OU to host South Indian History Congress

​Hyderabad: The century-old Osmania University is all geared up to hold the prestigious 39th South Indian History Congress (SIHC) from February 8 to 10. Nearly 1,500 participants are expected for the 3-day event, including renowned historians, professors, researchers, faculty, scholars and students. 

Elaborating on the details, OU Vice-Chancellor Prof S Ramachandram on Wednesday said that the history congress is being hosted to commemorate completion of hundred years of the History department in the varsity, which was set up in 1919. OU, which is hosting the history congress for the second time, had conducted the 6th South Indian History Congress in 1986. 

Delegates for the congress are expected from Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Goa. The V-C said that inaugural programme would be held at Tagore Auditorium on February 8 while sessions and deliberations on various history-related topics would go on at the Centre for Distance Education premises. In all, 400 papers have been received to be presented in the congress. 

More papers are expected before the event. Prof Arjun Rao Kuthadi, Head, Department of History at OU and SIHC local secretary, said that they were engrossed in the preparatory works for the last six months and thanked the V-C for extending support. The keynote address in the inaugural session would be delivered by Prof Badrinarayan of Allahabad University. 

OU is expecting few more delegates and papers since two more days are left for the start of the congress, he said. Dr Sivadasan, Associate Professor from Calicut University, that hosted the last conference explained about the history of the SIHC. 

South region's history, culture and role in freedom movement was deliberately neglected by north Indian historians for two to three decades and that compelled historians from south India to start this conference in 1978 to deliberate and highlight the history of several states in the region. He said that organisers had given the chance to OU to host the summit in view of the History department crossing century milestone.