ICHR plans encyclopedia of Indian villages

NEW DELHI: Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is trying to break new grounds. On Wednesday chairperson Y Sudershan Rao held forth for more than an hour on how the Council is preparing to take corporate work by consulting real estate and textile companies apart from joining the dots of history writing, bridging gap between Harappan civilization and Gangetic plain, planning a mammoth encyclopedia of Indian villages complete with its heroes, myth, ballads and history as well as histories of princely states.

Asked if the entire exercise is to create a new history, Rao said dots need to be connected. He pointed out how very little is known about the period between the end of Harappan civilization and 6th Century BC. “Not enough archaeological excavations have been done,” he said, adding that Delhi should be excavated to find traces of times of Mahabharata.

Repeatedly asked as to what purpose village encyclopedia will serve and how facts will be separated from myths, all Rao could say is that the proposed project will only be a compilation, leaving the duty of research to scholars. A historian himself, who claims that Ramayana and Mahabharata are not epic tales but work of history, Rao said the effort will lead to creation of “people’s history from ancient times.”

For instance, he said, people can say which ancient sage crossed the village. But how will such claims be authenticated, someone asked. Rao said, “An expert will judge it. We should have trust in them. In any case research will be done by scholars.” Another person asked, “Don’t people already know about such things?” Rao did not agree. “The new generation does not know anything about their village. It will all be lost soon.”

He said ICHR will be looking for funds from corporate sector to complete the project.

It was Rao’s first interaction with media and he was making the most of it. Before talking about villages, he said ICHR has the expertise to do consultancy for private real estate, pharmaceutical and textile firms. How? “Our scholars can do research for real estate companies and tell them about architecture designs and how cities can retain its character. We can do research for buildings and give face of architecture. Similarly, pharma companies can be told about ancient medicine system. Textile companies can be helped with ancient and medieval designs as well as about jewellery. ICHR can become an interface with industry,” he said.

The idea behind doing the history of princely states, Rao said, is to showcase their contribution and how Indian culture was protected by them. Rao said these states never directly came under the British rule and were very popular with their subjects and when time for accession came in 1947 most of them agreed. The first such study will begin from Cooch Behar.