2013-14 English
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p PART – I SECTIONS Section I GENERAL p p INDIAN COUNCIL OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH ANNUAL REPORT 2013-2014 GENERAL The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Government of India duly registered, vide Registration No.S 5339 dated 7th March 1972 under Societies Registration Act (Act.xxi of 1860) being an Act for registration of Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies. The Govt. of India (now, MHRD) on 29th March 1972 on the recommendation of a Working Group set up by the Govt. of Indian in December 1971 comprising Professor R.S. Sharma, Patna University (Chairman); Professor Satish Chandra, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Professor Tapan Raychaudhuri, Delhi University; Dr. S.N. Prasad, Director National Archives; Shri J. Veeraraghvan, Director (Internal Finance), Ministry of Education and Social Welfare; and Smt. S. Doraiswami, Deputy Education Adviser, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare. The primary objective of the Council is to promote and give direction to historical research and to encourage and foster objective and scientific writing of history. Enhancing the academic standard of the output of ICHR activities has been foremost objective in our agenda. The broad aims of the Council as laid down in the Memorandum of Association (MoA) are to bring historians together and provide a forum exchange of views between them and to give a national direction to an objective and rational presentation and interpretation of history, to sponsor historical research programmes and projects and to assist institutions and organizations engaged in historical research. The Council also awards and administers various categories of fellowships for historical research. The Council organizes National/International level Seminars and Workshops on the theme of historical significance besides extending financial assistance to the professional organization of historians in the country for organizing seminars, symposia workshops and conferences etc. both at regional and national levels. It maintains a well equipped Library cum Documentation Centre with facility of DELNET and J-STOR at the Headquarters at New p Delhi. The two Regional Centres functioning at Bengaluru and Guwahati also maintain Library-cum-Documentation Units enriched with research materials for the benefit of scholars and students of their respective regions. As envisaged in para 2(q) of Memorandum of Association (MOA) 1972, the Council advises the Government of India on all such matters pertaining to historical research and training in history methodology as may be referred to it from time to time, including co-operational arrangements in historical research and training facilities with foreign academic bodies. In order to attract talent and encourage historical research, the Council’s two regional centres at Guwahati (Assam) and Bengaluru (Karnataka) continued their academic activities in their respective regions during the year under report. The library-cum-Documentation units at both these centres have come up as the main centres of learning and reference libraries for the scholars of the respective regions. Both these regional centres are providing useful services to the best satisfaction of the scholars of their respective regions including the local scholars. Both the regional centres are instrumental in propagating and implementing various research funding schemes of the Council in their respective region and thus helping the Council to achieve the objective for which it was established by the Govt. of India. Research Methodology and Historiography Course Since 2008 ICHR has organized a series of courses on Research Methodology and Historiography. This is for the benefit of Ph.D scholars and young historians who are required by the UGC to attain certain standards in research work while few universities provide the necessary courses of training in research Methodology. The ICHR research methodology courses offered in Delhi, Bengaluru, Tirichurapally, Hyderabad, Kottayam, Guwahati etc. have been much appreciated. Some of the states have recognized this ICHR course as equivalent to the Refresher Course required of college and Universities teachers by the University Grants Commission and the latter has no objection to that equivalence. The universities who have not yet hosted such a course, p have been suggested through the ICHR Newsletter (Chairman’s column) to discuss with the Member Secretary of the ICHR of the possibility of holding such training courses sponsored by the ICHR. Enhancement of amount of Fellowships in ICHR Because of the small amount of JRF fellowships being offered by ICHR, serious researchers do not feel inclined to apply for ICHR fellowships. The