Indian Council of Historical Research

Subject :History

Section: Art and Culture

Concept :

The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is looking to tap rolls of leather-bound record books with details such as place of origin, names, births, deaths, reason of death, place of residence, grants made to temples, caste and clan to fill “gaps” in Indian history.
These books are available with genealogy priests called “Panda” in Haridwar.
According to ICHR, these books and records are invaluable sources of the social and economic conditions of the times and have remained untapped because they could not reach the respective archives of States.
Historians believe that these records can have important information on past famines, epidemics, migration, movement of people, and social history on how clans and communities were organised.
Apart from Haridwar, similar records are also available in religious centres like Ujjain, Nasik, Gaya, Gangotri, and Rameshwaram.
According to historians, the records can be a rich source for the history of migration and the ICHR will systematise the process of integrating the data from these records.

Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR):

ICHR is an autonomous body of the Union Ministry of Education.
It was established under Societies Registration Act (Act XXI of 1860) in 1972 by an Administrative Order of the then Union Ministry of Education and Social Welfare.
It is based in New Delhi with regional centersin Pune, Bengaluru and Guwahati.
ICHR disburses funds for carrying out research to Indian as well as foreign scholars on their applications for fellowships, grants, and symposia made to ICHR or through HRD Ministry.
It has provided financial assistance to the historians and direction to the research scholars in their multifarious topics of historical research.

Composition of the ICHR:

The composition of the Council is as follows:
An eminent historian nominated by the Government of India who shall be Chairman of the Council;
Eighteen historians nominated by the Government of India;
A Representative of the U.G.C;
Director-General of Archaeology;
Director, National Archives;
Four persons to represent the Government who shall be nominated by the Government of India and which shall include one representative each of the Ministry of Education, the Department of Culture and the Ministry of Finance; and Member Secretary.