3-day international seminar begins

A three-day international seminar and exhibition titled ‘The Freedom Struggle and the Role of Revolutionaries’ commenced at Government PG College, Ambala Cantonment, on Tuesday.

The seminar is being organised by the Academic Development Research Cell and the Department of History, in collaboration with the Haryana State Archives Department.

The chief guest at the seminar was Prof SK Gakhar, Vice-Chairman of the Haryana State Higher Education Council; and Dr Rajwanti Man, Senior Fellow of the ICHR (Indian Council of Historical Research) was the keynote speaker. On the first day, speakers from Australia and Pakistan also addressed the gathering.

College principal Desraj Bajwa stated that hosting an international seminar is a matter of pride for the college.

Prof SK Gakhar emphasised that the contributions of martyrs should not be forgotten due to political vested interests. He urged all political parties to work towards passing on the legacy of martyrs to the next generation. Keynote speaker Dr Rajwanti Man said British colonial rulers took away many of India’s historical reference texts, which are still preserved in the India House Library in England. She stressed the need to study these texts to uncover new historical references.

Joining online from Pakistan, Prof Ghulam Shabbir of Gujarat University, Pakistan, discussed the global circumstances during the freedom struggle and hailed Shaheed Bhagat Singh as an international hero. He stated that no revolutionary was against another; rather, they complemented each other. Only those with narrow mindset try to divide them, he added.