Eminent historians who participated in the fourth edition of the International Kerala History Congress have pointed out that the study of cultural history in the country has deliberately avoided many relevant areas.
Presenting a paper on ‘A cultural history of swearing’ on the second day of the congress at Calicut University on Saturday, A.R. Venkatachalapathy, professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, said words such as toilets, slums, public places, shady places, marginalised, private rooms and brothels should be made part of historical studies. Whether it was good or bad, most words avoided by historians were part of the ordinary life, he said. Presenting a paper on ‘The Mutaliyar ola documents of Nanchilnad: a plea for creation of local archives,’ Y. Subbarayulu, professor from French Institute, Punducherry, said the archival departments formed by the British had conserved only documents those were in English.
