HRD Ministry names new ICSSR chairman – an editor of journals

The HRD Ministry on Tuesday appointed Braj Bihari Kumar, the 76-year-old editor of quarterly journals Dialogue and Chintan Srijan, as the new chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

Kumar succeeds economist S K Thorat, who was heading the council since April 2011. He has been appointed for a term of three years.

Dialogue and Chintan Srijan are run by a society called Astha Bharati, of which Kumar is a founding member. According to its official website, Astha Bharati aims to promote unity and integrity of the country and “work towards correcting/righting the distortions and colonial misinterpretations of India’s past and present, its traditions, culture, social structure and social institutions, racial interpretations of society, colonial myths of exploitations and hegemony”. The two journals have received funds from ICSSR in the past, according to the society’s website.

Born in 1941, Kumar has an MSC in chemistry and anthropology, MA in Hindi and a doctorate in anthropology. According to his CV, Kumar is ex-principal of Sao Change Government College, Tuensang (Nagaland), and Science College, Kohima, and has written, edited and co-authored 136 books. Problems of Ethnicity in the North-east India is among the books he has edited and he has authored a book titled Naga Identity.

Kumar’s name was shortlisted by a selection panel comprising National Research Professor Ashokmodak,emeritusprofessor at Panjab University Jitendra Mohan and historian Satish Mittal.apartfromkumar,ikbajaj and P M Kamath were also on the shortlist.