matter was rigorously pursued with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the approval of the Govt. of India has come with the enhancement of the fellowship amounts. Cultural Exchange Programme (CEP) ICHR has active Cultural Exchange relations with many countries out of these Indo-French, Indo-Russian, Indo-Turkish are quite noteworthy. During the period under review, The ICHR has undertaken various steps to accelerate the CEP signed with other countries. Some important events took place during this period: Indo-German Lecture Series “New Perspectives on German Historical Research” The ICHR is an active partner to implement the Indo-German Cultural Exchange Programme of Government of India in the realm of History, particularly the exchange of historians, holding the Joint-Seminars / Workshops. Under the CEP, an initiative was taken by ICHR and the ICHR-DFG steering committee was constituted with representatives from both Germany and India to coordinate activities. Recently the ICHR- DFG Lecture Series “New Perspectives on German Historical Research” has started. Under this series so far, the following lectures were held during this period: z The inaugural Lecture was delivered by Professor Jürgen Kocka on Labour history, its decline and possible revitalization: A view from Europe on 7 November 2013 at ICHR, New Delhi. Professor Basudev Chatterji, Chairman, ICHR delivered the inaugural p address and also presided the lecture. Dr Alexander Hansen, Director, DFG India provided the opening remarks. z European Historiography since 1950: German Contribution by Professor Jürgen Kocka on 8 November 2013 at the Department of History, University of Delhi. z Before The Transition From “Real Socialism” To Real Capitalism by Professor Lutz Niethammer on 6 December 2013 at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU. z The Politics of Performance. Emperor and Imperial Estates in the Holy Roman Empire in Early Modern Times (16th to 18th Centuries) by Professor Harriet Rudolph on 9 December 2013 at ICHR, New Delhi. z Collective Memory and the Resources of Individual Remembering. German and European Experiences and Indian challenges by Professor Lutz Niethammer on 10 December 2013 at ICHR, New Delhi. z Religious Wars in the Holy Roman Empire? The Religious Divide and Warfare in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by Professor Harriet Rudolph on 10 December 2013 at the ICHR SRC, Bangluru. z The Material Culture of Diplomacy. The Impact of Objects on the Dynamics of Habsburg-Ottoman Negotiations at the Sublime Porte (1500–1800) by Professor Harriet Rudolph, on 11 December 2013 at ICHR, New Delhi. z Theoretical Implications of Oral History Practises by Professor Lutz Niethammer on 13 December at the ICHR NERC, Guwahati. z Mapping European historiography: New perspectives on the relationship between historiography and nation building in Europe in 19th and 20th century at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi on 3 March 2014. z Positivism as a recurrent challenge for modern historiography by Professor Lutz Raphael at ICHR, New Delhi on 5 March 2014. z Partisanship and objectivity? Democracy and pluralism in scholarship on contemporary history (the European case) by Professor Lutz Raphael at ICHR SRC, Bangluru on 7 March 2014. Under this Indo-German CEP, a delegation of German Historians participated at the 74th Session of the Indian History Congress: p Professors Eckart Conze, Christoph Cornilissen, Hermann Kulke, Andreas Gestrich and Dr.Torsten Fischer participated at the Indian History Congress in Cuttack from 28-30 December 2013 and gave presentation on following topics: z Professor Cornelißen on ‘The European welfare state in a global context’. z Professor Kulke on ‘Results of recent research on Orissa’. z Professor Conze on ‘Challenges in historical research on Security’. z Professor Gestrichon ‘Writing for relief. New perspectives on pauper literacy in nineteenth century Germany’. Indo-German Lecture Series in Germany The ICHR is an active partner to implement the Indo-German Cultural Exchange Programme of Government of India in the realm of History, particularly the exchange of historians, holding the Joint-Seminars / Workshops. Professor Gopinath Ravindran, Member Secretary, ICHR and Professor B.P. Sahu, Coordinator visited Germany to take the collaborations programme forward and to participate in the ICHR-DFG Joint Steering Committee Meeting for Indo-German Cooperation in the field of historiography on 8 May 2014 at Gottingen and following decision were taken- 1. As a new activity, DFG and ICHR agree to jointly fund one Winter School in India (early October 2015) and one Summer School in Germany (in early October 2016).The objective is to invite 10 to 15 young scholars or so from each country into a “cohort building” process for