegates were all praise for the arrangements made for them by the Guru Nanak Dev University. Dr S P Singh, Vice-Chancellor, paid personal attention to the arrangements; and Professor Harish C Sharma, local secretary, and Professor Joginder Singh, local treasurer, and their colleagues and team of students did all they could to make the History Congress session a great success.