ICHR to set up museum to display historical materials

The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is in the process of setting up a museum where ancient materials will be put on display and exhibitions based on various historical themes will be held.
"We are in process of setting up our own museum where material available in our archives and other discoveries made during research projects conducted by us will be put on display. Besides, we will also hold exhibitions based on various historical themes there," ICHR Chairman Y Sudershan Rao told PTI.
"We have already identified the space and the existing material that will be on display at the museum but lot of remodelling needs to be done to give it the shape of a museum. It is likely to be completed by next year," he added.

The council has not yet decided whether the museum will be open for public or only for scholars researching on certain subjects or for the historian community.
The ICHR is a flagship research-based institution functioning under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It mainly depends on archives available at various museums for its research.
The body, over many years, has provided financial assistance to historians and direction to research scholars in their multifarious topics of research through established historians and scholars of the country.

"Since its establishment in 1972, the ICHR has come up with various researches which have been eyeopeners regarding the existing myths in the society. Though we document them in our annual publications and other journals but it is important to have our own museum to have a collection of all that has been discovered by the ICHR so far," Rao said.

'Translation of foreign sources on India' and 'History of Science and Technology in India' are among the few major projects being undertaken by the ICHR at present.
The council has also decided to undertake a two-month pilot project on 'Ram Setu' later this year to archaeologically "ascertain" if the structure was built naturally or was "man-made".