Indian Council of Historic Research (ICHR)

Messages: 27
 

• Fabrications On The Way To The Funeral
• Arun Shourie - India Connect website - June 27, 1998
>>> "Rational vs. National," screams the headline of the new pall-bearer of secularism, the magazine Outlook. "Fresh evidence available with Outlook," the story announces, "reveals that not only has the ICHR [the Indian Council of Historical Research] been packed with 'sympathizers' but a new statement of objectives or resolution [sic.] has been added, changing certain key words from the original Memorandum of Association of 1972, legitimised by an Act of Parliament. While the original Memorandum of Association states that ICHR's aims would be to give 'rational' direction to historical research and foster 'an objective and scientific writing of history', the new resolution, which will be included in the Gazette of India, states that ICHR now seeks to give a 'national' direction to an 'objective and national presentation of history'. So, 'rational' has been changed to 'national', and 'scientific' too has been changed to 'national'...."
 
• To undo the scandal, undo the control (Part I of II)
• Arun Shourie - India Connect website - August 4, 1998
>>> "There can be no doubt that the fall of Buddhism in India was due to the invasions of the Musalmans," writes the author. "Islam came out as the enemy of the 'But'. The word 'But,' as everybody knows, is an Arabic word and means an idol. Not many people, however, know that the derivation of the word 'But' is the Arabic corruption of Buddha. Thus the origin of the word indicates that in the Moslem mind idol worship had come to be identified with the Religion of the Buddha. To the Muslims, they were one and the same thing. The mission to break the idols thus became the mission to destroy Buddhism. Islam destroyed Buddhism not only in India but wherever it went. Before Islam came into being Buddhism was the religion of Bactria, Parthia, Afghanistan, Gandhar and Chinese Turkestan, as it was of the whole of Asia...."
 
• To undo the scandal, undo the control (Part II of II)
• Arun Shourie - India Connect website - August 4, 1998
>>> The standard Marxist "explanation" -- the economic cause, the fulfilling of historical functions and thereafter disappearing, right to the remorse at the lapsing into "primeval cults". But today, these "theses" won't do. For today the need is to make people believe that Hindus too were intolerant, that Hindus also destroyed temples of others....
 
• Whitewash For Objective History (PART I of II) !
• Arun Shourie - India Connect website - August 4, 1998
>>> Column II.263 - "This is an old charge which keeps surfacing now and  then," wrote one of those "eminent historians", K. N.  Panikkar, in an vituperative response to an article of mine - - the charge that close to two crores had been spent on the  "Towards Freedom" project of the Indian Council of  Historical Project, and little had been achieved. "About a  year back Times of India carried a front page story on this.  The historians had then clarified through a public  statement published in several newspapers, that they have  not drawn any money from the ICHR and that they worked  for five years purely in an honorary capacity. When he [that  is, me] gets the information from the ministry, if he does,  that the editors have not taken any money, I would  normally expect Shourie to tender a public apology. But  given the intellectual honesty and cultural level reflected in  his article, I do not think it would be forthcoming. The  alternative of suing for defamation the likes of Shourie is  below one's dignity. But I do expect at least the ministry to  make a public statement on the factual position."
 
• Whitewash For Objective History (PART II of II) !
• Arun Shourie - India Connect website - August 4, 1998
>>> Page 141 : Aushuddho -- The logical, philosophical,  materialist Mutazilla disappeared. On the one hand, the  fundamentalist thinking based on the Quran and the  Hadis...." Shuddho -- "Delete, 'On the one hand, the  fundamentalist thinking based on the Quran and the  Hadis'...."
 
• Red green clubs
• Rakesh Sinha - The Telegraph - June 30, 1998
>>> Changes in the composition of the Indian Council for Historical Research, an autonomous body under the Union human resources development ministry, have provoked the country's Marxist historians. They have opposed the nomination of the new appointees, questioning their ideological integrity by dubbing them "communal". The controversy has reignited debates on Indian historiography and the role of various educational and research institutes in the country.
 
• 'Facts of history cannot be altered'
• Prof. B. B. Lal - The Hindu - July 1, 1998
>>> Under the caption 'Tampering with history', the Editor of The Hindu, (dated June 12, 1998) dealt with the reconstitution of the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR). Since I happen to be one of the 18 persons nominated by the Government on the Council, the editor took the opportunity to have a dig at me. He made three distinct allegations. To quote: (i) "his (i.e. my) initial conclusion was that there was no evidence to suggest the 'historicity' of the Ramayana"; (ii) "he even now refuses to hand over his field diaries to ASI and throw these open to fellow archaeologists"; and (iii) "Professor Lal began echoing the Sangh Parivar and even claimed to possess 'clinching' evidence suggesting-the Babri Masjid stood on the ruins of a Hindu Temple.
 
