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ICHR spikes major history projects, sparks row

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

The reconstituted Indian Council for Historical Research is in the midst of a row for striking down major projects already under way and withholding the distribution of several of its publications as part of an ideological purge in the country's premier history institution.

The ICHR's decision earlier this month to stop the publication of the two volumes of the 'Towards Freedom' project prepared by 'leftist' historians has already kicked up a fresh controversy in academic and political circles. But investigations reveal that there are several other projects started by past councils that are facing doom now.

Authoritative sources confirmed that the new ICHR, comprising mostly pro-Sangh Parivar historians, has scrapped several other projects while withholding the distribution of several recently published books, including a two-part series on India's Partition.

The ICHR kicked up a fresh controversy early this month by ordering the Oxford University Press to stop the publication of two volumes of the 'Towards Freedom' project. The two parts were written by Professor K N Panikkar and Sumit Sarkar, both of whom are known to lean Leftward. 'Towards Freedom' is an ambitious project commissioned several years ago, on which more than Rs 20 million has been spent so far, to record the 1937-47 period of the freedom struggle from the Indian perspective.

Opposition parties condemned the decision and called it "open discrimination" against independent historians and a "blatant attempt at intellectual censorship". Today, several organisations, including teachers and the student movements of the left parties, Youth Congress and some cultural groups staged a demonstration outside the ICHR headquarters in Mandi House area of New Delhi.

Inquiries by rediff.com with authoritative sources revealed that ever since the new council had taken over the organisation, there has been a systematic attempt to put an end to the Leftist domination over the publications and history studies coming out of the institution.

'The Inscriptions of India', a massive attempt by a group of prominent historians to record the inscriptions from ancient times to 1800 AD, has been stalled by the new council even though 12 of its 20 volumes are complete and a few million rupees have been spent on it. Sources said the mammoth project would have included inscriptions found from structures below Babri Masjid. These apparently do not support the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's hypothesis of the mosque having been built over the ruins of a demolished temple.

Among the historians involved in 'The Inscriptions of India' project are Irfan Habib, A M Shastri and K M Shrimali.

Another project, 'Documents on the Economic History of India', too is facing doom. According to sources, three of the 17 volumes of the project have already been published. The project is being conducted by prominent historians such as A K Bagchi of Calcutta and Sabyasachi Bhattacharya of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The first three volumes on 'Railway Construction in India' found instant buyers and was commercially successful. In fact, the railways bought 200 copies of the tome in a day and promised to fund further research on similar studies.

Sources said the project, 'Documents on Economic History of India' has now been put in cold storage, after Rs 1.9 million has already been spent on it.

Among other controversial decisions by the ICHR is the withdrawal of the two-volume writing on Partition, Pangs of Partition, which was released by former prime minister I K Gujral. The council has decided not to circulate the books which were prepared as part of the golden jubilee of Indian independence.

Among other books whose circulation has been stopped are 'We Lived Together' and another book on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

The pro-RSS council, headed by B R Grover, is also alleged to have played a partisan role in demoting three historians who were promoted during the tenure of the last council. Sources said of the six historians with the ICHR who were promoted by a departmental promotions committee, three have been demoted without proper reasons being assigned.

The new council that ended the domination of the Leftists over the institution that distributes a large number of scholarships and grants to individuals and organisations, besides carrying out authoritative studies in history, was appointed by Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi last year.

There are also allegations that the present council has refused to continue with the publication grant to the Indian History Congress, while deciding to fund pro-RSS groups such as the Pre-History Society.

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