Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR) has embarked on an ambitious project to promote and fund research and studies on enriching historical, cultural and intellectual data base of the state.
The project was launched by Governor Nikhil Kumar, patron of KCHR, at Raj Bhavan here today attended by Chairman of the council and eminent historian Prof K N Panikkar.
Briefing the gathering on the highlights of the project, "The conservation of historical heritage of Kerala", Panikkar said it was basically an effort to streamline and strengthen the ongoing KCHR projects with the support of the civil society.
For the past decade, KCHR had been addressing two vital aspects of historical research---promotion of scholarly studies and inculcation and nurturing of historical consciousness. The present project was being launched when KCHR's research endeavours like the Pattanam excavations generated academic interest nationally and internationally, he said.
Apart from academic historians, teachers, engineers, doctors, civil servants, judges, lawyers, architects, writers, artists, journalists, businessmen, technocrats, public servants, educated housewives, and scientists, need to engage their cultural and historical past in terms of their resources, tools and methodologies, he noted.
KCHR would offer financial and academic support for rigorously conceived proposals with the potential to engage with and understand facets of the past that remain unexposed.
According to KCHR director P J Cheiran, this was an effort to underline the public responsibility in absorbing Kerala's historical, cultural and intellectual heritage.
