I wouldn’t have 80% of current ICHR members, says dissenter Gopinath Ravindran

NEW DELHI: The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) under its new chairman Y Sudershan Rao has become intolerant of dissent, Professor Gopinath Ravindran told ET on Tuesday, breaking his silence over why he recently resigned as the Council’s member–secretary midway through his term.

Ravindran quit the post last week because of differences with Rao over the Council’s decision to disband the advisory committee of its journal comprising 21 eminent historians, including Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib. As first reported by ET on May 16, the member-secretary had opposed this decision during the meeting of the editorial board of the journal.

“During the meeting, I had asked why they were in favour of sacking the entire advisory committee to which the one of the members said that these historians were elitist and he used other unsavory words. Mine was the only dissenting voice there.

When the minutes were prepared, the chairman refused to sign it saying the member-secretary cannot disagree with a decision taken by the Council members. This was clear curbing of democratic rights and so I put in my papers,” he told ET on Tuesday.

Ravindran, a professor of history at Jamia Millia Islamia, was appointed as ICHR’s member-secretary under the previous UPA II government and his term was to expire in 2016.

The ICHR has been at the centre of several controversies ever since the appointment of its new chief under the NDA II government. Rao’s appointment was met with stiff opposition from the academic world as he did not have any work published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Ravindran said he agreed with the criticism regarding Rao’s scholarship and that 80% of the Council’s current members do not have any credible historical research to their credit.