‘ICHR publishes only papers of those playing second fiddles’

Photo emailed The wrong kind of mathematics or geometry will not be dangerous but the wrong kind of history can be very dangerous because history is that branch of knowledge with which identities are created: Professor Kesavan Veluthat, General President of the 81st session of the Indian History Congress

In an interview with The Hindu , Kesavan Veluthat, the General President of the 81st session of the Indian History Congress which concluded in Chennai on Thursday, shares his views on the ICHR, and whether there was democracy in ancient India, among others. Excerpts:

Q / How has the state-run Indian Council of Historial Research (ICHR) evolved over the years? What are your views on its functions?

A / The ICHR was founded in 1972 when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister. She particularly brought Professor R.S. Sharma all the way from Patna to Delhi University as a Professor, and he was also made the Chairman of the ICHR. That body did some excellent work on historical research. There was a project on translation of standard historical works into different Indian languages. Of course, all these were dropped later.

A / They also started a very important journal, which is still there — Indian Historical Review — one of the leading peer-reviewed journals on Indian history, which published very interesting articles. In fact, landmark publications on Indian history came in the pages of the Indian Historical Review. The ICHR also started funding major research projects, and supported Ph.Ds of scholars.

A / It also supported teachers pursuing their Ph.D. They could apply for leave from their college/university and their salary would be given by the ICHR. The college can appoint people against the vacancy. In fact, my Ph.D. was with the ICHR fellowship. In this way, the ICHR promoted research in various ways.

A / In the second half of the 1970s, British historian [Nicholas] Mansergh published Transfer of Power on how power was transferred by the British to India. But that represented the Empire’s version of transfer of power to India. We Indians believed that this is a hard-fought freedom that we have got. It is not a a gift that the British gave us.

A / As a counter to this kind of imperialist representation, the ICHR started a major project — ‘Towards Freedom’ — Prof. S. Gopal was its Director and a large number of volumes were published, bringing out documents from the last years of the British in India. These brought out original documents related to the freedom struggle, which clearly showed that it [Independence] was not a gift of the British but something for which the Indians fought for.