• In defence of history
• Arvind N. Das - The Pioneer - July 4, 1998
>>> Why is the Bharatiya Janata Party so afraid of history? It might have been supposed that history should have been attractive for a party which is so rooted in the past as to have an ideological mooring that is almost antediluvian. But then there is a difference between mythology and history and while legend is the stuff in which the party revels, the BJP obviously shies away from an actual engagement with the past.
 
• Shourie is wrong
• Prof. K. N. Panikkar - The Asian Age - July 7, 1998
>>> Referring to the records of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Arun Shourie has discovered that the alleged change in the BJP government's resolution reconstituting the Indian Council for Historical Research from "rational" to "national" is in fact a typing error. The mistake occurred, according to him, not now but some 20 years ago. Thereafter, every time the council was reconstituted the mistake was carried forward. And it happened this time as well.
 
• Not done, Mr Shourie (a letter)
• The Asian Age - July 8, 1998
>>> Sir, The undersigned women's organisations strongly protest against Mr Arun Shourie's debasing references to female anatomy in an article written by him entitled Fabrications on the way to the funeral in The Asian Age (July 3). The article is about the ICHR, in the course of which Mr Arun Shourie writes "If an RSS publication publishes even an interview with me, that is further proof of my being communal. But so tough are the hymen of these progressives that even when they contribute signed articles to publications of the Communist party their virginity remains intact."
 
• Well done, Mr Shourie (a letter)
• M. Bhaktavatsala - The Asian Age - July 11, 1998
>>> Sir, I do not understand the hurt feelings of the women's associations at a sentence from Arun Shourie's article in The Asian Age. Why should they take personal umbrage to what is essentially a metaphor? Haven't they heard of reference to the "denuding of virgin forests" or "rape of virgin land?"
 
• Well done, Mr Shourie (a letter)
• M. L. Verma - The Asian Age - July 11, 1998
>>> Sir, One must congratulate Mr Arun Shourie for exposing highly-placed historians in his thoroughly researched article, Fabrications on the way to the funeral (July 3).
 
• For ignoramus Satiricus ignorance of history is bliss
• Satiricus - Organiser - July 12, 1998
>>> The trouble with history is that it happened. If that is not clear enough Satiricus will say the trouble with history is that it happened the way it happened. If this is still not clear to fellow-dunces Satiricus will say the trouble with history is that it happened without caring how it happened.
 
• The rewriting of history
• Partha S. Ghosh - The Hindu - July 15, 1998
>>> THE controversy over rewriting history has once again surfaced. While the Sangh Parivar is alleged to be using the state machinery to interpret history as per its definition of the nation, most of the professional historians are up in arms to thwart this endeav666. In this duel (the Arun Shourie-K. N. Panikkar debate in the Asian Age), the casualty is a balanced and healthy academic discourse.
 
• A letter in response to "Shourie is wrong". - The Hindu
• Ashok V. Chowgule - The Asian Age - July 16, 1998
>>> Reference "Shourie is wrong" (July 7) by Prof K N Panikkar. As is to be expected from him, he has made a desperate effort to confuse the issues raised Arun Shourie. Various publications have sought to say that it was the present government that changed the word 'rational' to 'national' in the notification on ICHR. And this mistruth was used to go on another tirade against the BJP. Shourie, I am sure, has no complaints about the tirade against the BJP. What he, and many others, objects to is when it is based on mistruths.
 
• The ICHR controversy
• V. Krishna Ananth - The Hindu - July 19, 1998
>>> THE BJP and the RSS leadership have never let go an opportunity to tamper with history and distort the discipline by way of mixing up mythology and beliefs with historical definitions. The objective behind such an exercise has always been to redefine nationalism in terms that would suit the Hindutva project. And it was only natural that the Union Ministry for Human Resources Development grabbed the immediate opportunity available before it, to pack the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) with men who agreed with the RSS on several aspects of historical research, particularly on the definition of nationalism in exclusivist terms.
 
• History as what the state states
• Harsh Sethi - The Times of India - July 20, 1998
>>> The wrangle over the reconstitution of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is getting increasingly ugly. The recent exchange between columnist Arun Shourie and historian K N Panikkar in the pages of The Asian Age is unlikely to lift the quality of public debate. Frequent references to virginity and hymens, secular or Hindu, in what ostensibly is a serious concern about the appropriation of History, is not just politically incorrect, it is in rank bad taste.
 
