ICHR chief Sudershan Rao recommends RSS historians for top committee

The intra-academia controversy that followed Sudershan Rao’s appointment as Indian Council of Historical Research’s (ICHR) chief is likely to repeat itself as Rao, a former member of RSS’ Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana (ABISY), has recommended names of three other ABISY members for the top panel in the research body.

A report in The Economic Times said that ICHR’s current panel’s term ended on 22 December 2014 and the recommended ABISY historians are Narayan Rao, national vice-president of the Sangh history wing, Ishwar Sharan Vishwakarma, all-India general secretary, and Nikhilesh Guha, head of the Bengal chapter.

The final list will be cleared by the Union Home Ministry. According to this report in The India Express other favourites for the top committee are archeology and ancient Indian history experts.

Here is a brief background for the three recommended historians:

Narayan Rao: This 73-year-old professor retired from Berhampur University in Odisha in 2001. Rao believes that Indian epics and ancient texts like Vedas and Puranas have historically correct and verifiable information. Speaking to Economic Times, Rao said that there is “enough scientific evidence to prove that many things mentioned in our Vedas and Puranas were real. The river Saraswati, for instance, is not a myth. The course of this river has been discovered by archaeologists and it should be acknowledged by historians.”

Nikhilesh Guha: Guha retired from Kalyani University in Bengal. When asked by ET what his priorities would be as a top ICHR panelist, 68-year-old Guha said “he would focus on researching Bengal’s little-known but rich tradition of Hinduism. Guha added he would want to do more work on the Gita and on Shyama Prasad Muhkerjee.

The last recommendation, Vishwakarma, currently is a professor of ancient history, archaeology and culture in the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University. He said Vedas, Puranas and Vedic tribes are his areas of research interest.

A votary of the caste system, Y Sudershan Rao’s appointment as the chief of ICHR earlier in 2014 had raised a few eyebrows and Rao’s views on ancient Indian scriptures and epics like Mahabharat and Ramayana did not help matters. Renowned historian and author Romila Thapar in this India Today piece had written: “One is surprised at the appointment of Professor Y. Sudershan Rao as chairperson of the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR). Professor Rao’s work is unfamiliar to most historians, with little visibility of research that he might have carried out.” She adds that while Rao has “published popular articles on the historicity of the Indian epics” none has appeared in any “peer-reviewed journal.” (You can read the full text here )