By Afshan Khan for TwoCircles.net
The Indian History Congress (IHC) seems to be landing into a big crisis, arguably on trivial reasons which threaten its annual session that has been held each year except for certain years of some exceptional national crisis. The first session took place in the Bharat Itihas Sanshodhan Mandal, Pune in 1935; rechristened as the IHC, it is the largest professional and academic body of Indian historians. It has at present 7,000 ordinary and life-members. It also publishes very thick volumes of Proceedings, even though a certain degree of favouritism in providing spaces to the contributors also prevails, according to some of the members.
This year, the next session, i.e., the 78th session, was scheduled to be held at the Jadavpur University, Kolkata (West Bengal). Yet, without any national crisis, the next session of it is in danger. The reason behind this is internal and has been caused by some of its very influential members, according to the sources.
The members of Indian History Congress have been informed with a message via email that the organisation of next session is in doubt. According to the Facebook post on the timeline of Prof. Hitendra Patel, of the Rabindra Bharti University (Kolkata), the Executive Member of IHC, “Ishrat Alam has sent a message to all members of the IHC regarding the next session of Indian History Congress. He has requested not to send delegation fee or book ticket until further notice. Some developments have taken place at the local level. We hope everything will be clear shortly. All members should see the message issued by our General Secretary.” A similar post is available on the wall of Prof. Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, former President, Medieval Indian section, IHC, and Chairman, Dept. of History, AMU, who adds his conjecture that the Jadavpur University is no longer intending to host now.
It has also been mentioned by the General Secretary of the IHC on its official website that a problem has arisen about the availability of the Jadavpur University to host the session of December, which was scheduled to be held on 28th, 29th and 30th of December, 2017. He has asked the members to wait till his next ‘circular clarifying the situation’ which will be issued soon. In a conversation with the TwoCircles.net, Prof. Ishrat Alam, AMU, the General Secretary of IHC, said in a calm tone that the matter has been resolved and it will be organised as per the schedule. On the question related to the discrepancy, he said that there occurred a problem regarding the availability of the Jadavpur University but the matter will be resolved within two days. Now, the question is if the matter has to be resolved within two days, then why he issued the notice. He should have waited for the next two days!
According to the confidential sources, the biggest reason behind this uncertainty about the next session is the unwillingness of the President of IHC, Prof. Irfan Habib to share a stage with Mamata Banerjee. It has been reported that Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, has funded ₹40 lakhs for the organisation of 78th session and hence she has expressed her wishes to be the Chief Guest to inaugurate the session of the IHC. Now, one must add this is not an uncommon trait among the annual sessions of the organisation. Earlier too, Chief Ministers have attended its sessions. But the reluctance of Prof. Habib is understandable, given that he is a cardholder of the CPI-M, the bête noire, of Mamta Banerjee. While the political reasons for this stalemate become too obvious, it is to be noticed that he did not have any problem in accepting Rs 40 lakh from the government of Mamata Banerjee. In that case, it would be interesting to wait till the next announcement by the General Secretary would be made, and to see whether the issue would really be resolved. So far, most often, politicians, dignitaries, chief ministers have been inaugurating the IHC sessions.
The Local Secretary, Prof. Subhasis Biswas of Jadavpur University, was not available for his comments. Sources close to him, however, shared that he had indicated the Secretary about it in early October, through email. But the members and participants were kept uninformed about the stalemate. Some of the IHC members are in touch with the Trinamool leader, Derek O’Brien. Sources close to him also told us that Banerjee should be the chief guest to inaugurate the IHC session.
Many members are at gross unease as they have already booked their travel tickets. Discontents have already been brewing at the undemocratic and whimsical style of functioning of the people at the helm of its affairs. They are angry that gradually this august body (IHC) is losing its sheen. Many less deserving and least accomplished people have been promoted. Even the Secretary does not have any book to his credit. He has published some essays in lesser-known journals, on the history of technology, a subject on which Prof. Irfan Habib has already published a popular book, says a very senior member of the IHC on the condition of anonymity.