The ICHR would seek part funding by corporate houses for its projects.

The Indian Council of Historical Research has set the ball rolling to document stories and legends relating to villages and towns across India into an encyclopedia in a bid to “connect” people better with the oral and folk traditions.

This would be among the key initiatives of the ICHR in the coming year, the others being a study of the princely States of modern India and studies to “fill the gaps” between the Harappan civilisation (the first Indian urbanisation) and the 6 century BC (the second urbanisation).

The ICHR would seek part funding by corporate houses for its projects.

“The present generations are gradually delinking themselves from their cultural heritage... But our historians should not ignore their responsibility to collect, preserve and transmit this knowledge of history for the generations to come,” ICHR chairman Y. Sudershan Rao said here on Wednesday. “The students of history will be taken as apprentices, as barefoot historians, and will be encouraged to collect information of the villages around them...”

Asked if this would not amount to passing local myths and legends as “history,” Prof. Rao said: “We are only documenting what is heard. However, we have experts to vet the information that goes into an encyclopedia of villages that we will bring out.”

As for the plan to research history prior to the 6 century BC, Prof. Rao said: “We are asking archaeologists to explore the Gangetic plain before the 6 century BC to fill the gaps between the Harappan civilisation and this century.”

The ICHR, he said, would also publish popular writings on history, as research should not be confined to esoteric circles of scholars.

“There can be philanthropic funding,” he said on seeking part funding from corporate houses.