By H. Srikanth
Recently, I came across the NEHU’s notification seeking applications from professors for the position of Honorary Director of North Eastern Regional Council of ICSSR. Earlier, the position of Honorary Director was held by reputed professors like B. Pakem, Mrinal Miri, J.B. Bhattacharjee, M.N. Karna, A.C. Sinha, David R. Syiemlieh, T.B. Subba, L.S. Gassah, etc. Because of their academic contributions, those Honorary Directors were held in high esteem. Some of them later became the Vice-Chancellor in NEHU and other universities in the northeast. The situation today is different. When I informed about the advertisement to some senior professors who have reasonably good academic credentials and asked them to apply for the position, hardly anyone showed interest. Rightly or wrongly, they believe that the position would be offered finally to someone close to the administration, as academic qualifications matter little nowadays. This pervading indifference / pessimism compels a relook at those heydays when the regional center used to play a commendable role in the advancement of social science research in the northeastern region.
The decision to start the North-Eastern Regional center of ICSSR (ICSSR-NERC) in collaboration with NEHU was taken in 1977 when Dr. C. Devanesan was the Vice-Chancellor. Prof. C.N. Balerao was appointed as the first honorary director. ICSSR-New Delhi sanctioned the post of Deputy Director to assist honorary directors and take care of day-to-day administration. Initially, the position was held by Dr. Jaiswal and PS Datta. From 1995 to 2000, Dr. C.J. Thomas worked as Deputy Director. Initially, the office of the NERC was located in a rented two-storied Assam-type building. In the ground floor, there was a small room for Assistant Director, and adjacent to it was a spacious hall where the library was located. The first floor had a dormitory with some ten beds arranged next to each other, and one special room with two beds for important guests. On the first floor, there used to be a small kitchen run by a Nepali caretaker. NERC then charged Rs. 35 per bed for a day and around Rs. 15 to Rs 25 per meal. Those who stayed in the dormitory had access to the library even during the nights. It was from these humble beginnings that we witnessed the gradual growth of the regional center into an indispensable part of the NEHU campus.
Today, the ICSSR-NERC has a beautiful three-storied official building in NEHU campus, with spacious rooms for the Director and the staff at the ground floor, a conference hall and meeting rooms on the second floor, and a library on the third floor. Attached to this official building, there is a guest house which has 16 deluxe rooms and two VIP rooms. Its library, conference hall and the guest house are now utilized not only by the departments in NEHU but also by scholars and academic and research institutions across the northeast.
Several individuals have contributed significantly to the growth of the regional center. Although the decision to have a regional center in Shillong was taken by ICSSR-Delhi, all those who served as honorary directors during the initial decades have contributed positively to its development. While the honorary directors gave policy direction, the plans were ably and efficiently executed by the Assistant Director and the dedicated staff of NERC who worked with a missionary zeal. The VCs of NEHU then offered full cooperation to the NERC. When Prof. Miri was the VC, NEHU allocated five acres of land in NEHU campus for construction of a permanent building. Prof. Andre Beteille, who served as the Chancellor of NEHU, released the funds for the ICSSR-NERC building on the NEHU campus when he became the chairperson of ICSSR-New Delhi. Effective rapport between the VCs and visionary honorary directors, and between them and the Deputy Director, helped the growth of the ICSSR-NERC as an academic center of repute in the northeast.
Apart from discharging its regular responsibilities as a research funding agency and offering library and residential accommodation for aspiring researchers, the NERC initiated and organized several national and regional seminars, symposia, workshops, and special lectures every year. NERC became the meeting point for national and regional scholars and intellectuals. Renowned intellectuals like C.T. Kurien, M.V. Pylee, A.K. Bagchi, T.K. Oommen Andre Beteille, Kausik Basu, Rama Chandra Guha, etc., delivered distinguished lectures. In 2010, the NERC in collaboration with JAIR, organized an international seminar on BIMSTEC in 2013 which was attended by Shashi Tharoor and ambassadors of neighboring countries. The regional center published over 70 books and edited volumes. With pride, the NERC could say that no other ICSSR regional center in India brought out as many books as NERC did. When there was limited information or data available in the northeast, these publications on a variety of socio-economic and political issues helped in enriching the primary study material for further research. Apart from the edited volumes, the NERC started a bi-annual journal titled, “Man and Society: A Journal of North-East Studies”. Thanks to the efforts put in by different honorary directors and the deputy director, it became a leading journal on the northeast and is recognized as the UGC recognized journal. Many young scholars pursuing research in the region availed fellowships, grants, library, and accommodation facilities of ICSSR-NERC. Apart from research, NERC took up consultancy projects for different agencies. It goes to the credit of the academic leadership that the Ministry of External Affairs found NERC as the venue for the ASEAN Studies Center.
It is unfortunate that ICSSR-NERC, which played such a pivotal role in the growth of social sciences in the region, NEHU in particular, has lost its sheen and glory. The process of decline started during the tenure of Prof. S.K. Srivastava as the VC, who viewed the Honorary Director and Deputy Director as his adversaries, and did everything to ensure that the Center did not function as planned. Unlike his predecessors, who respected the autonomy of the NERC, Mr. Srivastava wanted to have absolute control over NERC. Least bothered about academics, he dispensed with the practice of recommending academically reputed senior faculty members for the post of director. Instead, he started the practice of arbitrarily choosing / recommending persons he was comfortable with for the position as the honorary director.
This nefarious practice went hand-in-hand with the changing composition and ideology of the ICSSR at the national level. After Modi took over power at the center, the BJP government filled all academic bodies, including ICSSR, with members who toe their ideology and political line. Not that everything in the ICSSR during the Congress regime was hunky dory. Still, the then government respected the autonomy of the NERC and encouraged its initiatives. But that autonomy and support declined after the BJP government took over the control and filled ICSSR with members supporting the regime and its ideology. The new regime in Delhi wants the NERC to act like other regional centers of ICSSR, confining their activities to funding seminars etc., and running the library and guest house. The interest that the ICSSR Delhi evinces in getting regular feedback about whether the regional centers are organizing the Yoga Day, Swatchata Divas, etc., does not show in encouraging seminars, invited lectures. It removed the post of Deputy Director, and now expects the honorary director to take care of all administrative and academic activities of the regional center for a paltry honorarium of Rs 5000 per month. Naturally, the quality of academic outputs from the regional center showed a remarkable decline in the last six–seven years. There is hardly any book publication in recent years. The journal publication has become erratic. The decline in performance becomes apparent when we compare the activities of the Center in the first four decades with what it could do in the last five-six years. Although one longs for the return of those glorious days when the regional center played a pro-active academic role in the region, given the present situation in NEHU and in Delhi, one cannot expect any miracle to happen.