HISTORY SOCIETY
Introduction
History and Aims
From the winding lanes of Kashmere Gate to the wide and green Sudhir Bose Marg in the University Enclave, and finally, to the virtual screen, The History Society has been witness to College’s eventful journey through time. Founded in 1916, the Society has a history of inviting illustrious academicians and organising cultural events that serve to sustain the intersectional temperament of the discipline and embody the spirit of historical enquiry. The Society’s annual festival and our flagship event, Kaalchakra, has, over the years, been a host to brilliant minds working in the field of history, who come together to discuss selected themes in historical study. Over the past decade, the Society’s annual journal, Tarikh, has strived to probe into the lesser told stories of the past, through themes like those of dissent and sexuality, among others.
The Society aims to offer its members a platform to not just explore history through myriad perspectives but also express their own stories. The History Society strives to embody the historical diversity of the space we inhabit and flesh out well-researched histories that look beyond stereotypical narratives. We aim to create a community of young history enthusiasts, in possession of a safe environment for free expression, thinking and learning, and increase its reach and accessibility beyond the academic sphere. Given the pandemic, our work has shifted entirely to the online mode, which, while having made it easier to invite and interact with scholars across the world, has also created a digital divide in terms of accessibility. We are constantly striving to close this gap, make the content we put out more accessible and reach as many people as possible by streaming our events and increasing our presence on various social media platforms. We believe that history is an interdisciplinary subject, rather than one whose scope is limited to itself, therefore we aim to organise events and publish content that reflects the relationship history shares with other disciplines.
Annual Report of The History Society (2022-23)
Staff Advisor: Mrs. Sangeeta Luthra Sharma
Academic Year: 2022-23
The Events organised are as follows :-
| Title of Event | Nature of Event | Date | Mode of Event |
| Guest Lecture by Anurag Advani in ‘Madness of the Majzubsin sixteenth century Mughal India’ | Guest Lecture | 1 September, 2022 | Offline |
| Guest Lecture by Prof. Mahesh Rangarajan on ‘Animate India: Humans, Other Animals and Histories of the Enviornment; | Guest Lecture | 22 September, 2022 | Offline |
| Guest Lecture by Dr Chandrika Kaul on ‘Media and the British Empire: Themes and Perspectives’ | Guest Lecture | 20 October, 2022 | Offline |
| Guest Lecture by Prof. Tanika Sarkar on ‘The Child Sati in Early 19th Century Bengal: Tales from the Archives’ (In collaboration with The Bengali Literary Society) | Guest Lecture | 7 November, 2022 | Offline |
| Dastaan-e-Taqseem-e-Hind by The Dastangoi Collective | Dastangoi Performance | 10 November, 2022 | Offline |
| Guest Lecture by Dr. Nikky Guninder Singh on ‘Translating Guru Nanak in Words and Colours’ (In collaboration with Virsa, The Punjabi Literary Society) | Guest Lecture | 17 January, 2023 | Offline |
| Guest Lecture by Dr. Dibyesh Anand on ‘Queering the self, Decolonising History, Democratising the Present’ | Guest Lecture | 24 January, 2023 | offline |
The bi-monthly Periodical of The History Society, Timelapse, was released. The first issue was published on 21 September, 2021 and the second issue was published on 5 January, 2022. And the third issue was published in November 2023. All three issues can be downloaded from the ‘Timelapse’ page on the blog.
The Society’s official Podcast, Rewind, was published on two platforms — the blog and Spotify.
Episodes Published –
| Episode Number | Title of the Episode |
| Episode 8 | Dr Durba Mitra in conversation with Anushka Roy and Debanjan Das |
| Episode 9 | Dr Rochona Majumdar in conversation with Pratyusha Chakrabarti |
| Episode 10 | Dr Paula Austen in conversation with Mayukhi Ghosh |
Along with events, The History Society also published student-written articles on its online blog at https://historicallyspeakingssc.wordpress.com/. The articles published were as follows:
| Title of Article | Author (s) | Date of Publication |
| An Overview of Entente Tank Production in the Great War | Jeevan Joseph | 2 September, 2022 |
| Past Forward: Illustrations | Abhishek Nayak | 12 September, 2022 |
| Where Does Meaning Lie? | Mayukhi Ghosh | 3 October, 2022 |
| Case in Freedom: On Post-Partition Refugee Rehabilitation in India | Jyotika Tomar and Tarini Agarwal | 8 November, 2022 |
| Performing Exclusion: Locating the Sastra in the Natyasastra | Nivedita Mahapatra and Pratyusha Chakrabarti | 22 November, 2022 |
The following events are to be held in the upcoming months
| Event | Nature of Event |
| Guest Lecture by Dr. Tiatoshi Jamir on ‘Archaeology of Northeast India: On-going research in the Naga Metamorphics and the Naga Hills Ophiolites, Nagaland’ (In collaboration with The North East Society) | Guest Lecture |
| Walk to Hauz Khas Fort on ‘Underlying Urbanisms’ | Student led heritage walk |
| Satyam Jha Paper Presentation Series on ‘Histories of Care: Invisibilised, Domesticised, Marginalised Service’ | Student Paper Presentation Series |
This year’s edition of The History Society’s annual journal, Tarikh, is to be published.
The theme for the 2022-23 edition is Tracing Social Lives: Histories of Things, Thoughts and the Spaces where they Lie
The annual fest, Kaalchakra will be held in March. The theme for this year is Histories of Education and Exclusion: Knowledge in a Pedagogical Enterprise.
Links to social media accounts and other platforms
Blog: https://historicallyspeakingssc.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/historysocssc
Podcast: https://historicallyspeakingssc.wordpress.com/rewind-the-history-society-podcast/
Contact details (email address)
