Itanagar: RGU organises Workshop-II on the ‘Unsung Heroes of Arunachal Pradesh’
ITANAGAR- A Workshop on the ‘Unsung Heroes of Arunachal Pradesh’ organised by department of History, Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), sponsored by Government of Arunachal Pradesh
The workshop was aimed at addressing and updating the community leaders of all the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh about the ongoing project on ‘Unsung Heroes’. The project aims at finding out the freedom fighters from the state of Arunachal Pradesh on the occasion of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava’ (75th year of India’s independence).
The workshop also aimed at getting inputs from the community leaders to further aid the project. The project was attended by about 200 people from multiple CBOs (Community Based Organisation), clan organisations, village chiefs, gaon burahs, student leaders and eminent personalities from various clans and tribes. T
he workshop had two session. The Advisory Committee Meeting was held in Session-I which was followed up with Interaction with CBOs (Community Based Organisation) and Local Intellectuals in the Session-II.
The first session of the workshop started at 10:00 am with welcome address by Prof. S. K. Chaudhuri, Dean, Faculty of Social Science who welcomed all the dignitaries. It was then followed by opening remarks by Prof. Ashan Riddi, Coordinator of the Project. Prof. Ashan stated that the workshop is a very good opportunity to interact with all the CBO, clan organisations, village chiefs, gaon burahs and student leader under one banner to further smoothen the process of the project for finding out unsung heroes. He further stated the difficulties and hurdles related to the present research work and requested all the CBOs to submit documents on their respective unsung heroes before 10th August 2022 in order to aid the research team, also to not leave even a single name that should be recognised as a freedom fighter.
Dr. Joram Begi, member of advisory committee of the project spoke next on the importance of the project. He stated that Arunachal does not have any authentic textbook on history and this project shall prove pivotal for building up a proper history book. The project according to him not only plays important role on discovering lost freedom fighters but also bring up the lesser known facts and eminent persons of our state. He spoke on many anglo-tribal incidents which in the British records are written with great biasness and wrong chronology, so this project should aim at correcting those facts. Lastly, he said that the practice of history writing in our state shall continue even after the conclusion of this project.
Dr. N. T. Rikam, Registrar, Rajiv Gandhi University spoke next, he emphasized on Deputy Chief Minister and Government of Arunachal Pradesh’s next endeavour on establishing a centre for Arunachal History and a centre for buddhist studies in Rajiv Gandhi University very soon for which amount of 5 crore has already been allocated. He further stated that research methodology shall be thoroughly followed while doing any research and this project according to him shall be the stepping stone of history writing in Arunachal Pradesh. Further, he emphasized on reducing subjectivity while in the following project.
Mr. Dani Sulu, Member secretary of core committee for the project of unsung heroes spoke next. He explained how after length discussion RGU in general and Department of History in particular was entrusted with this project. He highlighted the importance of Oral Tradition in a society where written history is absent. Also, he said that every person has a different approach and perspective on history, even the Britishers had their own perspective, therefore all the different perspective shall be explored to come up with a comprehensive history of the region. Further, he stated that with this project, the freedom fighters of Arunachal Pradesh should get due recognition in the pages of Indian mainstream history.
Prof. P. K. Panigarhi, Department of Political History who for the workshop was the Vice-Chancellor in charge spoke next. He stated that every community has their own oral history which should be preserved by writing it down in the pages of history. Further, he spoke that even the most civilized society on earth in this 21st century tries to find its roots, in that case, we are fortunate that we are not yet so far from our roots and hence we should do best to preserve it. The ended his speech by stating that the three departments of RGU; Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, Department of Anthropology and Department of History, are the main players in the effort for writing history of Arunachal Pradesh and they should do their work with utmost dedication.
The workshop ended on 12:00 pm with vote of thanks by Prof. S. N. Singh, Member of Research Committee for the project of unsung heroes and all the dignitaries proceeded to their respective seminar halls for the second session.