• Tit for tat (a letter)
• E G K Menon - The Asian Age - July 23, 1998
>>> Sir, Mr K.N. Panikkar's article Shourie is wrong (July 7) on the pretext of replying to Mr Shourie's Fabrication on the way to the funeral, was an absolute farce. Mr Shourie has levelled several serious charges, characteristically reinforced by irrefutable facts against Leftist historians, including Mr Panikkar by naming them....
 
• Not just whitewash, hogwash too!
• Arun Shourie - The Asian Age - July 31, 1998
>>> "This is an old charge which keeps surfacing now and  then," wrote one of those "eminent historians," K. N.  Panikkar, in response to an article of mine the charge that  close to two crores had been spent on the "Towards  Freedom" project of the Indian Council of Historical  Project, and little had been achieved.
 
• Leftists signature campaign on ICHR (Part I of V) - The Asian Age
• Posted By Ashok Chowgule - August 5, 1998
>>> Dear Friends:1
This statement deserves your urgent attention and support. May I request you to kindly supporting it by appending your name to the list below, and send it to one of the e-mail addresses given below. Please forward this message to as many friends as possible.
 
• Leftists signature campaign on ICHR (Part II of V) - The Asian Age
• Posted By Ashok Chowgule - August 7, 1998
>>> A friend of mine has sent me a copy of the appeal made for signatures in context of ICHR. It is quite clear that there is an organised campaign to create confusion and disinformation. In particular the charges made against Prof B B Lal have been answered by him many times over, most recently in a letter that he wrote to The Hindu and responded by him. If you have a modicum of dishonesty (sorry for the language!) I appeal to you to visit the website which I am actively involved with.
 
• Leftists signature campaign on ICHR (Part III of V) - The Asian Age
• Posted By Ashok Chowgule - August 7, 1998
>>> “Dear Mr. Harsh Kapoor: I have read the memorandum/manifesto that you have circulated about the alleged infiltration and takeover of the ICHR by the "Sangh Parivar." While it is important for scholars to be skeptical.....
 
• Leftists signature campaign on ICHR (Part IV of V) - The Asian Age
• Posted By Ashok Chowgule - August 7, 1998
>>> Here are excerpts from recent writings by Arun Shourie on the doings of the old ICHR (Indian Council of Historical Research.) Arun Shourie explains why the old ICHR needed to be reconstituted.
 
• Leftists signature campaign on ICHR (Part V of V) - The Asian Age
• Posted By Ashok Chowgule - August 7, 1998
>>> Koenraad Elst (Leuven, 1959) grew up in the Catholic community in Belgium. He was active for some years in what is known as the New Age movement, before studying at the famed Catholic University of Leuven (KUL). He graduated in Chinese Studies, Indo-Iranian Studies and Philosophy. He took courses in Indian philosophy at the Benares Hindu University.....
 
• ICHR deputy chief accused of copying research
• Ashish Kumar Sen - The Asian Age - August 12, 1998
>>> The Indian Council of Historical Research will reopen an investigation against one of the council's deputy-directors charged with plagiarising research work by a prominent historian. The work was allegedly submitted to the Rajasthan University by the official for which he was awarded a Ph.D.
 
• Govt patronage doesn help: Historians
• Kaveree Bamzai - The Indian Express - August 11, 1998
>>> ITS budget this year is a paltry Rs 2.24 crore, aptly described by Jawaharlal Nehru University historian Harbans Mukhia as "peanuts". It has Rs 30 lakh worth of bills pending. The Fifth Pay Commission award has yet to be implemented. Its budding doesn't seem to have had a lick of paint since its inception in 1964 and has a pipal tree growing into its third floor. Its work consists primarily of doling out research project grants and study cum travel grants by the all powerful .Research and Publications committee. No textbook writing or syllabi-setting ever appears on its agenda. Yet, to hear some historians talk about it its "capture" by Right-wing forces will ;bean the end of history as we know it.
 
• Rs 1.71 cr spent on incomplete ICHR project
• Ashish Kumar Sen - The Asian Age - August 10, 1998
>>> One of the historians assigned a research volume in the  prominent Towards Freedom project, undertaken by the  Indian Council of Historical Research, has left his study  mid-way. Professor Gyan Pande's disassociation with the  project has provided one in a flurry of blows to the research  which has dragged its feet for the last two decades. Prof.  Pande was to collate facts pertaining to the freedom  struggle in the year 1941.