Amritsar, December 28
The historians of a society have a very special role to play in the creation of a new consciousness, especially in a fast-changing world, where living patterns, political ideologies and social values are getting transformed right before our eyes. This rethinking and rewriting also has to be done incessantly, virtually in every generation.
Capt
Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, Punjab, releases a book on
Maharaja Ranjit Singh “Khalsa Ithas aatey Vichardhara” at the
inauguration of the Indian History Congress at Guru Nanak Dev
University, Amritsar, on Saturday. — Photo Rajiv Sharma
|
This was stated by the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, while inaugurating the 63rd session of Indian History Congress being hosted by the Department of History of Guru Nanak Dev University, here today.
The inaugural session was presided over by Prof Dwijendera Tripathi, President of the Indian History Congress, while Dr S.P. Singh Vice-Chancellor, welcomed the delegates.
The Chief Minister said history, especially military history, had been his first love while he was a student and that love had sustained throughout.
The “Anglo-Sikh wars have been analysed in detail but the most important part is missing. For example, the deployment of the Sikh Army, its composition, its logistics, its movements in the battlefield, the formation of the columns, the overall complexion and disposition — all this has been awfully ignored,” he said.
He said although the Indian History Congress will focus in totality on the Indian history, yet it would do a singular service to historical analysis, if the military part of Punjab history was taken care of. He also emphasised the “human face” of history, which to him was the basic concern.
The Chief Minister also announced the revival of Guru Ravi Dass Chair at Guru Nanak Dev University and assured full financial support for it.
“Many sites of the Indus Valley civilisation have been unearthed here. An admixture of Persian, Greek, Scythian, Parthian, Kushan and Huna blood led in the ancient times to the formulation of an eclectic, tolerant and vibrant culture, the dominant strain of which is still clearly visible in our social and cultural life”.
In other words, Punjab also is the home of a religion and spiritual movements which originated to incultate, on one hand, the spirit of bhakti and, on the other, rationality and pragmatism, he said.
Delivering his presidential address on “Crisis of Indian Polity and the Historian”, Prof Tripathi said the crisis of the Indian polity was basically due to the same underlying factors that caused the disintegration of the imperial unities on numerous occasions in the past.
The empires crumbled because those who followed the creators of these empires lacked the qualities and the competence to nurture their inheritance, he said.
He said the post-Independence generation had been systematically throwing away its bequests for transient political gains and now the same motive seems to be extending itself even into the realm of historical learning to “distort and misrepresent our past”.
