The Indian History Congress (IHC), country’s oldest professional body of historians is in a dilemma after the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) expressed inability to host the 79th session of the IHC citing inadequate funds.
The university made the announcement on Wednesday, 12 December, on its website.
“The scheduled 79th session of the Indian History Congress, 28-30 December, 2018, at Savitribai Phule Pune University, is postponed until further notice,” the notice on the website reads.
The IHC wrote a letter to university saying that the host cannot unilaterally take such a decision and asked it to refund the registration fee to all participants.
In a notice uploaded by IHC on their website, IHC Secretary R Mahalakshmi expressed “shock and disappointment.”
With historian KM Shrimali is the body’s general president, the annual conference is attended by over 1,200 delegates and about 700 papers are presented.
Radhika Seshan, associate professor of history at SPPU told The Indian Express that the University was exploring other options to arrange funds.
“So far, we have managed to arrange less than half of the expected budget (Rs 1.5 crore). That is why we have sought some extension in arranging the same,” she told IE.
She further said that the organising committee will meet the SPPU V-C on Thursday to decide the next course of action.
Mahalakshmi told The Indian Express that it was not up to the organising committee to take decisions regarding the rescheduling of the wedding.
“She (Seshan) had first suggested postponement in an email on 6 December and was promptly told by us that it’s not the place of a local secretary to make decisions on whether the conference is to be postponed and when it will be held in future. The venue of the IHC is announced a year in advance. The university has already collected registration fee of Rs 2,000 from over 700 delegates. SPPU could not have possibly discovered its inability to arrange funds just a few weeks before the Congress,” she said.
The IHC and the NDA government have shared an uneasy relationship in the past with instances like Amartya Sen’s inaugural speech in 2001critical of the Vajpayee government and passing a resolution against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement last year for citing plastic surgery and genetic science to explain creation of Ganesh and Karna.
(With inputs from The Indian Express)
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