Major General (Dr.) Gangandeep Bakshi was the Chief Guest of the Seminar, Mr. Anuj Dhar, a renowned journalist. Prof. Nageshwar Rao, Vice Chancellor IGNOU, Prof. D. Gopal, Director, School of Social Science (SoSS) and Prof. Kapil Kumar Director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Freedom Struggle Studies were also present during the Seminar.

 

Presentations were made by Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Gagandeep Bakshi as the Key Speaker and Mr. Anuj Dhar, a renowned journalist known for his historical research on Netaji Bose.  Maj. Gen. Bakshi discussed at length the contribution of INA and Subhash Chandra Bose in forcing the British to leave India.  Mr. Anuj Dhar, the author of best seller “India’s biggest cover-up” and a champion against the myths of the reported death of Subhash Chandra Bose discussed the various issues linked to Bose after 1945 and championed the cause of declassification of secret files about Netaji. 

 

This Seminar also had presentations by three young scholars, namely,  

 

1)      Dr. Sarwarul Haque who presents a Paper on INA and Netaji as referred to in the Urdu Press between 1945-47.  He discusses the poetry and write-ups related to Azad Hind Fauz which demonstrate the popularity of Netaji among the Urdu speaking people of India.  At a time when the country was being driven towards partition by the British, Muslim League and the Congress.

2)      Dr. Sushil Kumar Tiwari presented a Paper describes Netaji’s popularity as reported through the two major newspapers of Hindi ‘Abhudaya and Aaj’ which are full of write-ups and poetry during this period.

3)      Dr. Amba Pande in her presentation mentions the role of people of Indian origin in India’s freedom struggle through their support to INA and Netaji Bose.

Prof. Kapil Kumar while introducing the theme demanded that all files related to the Indian Freedom Struggle and Freedom Fighters must be declassified and the Government must ensure the safe conservation of these files.  Prof. Kumar also demanded that the process of declassification should not be left to the bureaucrats alone but historians must be involved in this exercise and for this there should be a Standing Committee at the National Level.

 

Prof.  Kapil Kumar pointed out that the mood of the country during 1945-47 was for the liberation of India and not a partitioned India to which the Indian Political Parties agreed.  This was not the India of INA and Netaji.  He also pointed out that the INA trials clearly demonstrated the unity of all communities of India and so did the Royal Navel Mutiny but the top leadership of the Congress failed to understand this mood by accepting partition of the country.  Prof. Kumar is insisted on the role of the people of Indian origin in the fight carried out by the INA and Netaji and it is unfortunate that the Indian history textbooks do not even refer to that which makes it necessary to revisit the sources of History for both deconstruction of biased histories and reconstruction to the extent possible and reconstruct the history of sacrifice, martyrdom and fight for freedom.

 

The Indira Gandhi Centre for Freedom Struggle Studies (IGCFSS) at IGNOU is headed by Prof. Kapil Kumar, a noted historian.  The Centre has been conducting research in the following areas:-

 

·         Collection and compiling of Persian and Urdu records on the First War of Independence 1857, and is soon going to publish two Volumes in this regard along with their English translations.

·         Similarly, the Nationalist Poetry in Hindi and Urdu newspapers is being collected and compiled for translation and publication.

·         The Centre has also collected documents related to the Indentured Labour which are also to be published soon. 

·         The Centre is attached with the School of Social Sciences with two Consultants, Dr. Sushil Kumar Tiwari and Dr. Sarwarul Haque working in the Centre.