The Kerala University will host the 33rd Annual Conference of the South Indian History Congress in the city early next year. Hailed as one of the significant gatherings of social scientists, the Congress will be held on February 15, 16 and 17, 2013.
The Department of History, University of Kerala, has been entrusted with the task of organising the conference of the South Indian History Congress, founded in 1978 at Madurai. Around 2,000 participants and erudite scholars from across the country will be participating in the three-day deliberations on various facets of South Indian life and history.
The Vice-Chancellor, University of Kerala, had invited the South Indian History Congress (SIHC) in June 2012 to conduct its Annual Session at Thiruvananthapuram as part of the University’s platinum jubilee celebrations. A team of officials of the SIHC had visited the university and accepted the proposal, a statement from the organisers said.
The conference will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor will deliver the keynote address. The Minister for Education P K Abdu Rabb will preside over the function. Five simultaneous sessions would be held at different venues after the inaugural ceremony. Four endowment lectures, erudite discourses, public sessions, cultural programmes and exhibitions would form part of the Congress.
The valedictory function would be presided over by the Minister for Culture and inaugurated by the Leader of the Opposition. The Vice-Chairman, Higher Education Council, will deliver the keynote address.
Seventeen committees under the chairmanship of the Syndicate members have been constituted to organise the conference. M A Vahid MLA is to be the organising committee chairman. Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Professor and Head Department of History, University of Kerala Dr Suresh Jnaneswaran has been nominated as the local secretary and convener. The Department of History is celebrating its golden jubilee year and the sixty-sixth year of the prestigious publication ‘The Journal of Indian History.’