52nd history conference ends

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 1

The valedictory session of 52nd Punjab history conference concluded with a discussion on communal violence and massacres in Punjab in the pre-independence era.

Nearly 120 research papers were discussed during four technical sessions spread across three days.

Dr KL Tuteja, professor, Kurukshetra University, spoke about how Punjab had a nationalist approach and strongly opposed British imperialism, which was witnessed in solidarity during the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. He said, until 1920s, Punjab was nationalist and later got transformed into communal, witnessing the worst form of communal violence during the Partition.

Vice-Chancellor Dr BS Ghuman said the conference was the nursery of history scholars. Delegates from Jammu, Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Punjab attended the three-day conference on the theme ‘The Indian national movement with special reference to the Jallianwala Bagh’.

The organisers held four parallel technical sessions (ancient, medieval, modern and Punjabi) in which research papers on Jallianwala Bagh and related issues were presented by historians, academicians, researchers and students.

The papers discussed how the Jallianwala Bagh episode ignited later revolutionary movements in India and evoked greater national consciousness.

Experts opined that the Jallianwala Bagh incident was a watershed in the history of Indian nationalism. They said Bhagat Singh and Udham Singh were the products of this incident who further created historical landmarks in the freedom struggle of India.

The papers also took into account the social practices prevalent at the time including female infanticide and others.