With a collection of 18,000 books with separate sections on the history of Mysore State and Bangalore city, the ICHR is a treasure trove of information

The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is an autonomous organisation which was established in 1972 under the societies registration act by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. One of the main objectives of the organisation is “To give a national direction to an objective and scientific writing of history and to have a rational presentation and interpretation of history”. Since its establishment, the institution has provided fellowships and scholarships to young teachers and researchers throughout the country. Apart from the headquarters in New Delhi, ICHR has two regional centres - the Southern Regional Centre, established in 1998 in Bangalore and the North Eastern Regional Centre in Guwahati.

The Southern Regional Centre in Bengaluru is housed in the Law College premises on Palace Road. The beautiful red colonial era building was where the Law College was established in 1948. The college itself has now moved to the new Bangalore University campus on Mysore road. A winding staircase reminiscent of the Raj era takes the visitor to the ICHR facilities in the first floor. A well-equipped reference library, a reading room with a long table surrounded by chairs, a private office area and a wide corridor with book shelves constitute the Southern Regional Centre’s facilities. Sangappa, the librarian, who has been working here for the last 15 years says, “Our library has around 18,000 books and has subscriptions to 75 periodicals and journals from around the world”. Almost all the books are academic works which are classified into Modern History, Medieval History, Ancient History, History of Art and Architecture, History of Theatre, Music and Dance. There are separate sections on the history of Mysore State and the history of Bangalore city.

The journals and periodicals are placed in a separate section. The book shelves in the corridor house ICHR’s own publications, which include – ICHR Lecture series, books and the newsletters.

The centre also organises lectures, seminars and workshops which are open to public. Although there is a website with details of the organisation, it is not up to date and needs a massive redesign exercise if it must become popular among the public. On most of the days, the library is frequented only by researchers, students and scholars. The collection, although not huge, is very good and will be interesting for any history enthusiast. If pressed for time, the periodicals such as ‘Antiquity’, ‘World Archaeology’ and ‘Artibus Asiae’ are a must read for anyone.

The collection of books on performance art history and traditional Indian arts is a great way for young artists in the city to learn more about their practice, especially since these books are expensive and not easily found in the book stores.

For instance, the theatre history section has Metatheater and Sanskrit Drama: Michael Lockwood and A. Vishnu Bhat and the seminal work, ‘Yakshagana’ by Shivaram Karanth.

“Every year the committee comes up with a list of new books to be purchased and periodicals to be subscribed to and then the funds are disbursed from the headquarters in Delhi,” Sangappa says.

While there is enthusiastic participation from people in social media debates on history and the research methods in use, there is hardly any public engagement with the institution. It is surprising to know that despite hundreds of multinational companies in Bengaluru, there is not one working towards improving the state of a public institution such as ICHR.

There is a desperate need to digitise the great collection of the library and to build a software system which eases some of the operational challenges. It is time the public spaces and public institutions are reclaimed lest they die a lonely death.

(In Spaces, we explore forgotten nooks and crannies of Bengaluru)

Indian Council of Historical Research (Southern Centre) Law College Premises #1, Palace Road, Bangalore - 560009

Timings:9.00 am to 5.30 pm

Saturday and Sunday - Holiday