World History view on ICHR Website

World History Blog: Indian Council of Historical Research

Miland Brown has identified the website of the prestigious ICHR.

He has commented thus:
"Unfortunately, there is not a lot of full-text journals or books here. However, the site does have an index of several of the journals as well as a listing of books and conference proceedings from the organization. As such, this may prove to be a good starting point for researching Indian history."

Well it is true for most of similar sites being displayed by the India government. Same thing can be said about Digital History of India.

I have been pointing out this shortcoming. It was emphasized by pointing out the format of available sources on India on some foreign sites wherein in even Government of India has colloborated or sought assistance. It is really surprising to watch, that when it comes to launching of similar information and material on internet, the Indian Government always remain short of the desired standard. Why do they remain short of right planning and the right model?

Miland Brown has made such comments about the ICHR site. I have pointed out the similar thing while commenting on Microfiliming of Indian Publications wherein some of the sources were made available to general public. Then again, I pointed it out in case of Social Scientist Journal.

On the other hand some Indians on their own have done the better job while making blogs and Website about Historic research and making of the information available on cyberspace. The two examples which can be quotes here are of Arvind Gupta and Raman Kaul. (Both of them are engineers.)

If people remember, in July 2006, while blocking some sites, they blocked the whole domain. This is the way they work.

There is need that the expert from various fields should also be joined with the people who are deputed to use IT technology for the benefit of communication. There is need to visualize the actual aim of making the website and then displaying it on cyberspace. If some one points out that not enough sources are available, then it is

Remembering Shrada Ram at Phillaur.

Here are photographs of bust of Shradha Ram Phillauri at crossing of Nawanshar Phillaur.





Shradha Ram was the writer of the most famous Hindu prayer "Om Jai Jagdhish Hare, ... Shradha Bhakti Badayia. However, the prayer has undergone numerous interpolations and now it is attributed to Shivananda. It is probably the first just prayer which was written in pure Hindi. Most of the prayers and Chalisas are written in Bruj Bhasha or Khaddi Boli. However, it is strongly contended by the Hindi scholars.

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Shradha Ram was writer of the Hindi novel Bhagmati. It is probably the first novel to be written in Hindi. However, the Hindi scholars also deny this status to this work. This novel has shown the social and cultural scenario of India in nineteenth century colonial India.

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Shradha Ram was the writer of Punjabi Vartak, titled "Punabi Batcheet", the Punjabi grammer which is still being taught in PSEB affiliated schools. However, nowhere, the name of this writer is projected in the text books of Punjab.

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Shradha Ram was banned from entering Phillaur. This has been mentioned in the book by Kenneth W. Jones. It is believed that he was the first revolutionary of Punjab and probably of the whole India who tried to start an armed revolutionary movement. Later the similar movement was started by Bengalis in Post Wang Bang movement of 1905. However, there is no written record available. According to oral history, the CID had shadowed Shradha Ram for his activities. But it is not corroborated by established historians.

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The name of wife of Shrada Ram was Mehtab Kaur. The name of his wife suggests that she was a non-Brahmin lady whereas, Shrada Ram was a Brahmin. It is recorded in book published by Arya Samaj Punjab late back in 1980 as per the records maintained by Ashwani Kaushik of Phillaur (Billa, son of Kalu Ram). He belonged to Marud Joshi of Brahmins. However, the author of this post is yet not able to counter check this information from any established source or record.

The temple where Shrada Ram lived in Phillaur is still there in Passian Chowk Phillaur. The author of this post will bring out more facts about Shrada Ram and the photograph of the Temple (Mandir) in his next post.

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Editing Log:
March 15, 2007:
Added the title Punjabi Batcheet.
Added the gotra Marud Joshi। Refer to Kenneth Jones, Socio Religious Reform Movement in British India, page 106.
March 19, 2007:
Changed the spelling to 'bust' pointed out on Wikipedia wherein an article titled "Phillaur" has been substantiated by the blogger giving link to this site.