Kapil Raj, director, School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, PSL University (France), inaugurated the fifth edition of the Kerala History Congress, a three-day event to be attended by 750 academicians, at Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU) here on Thursday.
Prof. Raj called for integrating historical research with different knowledge streams so as to break the boundaries set by different cultures and languages.
Rajan Gurukkal, president, Kerala History Congress (KHC), presided over the function.
Kesavan Veluthat, general president-elect, Indian History Congress, was honoured on the occasion.
R. Mahalakshmi of Jawaharlal Nehru University delivered the keynote address. Sabu Thomas, Vice Chancellor of MGU, and M.H. Ilias, working chairman, KHC, K.A. Manjush, and so on spoke.
The inaugural session was followed by a special session on ‘Higher Education in India - Crisis and Crossroads,’ which emphasised the need to resist the systematic efforts to break down academic activities and democratic administrative systems established as part of the country’s higher education sector.
Attempts flayed
The session called for ending the authoritarian approaches towards education sector and registered its protest on the recent attempts to rewrite history and downgrade scientific approaches in education.
Malavika Binny moderated the session, in which Amal Pullarkkat (JNU), Ladeeda Farzana (Jamia Millia Islamia), Aisha Abdul Khader (TISS, Mumbai), and Aslam Naslim ( MGU) took part.
